Thread: Sheffield Steele

I've read that the Swedish steel was used to make Sheffield blades. Here is an interesting page I just googled and here is another with even more data on the Swedish steel.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I've read that the Swedish steel was used to make Sheffield blades. Here is an interesting page I just googled and here is another with even more data on the Swedish steel.

You don't think getting the foundry down the road to supply Sheffield steel would have been cheaper? It certainly wasn't any poorer quality steel. After all that is where crucible steel and the Bessemer process were invented - Sheffield. A company like W&B importing Swedish steel to make razors is like Microsoft importing software. They probably did import a lot of Swedish iron ore though.

Originally Posted by John Crowley

You don't think getting the foundry down the road to supply Sheffield steel would have been cheaper? It certainly wasn't any poorer quality steel. After all that is where crucible steel and the Bessemer process were invented - Sheffield. A company like W&B importing Swedish steel to make razors is like Microsoft importing software. They probably did import a lot of Swedish iron ore though.

Dunno John, I would love to find out though. I have been curious since someone else posted that the Sheffields of the 1800s were largely made with Swedish steel. I wonder how much iron ore was native to the UK at the time ? I know that companies such as Kayser-Ellison were big in the twentieth century and some German razors are marked as being made with them. Was it a small world back then too ?

Swedish iron is what was imported it was and is very pure and was already in bars that had strick quallity controls, the steel was made in Sheffield due to water power and lots of coal. also the eventual use of cast/crucible steel and then bessemer

Im sure had Napoleon and the chaos of revolution in france and europe not put serious restraints on Solingen. there would be lots of old German razors out there too history/geography/maybe culture just had other ideas

I geuss Im bias towards the Sheffields but any razor from Germany in there day is usally a winner and comes from a time when the razor was at its final pehaps perfected form full hollow, they are usally out of my price range at least the ones I want aka Puma