Thread: getting an INOX steel blade... question.

I just added (Its on the way) a Dovo SS INOX blade to my 3 carbon steel blades... I know that the SS is more rust resistant, and I understand it's harder to hone.. but how much harder is my question? Can I continue to use my Belgian yellow stone on it? and do I just need to spend a bit more time doing that as well as stroping?

Also, should I be able to get it to shave as well as the carbon steel blades?

thanks

The technique and equipment are the same. It just takes a little more time. Personally I think most people make too much out of this and make it seem like your going to spend hours longer with a stainless and thats not true. Depending on if its frozen steel or not the time will vary and you just have to try it and see how it goes for you. But if your doing like hundreds of stokes more somethings wrong.

INOX or stainless is harder steel, but your belgian will still work fine on it.
and although it will have a little different feel, it should be able to shave every bit as well as your High Carbon Steel blades.

Once you get it shave ready, if it feels coarse, you may want to try stropping it on a pasted strop, and/or newspaper to smooth out the edge.

Originally Posted by Mike_ratliff

INOX or stainless is harder steel, but your belgian will still work fine on it.
and although it will have a little different feel, it should be able to shave every bit as well as your High Carbon Steel blades.

Once you get it shave ready, if it feels coarse, you may want to try stropping it on a pasted strop, and/or newspaper to smooth out the edge.

Actually, INOX or stainless steel is softer than carbon steel.

Originally Posted by fccexpert

Actually, INOX or stainless steel is softer than carbon steel.

more info please, why is it harder to hone/keep sharp then?

thanks

Not more difficult to keep sharp, in my opinion. Once they are sharp, they stay sharp longer and are not so difficult to keep sharp with CO paste and regular stropping.
My experience is they do take longer than a carbon blade to become shave ready, at least the way I like a razor. I really like the shave from a sharp stainless blade, they seem stiffer than a similar size carbon blade.

MD,

Stainless steel has chromium in it. That, among, probably nickel, makes it stain resistant. It is also a wear resistant alloy, as chromium is very hard. Thus stainless steel being also a wear resistant steel, takes longer to hone. It may also be more difficult to hone as one of my SS razors is being quite the problem child, but that may well be due to my fledgling honing skills.

Originally Posted by fccexpert

Actually, INOX or stainless steel is softer than carbon steel.

This is the first time I have heard this...
I understand it has different alloys in it to make it wear and stain resistant, but The froidur I have is hardened to around RC of 60+ which is harder than the average factory HCS which I was led to believe are hardened to the high 50's
I do have a custom Wacker with a hardness of around RC 62, but that's a custom.


It is reasonable to to say that HCS is capable of being very hard, heck, Carbon is what diamonds are made of...
and since I'm in no way an expert on metalurgy, I'll yield to you on this issue.
Most razors are actually tempered to a very similar hardness, I have heard of both steels being tempered so hard they were difficult to hone.
I will instead address the feel of the blades. Stainless tends to feel stiffer, and coarser. it also tends to hold it's edge up to 50% longer than an equivalent mass produced HCS edge.
Perhaps this is in direct corelation to it's wear resistance, and not it's hardness, but it will hone just fine on a belgian yellow stone.
It may take a little longer, and it may feel different.
This should not turn you away from stainless, as it is an excellent option, and with a little extra effort, you will be able to get it to shave equally well.

You can play with the trace elements in any metal to change the characteristics. Stainless in razors is not the same as stainless in a kitchen knife. Its really more a part stainless than a true stainless.

As I recall one of our metal experts here had said a while back that stainless was actually softer but I don't remember who it was. But I don't know if its the hardness but rather the trace materials that affect the honing characteristics. You really need to ask Mike Blue he's the metal expert here.

Most true stainless contains chrome, molybdinum, and vanadium but you can have stainless in a series where it contains nickel instead of chome but it will be softer and polish up better. You can have nickel steel and chrome steel and stainless is somewhere inbetween the two.I don't know what they alloy carbon steel with. I would imagine about a percent carbon and some manganese maybe tungsten and few other things. I'm just guessing here.

Hardness = Rockwell hardness on the C scale
Hardness = toughness, abrasion resistance
Hardness = requires more time to hone

Same word, lots of different interpretations, thats the source of the confusion here. We need to come up with a better answer for the new guys when they ask this question.

Just my two cents,