Thread: Silver

Were there ever straights made that utilized some silver in their metallurgy make-up? I'd have thought it would have at least have been tried with all of it's properties to sterilize e.c., etc.

Just wondering.

There were so called Silver Steel razors and the alloy is possible. I am not sure whether the material was actually used. Silver Steel is a vintage term for tool steel in the UK.
~Richard

Originally Posted by Geezer

There were so called Silver Steel razors and the alloy is possible. I am not sure whether the material was actually used. Silver Steel is a vintage term for tool steel in the UK.
~Richard

Thanks Richard. I'd love to have a blade with some real silver in it - for a multitude of reasons. With silver prices having been relatively stable throughout the time straights were in their prime,

The Industrial Age:

By the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of paper money was increasingly common alongside silver and gold coins. What’s more, the price of gold and silver were increasingly fixed and stable for long stretches of time. Sir Isaac Newton fixed the price of gold in 1717, and it pretty well stayed at that price (excluding the years of the Napoleonic Wars) until World War I.

Likewise, the price of silver more or less stayed at $1.30/oz from the founding of the United States through the Civil War. Prices were exceptionally turbulent during the Civil War (rising to nearly $3/oz) and stayed above $1.30/oz until the late 1870s. Prices generally declined through the latter years of the 19th century, dipping below $0.60/oz in 1897, mostly hovering in the $0.50s through to World War I. From a low of about $0.25/oz in 1932, silver generally climbed thereafter, moving to above $0.70/oz after World War II, past $0.80/oz in 1950, and crossing $1/oz in 1960.

Silver jumped alongside gold throughout the 1970s and spiked to $50 an ounce in January of 1980 as the Hunt brothers, Nelson and William, manipulated silver in an attempt to corner the market.
- https://commodityhq.com/education/a-...silver-prices/

...I can only surmise that compared to other alloys, it was way too expensive, or there is something about silver that doesn't work for a straight. But I couldn't imagine what? And even if silver was expensive relative to other metals, there's a ton oh rich people who'd want it for the same reasons people want sterling silverware for cutlery and drinking cups and I'm sure would have had them commissioned.

I'm more curious than ever.

Often times trace amounts of an element added to the mix can cause properties having little to do with the original properties of the element by itself.

I guess that would be the reason to add silver to the mix. I think I've seen some old posts here where someone claimed the really old silver steel razors had a tiny amount of silver in them but unless you assay them you wouldn't know if this was fact or fiction.

Of course the other question is what properties silver would bring to a razor.

Silver by it self has no anti bacterial properties. Silver compounds are admixed to things to give this effect however they would not be in a razor.

I thought it did have anti bacterial properties.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16766878

Stodart & Faraday experimented with a bunch of metal additives whilst researching wootz steel. Silver was one of the metals used but not from an anti-microbial perspective..
https://straightrazorpalace.com/razo...tml#post942511

Originally Posted by earcutter

I thought it did have anti bacterial properties.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16766878

Yes in different compounds and forms but if you take just plain Ag like a .999 silver bracelet it has no special properties when you wear it.

Originally Posted by Geezer

There were so called Silver Steel razors and the alloy is possible. I am not sure whether the material was actually used. Silver Steel is a vintage term for tool steel in the UK.
~Richard

Well, I’ll be darned, rummaging through my stuff getting ready to make some scales, and look at what I found lol! This!



Yeah ok, so what you might ask?



It’s some of that silver tool steel lol! Not just any though, thier “best” silver steel lol. I’m putting it on the stones now! I’ll be shaving with it soon. Totally forgot I had this. Woot!

WOW! What a comfortable shave! This blade is the one!

It is amusing and amazing when you score a real find in your house.