Thread: A response to my questions from Heribert Wacker

Recently there have been two threads I have chimed in on that required further investigation. I went to Herr Wacker with hem. The first questions were these:

1. Is there a standard carbon steel used throughout the razor industry? If so, do you know what its designation is? What they presently call "silver steel" is just a good quality tool steel from what I have determined. Is this a standard steel or a higher level product? Any other information you can supply about the steel quality would be appreciated.

To which he responded:

According to your Questions:
1. There is a standard (carbon) steel for razor blanks (incl. also fine scissors).
This standard steel is very high purified. But please understand that the forge will not tell everybody about the basics of their business. So I do not know what its name is. In the past, the silver steel has been the same steel as the scissors steel. Then, the part for the razors was divided from the rest, again purified. Today, this is not made any more. When I am going to buy blanks, they will be from the today’s standard carbon steel. (I will pronounce, that it is very good!!) Silver steel is not made any more. So I am glad that I have so many old blanks left!

My second questions were:
2. There is controversy about the proper way to measure the width/size of a straight razor. I contend that it is supposed to be measured from the top of the spine to the cutting edge. Is this correct? There is also controversy about why a razor that is 5/8, 6/8, etc. is quite often not exactly the size is supposed to be. I have said I believe the blade blanks Wacker Raisermesser, DOVO, G&F, etc. are grinding are actually metric blades and you guys put them into the closest English measurement size. Is that true?

To which he responded (and I was quite surprised by the answer to the second half of this question):

[2. The correct way to measure a razor is: from the top of the back to the cutting edge. everything else is wrong. There are no other ways, because of the many different ways a back can be. In the past there have been two different kinds of inch. The english inch, and the so called "Rheinisches Zoll (RZ)" (Zoll= inch in german).
The RZ is a bit different from the English inch, it is between the metric system and Inch.


I have never heard of a Rheinisches Zoll (RZ) before. I just thought they were blanks made in the metric system of measurements.