Thread: difference between swedish and silver steel, if there is one

Hi all, I was just wondering if anyone could tell me if there's any difference between Silver steel and swedish steel. I was thinking about picking up a new dovo razor from vintage blades LLC. and noticed that Some are made from Swedish steel, some from silver steel, and some from german solingen High carbon steel. are any of these better that others. I know a lot has to do with preference but this is actually my first razor. I was leaning toward the dovo special 5/8 full hollow in the starter kit with the strop, soap, brush and such. does anyone have any thoughts on this? good? bad? depends? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx
Oh here is the link VintageBladesLLC::...

Hi,
Very intersting question, but I can't answer as I'm no expert on metallurgy.
But as an owner of some DOVO's str.8 razors in all kind of steel I can assure you that
there's no difference, imho, what so ever, concerning the sharpness and quality.
They all shave well and keep their edge as long as they are well honed and stroped.
I presume that Germany had always a preference for "Swedish" steel and this reflects
in their str8razors. Their panzers were made off swedish iron ore.
The only difference is esthetically: the silver razors (the model with the ebony scales) are more polished, the swedish steel slightly dull.
Buy what you like, even the cheapest of them will shave as the most expensive. It's all a matter of
taste, the material of the scale and absence or presence of a gold-wash on the blade.

Silver steel is a name for high-carbon steel. Swedish steel is made in Sweden - but it can (and usually is) high-quality high-carbon steel. In summary, one is a kind of steel, the other is where the steel is made - like all 'SHeffield steel' was made in Sheffield but there are may different grades depndent on use.

I would imagine if you analyzed the different steels you would find minor differences in the makeup of them. Mike Blue is our resident expert on this subject. Whether this translates to one being superior to the other is another story. I can only tell you that in general Silver Steel is considered the cat's meow in razor steel with swedish being second. That does not mean that Solingen or American or Spanish or Japanese are not very high quality though. As a matter of fact some Japanese probably trumps them all.