Thread: Mythical Vintage Steel

I always wondered why there is a fascination in some circles with the modern formulations of steel types wrt making straight razors. The older types of steel have performed perfectly well over time. Even stainless steel is 100+ years old. It only has to be good enough for the job at hand and more is just that more.

The many styles of vintage razors do have an elegance about them as well as feeling good in the hand. Today there has been a trend to razors with exaggerated features when combined together seems to loose that elegance, at least to me.

Just a crotchety old man rambling on.

Bob

Thank you for your ramblings Bob! It is just amazing that 200 years ago, this craftsman, gives up nothing in quality and he did it without all the bells and whistles. Just good ole plain skill and experience. We tend to think of steel this old as inferior to the newer alloys and processes. At least in this case, it is not.

Originally Posted by Steel

Thank you for your ramblings Bob! It is just amazing that 200 years ago, this craftsman, gives up nothing in quality and he did it without all the bells and whistles. Just good ole plain skill and experience. We tend to think of steel this old as inferior to the newer alloys and processes. At least in this case, it is not.

In the case of razor making the older steels still do their jobs well. The newer steels are much better at the different tasks we put them to today. The newer scale making materials has benefits over the older traditional materials too. I still like to see the newer materials used with an eye to tradition design forms though.

Bob

Nice post, Steel-Very thought-provoking. I too like to look at my oldest blades especially and ponder who made them, who they shaved, where they've been, etc. It's sad, but inevitable I suppose, that so many old world skills and crafts have been lost to history. Walk through any really old European cathedral, look at all the jaw-dropping details and think about what went into producing them-as you say, without any modern technology.

That said, I'm sure the new technology (to them) that they had near the end of the 18th century, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, to grind those old razors was "cutting-edge" for its time.

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

It's sad, but inevitable I suppose, that so many old world skills and crafts have been lost to history. Walk through any really old European cathedral, look at all the jaw-dropping details and think about what went into producing them-as you say, without any modern technology.

Over here there has been a resurgence of the dying art of stone masonry and tradesmen are commanding top doller in the restoration of old buildings.

Originally Posted by markbignosekelly

Over here there has been a resurgence of the dying art of stone masonry and tradesmen are commanding top doller in the restoration of old buildings.

Yes, I heard years ago that there was a resurgence in the dying art of making thatched rooves for the same reason. There are a surprising number of arcane skill sets that do command top dollar.

Bob