Thread: Silver Steel Comp and Origin

I was Getting tired of looking for this info on the search button so i used google. I just put this on here for people that wanted to know what Silver Steel was like me (having never heard of it).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_steel

Excellent!

I wonder how far back these ratios and tolerances were actually considered a standard for the name "silver steel", and whether or not they were the same when the silver steel stamp began to appear on razors

Some surface investigation in the stuff google books searches return strongly suggests that the early silver steels of the 19th century were actually steel-silver alloys with one part silver for every several hundred parts of steel. It appears to have been a popular early improvement for improving strength and hardness of steels for specific applications (including razors?)

This whole issue of silver in silver steel keeps coming up.

The really old stuff had it but I would be skeptical of analysis because in the old days the methods weren't really accurate when it came to really picking this stuff apart and deciding what trace items did what to the final result.

I realize when you add trace amounts of certain minerals to a mix they can give very different properties however I just don't see what adding silver to a metal would do to improve it any more than adding gold or platinum.

are any of the new decent to high quality razors being made with silver steel, or is it pretty much just carbon and stainless these days?

Originally Posted by RollTideMach

are any of the new decent to high quality razors being made with silver steel, or is it pretty much just carbon and stainless these days?

Silversteel is carbon steel. It has its own name because it is famous and it sounds cool. Its different because it has a higher % of carbon than other steels back in the old days, and I guess it looks sort of like silver. Which it does.

As for modern production razors, TI had some silver steel offerings. I think Dovo had one too. But they're the only major producers of quality razors anyway. Wacker is more of a semi custom shop imo.

good stuff, I kinda assumed it was just BS.

Originally Posted by RollTideMach

are any of the new decent to high quality razors being made with silver steel, or is it pretty much just carbon and stainless these days?

Unless they are made of 440C, (the high carbon stain resistant steel they use in Solingen for "stainless" steel razors), it is all "silver steel" It is just a high quality tool steel.

Originally Posted by Leighton

Silversteel is carbon steel. It has its own name because it is famous and it sounds cool. Its different because it has a higher % of carbon than other steels back in the old days, and I guess it looks sort of like silver. Which it does.

As for modern production razors, TI had some silver steel offerings. I think Dovo had one too. But they're the only major producers of quality razors anyway. Wacker is more of a semi custom shop imo.

Actually it was initially a Sheffield marketing ploy. A very small amount of silver was added to the plain carbon steel and it became SILVER steel. They didn't know squat about metallurgy back then but this made a fine marketing gimmick.

Interestingly, I have a Dovo 5/8 full hollow "silver steel" and another Dovo 5/8 full hollow carbon steel. I like the carbon one much better. The silver feels harsh to my face. It could be the edge, but they were both honed by the same place (bought them both pre-honed from classicshaving).

More than likely both are exactly the same steel. The problem is that one needs to be honed and the other one doesn't.