Thread: Nichel on blade?

Livi sent me a picture of this damask steel razor. It has nichel on it, which is the polished metal near the edge.
What difference does this nichel do? Is it easier to hone, better to shave with or something else?

That razor looks nice. Now it depends. Is is just plated with nickel or is the blade whole different mixture of metal. If it is just plated you will surely lose the plating on those spots where the blade touches the hone.
I can not say if there's any difference what it comes to shaving. What would be the benefit of adding nickel to the steel. For what i know, we've had nickel only in our old coins before the time of Euro.

I really dont know if its a plating or not.

From the picture it looks to be just plating but cannot be sure. I'm sure that nickel is not going to harm you at least so if you get the razor pls send us your comments.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say it isn't plating at all. It bears a resemblance to some of Mastro's work with Takeda steel. One steel forged at the spine with another alloy for the working edge. If Mastro Livi made it I would bet money that it will be a great shaver. .

The nickel is what gives the sharp contrast between layers. It is there for looks

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I'm going to stick my neck out and say it isn't plating at all. It bears a resemblance to some of Mastro's work with Takeda steel. One steel forged at the spine with another alloy for the working edge. If Mastro Livi made it I would bet money that it will be a great shaver. .

But how is nichel to hone, and keep sharp and shave with?

Originally Posted by The_Pastor

But how is nichel to hone, and keep sharp and shave with?

If it is a shaving razor it isn't nickel. If it is plated, which I doubt, you would have to hone through the plating to get to the steel to be able to get a shaving edge so I doubt if it is plated. Whatever it is , unless Mastro has a lot of time to waste, I suspect it is good steel to shave with. OTOH, I may be wrong, I was wrong twice before.

I refer to Jimmy's description above and indeed that is how it appears in the photograph; that there is a pattern welded back(spine. tang.) with a mono-steel blade.

Which is I think pretty cool. You get to have some fancy smithing with no-doubts compromising edge, shave quality for exotic decorative excess.

I agree with Jimmy and others here. That looks like a pattern forged spine with a single solid core that forms the cutting edge.

And, as Jimmy says, if its a Livi it'll be a good shaver!