Thread: Stell is the only blade material?

It dawned on me today that the only material I have seen being used for blades is of the steel variety. At first I asked myself, why not aluminum? It's much lighter and does not experience rusting (at least not due to oxidation). Then I realized how easy it was to work with and bend and such, and I concluded that it must be just too soft of a metal. But what about titanium? Maybe titanium is too difficult to hone after it has left it's manufacturer. Anyways, I am curious if any str8 companies/individuals/hobbyists have ventured into experiments with different metal types and why steel remainds utterly dominant.

EDIT: *Steel, not stell

I would guess that the main reason that steel remains the most common form of blade is simple:

"It has worked great so far. So why change it."

That is my guess.

Bronze would be good, titanium is probably too soft however it's alloyed and tempered. An aluminium or titanium blade with a ceramic or carbide cutting edge might be possible, but all these would be more expensive to produce and/or harder to hone than steel. Stainless steel is sometimes used which reduces the rusting problem, and there are razors available which have a titanium nitride coating which should prevent rust.

Aluminium too soft.

Titanium, too soft. Only takes mid 50's rockwell iirc. Also a bugger to cut and grind, which i suspect would make it a pain too hone.

Bronze??? don't know, suspect too soft also. Never seen a bronze knife, excepting antiquities, i imagine there's a good reason steel is preferred.

Steel, gets hard enough, specific steels have been developed for making razor blades (like aeb-l and 13c26), much accumulated knowledge on it's heat treatment etc.

Razors, swords and knives were bronze before steel came along. Bronze can be very hard, but is not resilient like steel so blades have to be chunkier, and therefore heavier. Bronze is also less versatile because it cannot be worked like steel can; it is either cast or machined. But a bronze razor is a possibility and would be really cool.

I wonder if they could get tungsten carbide sharp enough. That would be amazing as it would probably hold it's edge forever.

i could make a razor in cpm3v or cpm10v to try out if you all would like to see but have fun stropping it as 10v is sorta big on vanadium carbides and would have to be almost sharpened all on DMT stones and with a ton of time used

There are ceramics that might qualify for use in razors in terms of hardness and such, but I'm not sure if they are homogenous enough to take a razor sharp edge. Ceramic kitchen knives are all the rage nowadays, so why not for razors?

Steel is the preferred material for razors and knives, because no other material combines all the necessary attributes of a useful blade. Hardness, ductility, durability, machinability. A few of the other materials might work in a pinch, but none will do the job as well as steel. That's why it's the best material for knives and razors.

Very cool. Good point on the tungsten carbide, although now I see why steel is so preferable.