Thread: titanium straight razor

Hi, I am new to the whole straight razor business except for the odd barber shave. I am learning but I was wondering if a titanium razor exists out there. I am not talking about coatings but solid titanium. I am converting most of my gear to titanium because of the amount of traveling I do. Does anyone have any ideas?

I'm certainly not a metallurgist, but I suspect that Titanium is
nowhere near any type of steel when it comes to forming and
holding an appropriate edge for shaving.

Titanium wouldn't be an appropriate metal for razors because unlike steel its really hard to remove metal from titanium, it sort of just moves around instead of coming off.

It doesn't exist, for the same reason titanium knife blades don't exist, it doesn't hold a edge.

I am not sure about straight razors but I know that titanium knives exist. I own a beautiful dive knife made from solid titanium. It retains an edge better then stainless and carbon steel but it is very hard to sharpen. I dive in salt water so titanium is the best blade for that sort of diving.

I might just have to accept that with the amount of honing required with a straight razor that it wouldn't be the right choice. I thought I would ask though. I can always dream.

Adam B

Wildtim beautiful dog, I have a Rhodesians ridgeback crossed with duck toller. Do you breed or train? I train service dogs myself.

Thats OK you can dream about a Titanium razor and I'd like one made from tallonite and neither of us will ever get what we want. Tallonite by the way is superior for diving purposes, it contains no iron.

I read somewhere the other day that although titanium is really hardwearing it doesn't get hard enough to be turned into a razor. Razors mostly (from what I remember) have a hardness of 59-61 on the rockwell scale while Titanium usually doesn't get muh harder than 53-54. (correct me if I'm wrong).

So that would mean that while it does have superb edge HOLDING quality. It's would be near impossible to get it to the right sharpness to make a razor.

What LX says.

You should think of titanium as a better aluminium. Not as a steel replacement.
Titatium is strong, but not hard.

A number of metals that are practical choices for knives in saltwater applications are poor choices when corrosion resistance isn't the most important property that the blade must have. Even "stainless" ATS-34, 154CM, 440C, S30V, etc., aren't really corrosion resistant enough for diving applications, in my opinion. These are "reasonable" compromises between the properties of corrosion resistance and edge taking/holding.

Titanium for dive knives is acceptable since it is corrosion resistant and non magnetic.

It makes a decent, not perfect, cutting edge because of its resistance to abrasion, not from any inherent hardening ability. It can be heat treated but the comparison of say Rc 47, which is about where Ti tops out, to hardened steel at Rc 59-60 can't be made because the two differing abrasion resistances make it an apples vs. oranges proposition.

Here's an interesting link: http://www.cutleryscience.com/reviews/MPK_Ti.html

Clearly this is a sales talk and I doubt anyone would ever put a razor to such extremes. But, there's no reason that a razor could not be made from Ti. It likely would not perform in the razor role nearly as adequately as expected from a rough use, lightweight field knife.