Thread: Sheffield steel superiority

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Jimmy, the Sheffield works in its heyday used Swedish iron ore. The mythical steel was all made in 100 lb crucibles, pretty much small lots by hand and held sway as the world's finest well into the industrial revolution. That steel found it's way all over Europe and I'm sure suffered being branded as home town steel in a lot of places besides the UK. Now the Sheffield district is pretty much a ghost town.

Mike, this is the kind of stuff that is interesting to me, but I am not sure where to look, sources for research. Got any?

The Swedish source is an iron bearing sand isn't it?

gosh dang it, I wish I was home and knew where my notes were. my friend passed away this past August, he was a gunsmith, ex-tool and die maker, 77 or 78 years old. His hobby was manufacturing processes through history and he knew a whole heck of a lot. he told me once about mausers and where their steel (the germans) came from and which country of origin had the best. I know he had said swiss was one of the best, but there was another place they were taking it from mountains.

If I get time tonight I'll check and see.

Originally Posted by Joed

Back in the '80's I was as a Tool and Die Maker specializing in a newish machining technique, Wire EDM. The company I worked for was trying to cut costs and started using tool steels made in the far east. We had major problems cutting this steel on the Wire EDM. After close microscopic inspection we discovered 'bubbles' all through out the metal which caused the wire to break after extremely short cuts. The edge on you Wapi looks very similar to what we found in the tool steel I just described. The darker spots in your microscopic image of the Wapi may be microscopic 'bubbles' with metal rolled into them from grinding and/or polishing. In this way, and probably numerous others, the Sheffield steel is far superior.

I ran an EDM for a few years... we had the same probs with cheap steel too. Makes you think aboot razors a little differently, doesn't it?

Gentlemen,

Thanks for giving me justification for Sheffield steel! I've never known why, but I've enjoyed every sheffield razor I've ever honed or shaved with.

cass

Here's a quick reference summary: NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Crucible steel

I have a bunch of books about Sheffield and iron production in the shop library. I'll collect the references in a bit.

oh by the way, has anyone ever taken a bunch of razors and welded them into a knife or sword?

So I was looking last night, not for my papers (sorry) but at my razors. it was too late to run the dremel and risk waking the commander so I was hand polishing and noticed that I have more German razors than sheffield or American!

The only ones I have that are american are the Torrey's I think, I've got three. one was a Christmas gift I'm not too sure about, the tang is so tiny I don't know if I'll be able to hold it. is there such a thing as tangless straights?

I have about 6 sheffield not including the 7 day set and then I hvae a bunch of german. I will say this about the german ones, in playing last night I found two that the handles had to be discarded from but are still sharp enough that a few swipes on the hone and they shaved my hand. not ready for a face, but definitely surprising considering most other old razors I get won't do that.

Now I really need a swedish one for comparison.

Red

The reason the older vintage razors have such small tangs is because the men in those days had smaller hands.

I've only had one Swedish razor and it was really high quality with ivory scales. Very sharp but too stiff a blade for me. Still I can see why some guys love them.

I just honed a Hill & Son Sheffield blade two days ago, and was yet again reminded how wonderful Sheffield blades really are. They manage to be amazingly sharp without being harsh on the face. In my limited experience, I've been able to get much sharper edges on Sheffield steel than any other.

this is a basic question. seems dovo razors are all either sheffield or swedish steel. is there a "solingen steel" or did the solingen razor makers just work the ore from either sheffield or sweden? ie puma, henkels, kama, wusthof etc. - is the steel from Germany or just worked there?