Thread: Custom made razor thoughts

from my thoughts
if doing stainless steel
the ABEL and cpm154 would be my first picks
i have used
1080
1084
1084FG
1095
W1
52100
O1
cpm3v (not cpmS30v)
and cpm154
and there are more i would like to try (hope i didnt miss any)

Originally Posted by kevint

I usually ask a smith what works best for him- from which can he coax the highest performance- and then discuss which are the most important aspects to you.

Personally I would not consider nickel alloyed damascus to be high performance so it'd be off my list. ...

I think your first comment is well taken. The secret to gaining the best performance from any steel will lie in the heat treatment.

When you say nickel alloyed, what kind of stuff are you talking about? The steel du jour for making pattern welded steel is most commonly 15N20. That is a nickel alloy of 1075 that contains about 2% nickel, otherwise there isn't much contrast and the pattern doesn't look good to most folks. Pure nickel will never harden...makes for a very pretty contrast, but the non-hardening part is risky if not done well. Hmm, I see a PW experiment in the near future.

15n20 will take an edge that you can shave with but 100% N will never get hard and take a fine edge

L6 is used for the same (bright but holds an edge)

Originally Posted by L R Harner

L6 is used for the same (bright but holds an edge)

I think Tim Zowada uses L6 and O1 for his damascus