Thread: Finally! The truth about "Silver Steel"

Found this little passage in a book I'm reading. (The Complete Guide to Sharpening by Leonard Lee. Chapter 3, page 20...never stop learning!) Since the topic of Silver Steel comes up quite a bit in reference to razors and their advertising verbiage, I thought this would be germane to the forums.

Silver Steel:
"This mark is most commonly found on old handsaws. One of the most irritating problems with early saws was the difficulty of keeping the steel bright, clean, and relatively frictionless in a kerf. Plain carbon steels rust quickly, as anyone who has left a carbon steel tool outside during a shower knows. The other problem was dealing with the constant tradeoff between hardness and toughness. If the blade was hardened to the point that the teeth stayed sharp for an extended time, the steel was usually too brittle, causing the blade to crack or break under stress. When it was discovered that adding a percentage of chromium to high carbon steel not only increased the hardness and toughness but also gave the steel a bright silvery finish that improved rust resistance, the alloy was quickly dubbed "Silver Steel" by some enterprising vendor. Needless to say, there was no silver in the alloy"

And know you know...