Thread: TUNGSTEN STEEL

has anyone knows any information about it.it is NY made blade Lewis company?thank you

Googling Tungsten steel I found this but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a marketing ploy like razors stamped Manganese Steel. I've never heard of that particular brand.

pictures of the blade

Looks like a good one. Maybe it is Tungsten Steel. When you hone it and shave with it let us know if it is special. This may be the new "Wonderedge" that everyone will be lusting after.

Hi Jimmy
Can you expound on the marketing ploy concept? Why do you think it was not a new, different kind of steel?

Originally Posted by kevint

Hi Jimmy
Can you expound on the marketing ploy concept? Why do you think it was not a new, different kind of steel?

Well, way back in the heyday of W&B mfgs would brand their razors Fine India Steel, Silver Steel, and so on. Later Manganese Steel and others that I can't think of off the top of my head. How about Craftsman with their "Chromized Steel". Tungsten and manganese are just alloying elements in high carbon steel. I think that companies may have felt that labeling their product with these tags might be a selling point and that they weren't necessarily much different then what everyone else was producing. I may be wrong I was wrong once before.

If I recall, Tungsten steel was probably introduced into the market in the 1920's 30's. A steel hardening alloy, knife brands like Gerber/Murphy used it. Indeed Tungsten steel is very hard but brittle. Manganese alloy I believe was used by Buck knives at some point. Also a steel hardening alloy. Are they better than regular high carbon steel? in my experience-no, just different. Properly tempered steel no matter what steel it is, is more important than type of steel in most cases. IMO very high carbon content steel like some scandi steels that can be tempered at very high rockwells will outcut and outlast most steels.

Chromized steel is probably chrome coated carbon steel, or chrome added to the steel which would make it stainless.

hey, good point on the first two as I have never looked into what India and Silver are. It's maybe just me, but some of those early alloys with enough elements to differentiate from simple carbon, but lower than HSS are simply some of the best for edge tools we have. It looks like marketing the new high tech materials of the day but was it actually a ploy?

Originally Posted by kevint

hey, good point on the first two as I have never looked into what India and Silver are. It's maybe just me, but some of those early alloys with enough elements to differentiate from simple carbon, but lower than HSS are simply some of the best for edge tools we have. It looks like marketing the new high tech materials of the day but was it actually a ploy?

I am not saying that the steel that they were producing didn't include those elements or that the companies were being dishonest. Rather then ploy I mean a marketing technique. What I am saying is that the average Joe wouldn't have a clue as to what any of those labels really meant. Especially the farther back in time that you go. When I was an Ironworker apprentice I read a book called "Metals and How To Weld Them".

Among other things it described manganese. It is an alloy that when put into steel causes it to harden as it is impacted. The book said that it was used in the buckets on draglines and in other high impact applications . Why it would be beneficial in a straight razor escapes me but Wester Bros and others branded some of their razors with that tag.

Now we can google it and come up with the definition in seconds but before the internet the only people who would have any idea what any of it meant where those who were involved in metallurgy. In the tattoo business an old fellow I knew had a sign over his work station that read,"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bullsh*t". That is what I think that a lot of those razor stampings are about. Nothing wrong with that. they are just trying to compete in the marketplace.

It could be a lot like that too.

Anyone have contemporary advertisements to share?: to see what they said about them.

I don't have the familiarity that a true steel guy would so I wonder if there is enough work hardening by abrasive forces to work harden the edge. With enough hope in that you could have a tough, wear resistant, hard edge.

It could be a terrible idea, which gave rise to carbo-magnetic. Proving this model was not that crappy manganese