Thread: Any way to understand if a straight is stainless steel?

Hi,
I'm told that stainless steel straights require different material for honing. Is there any way to understand if a razor is stainless? Thanks.

Stainless razors dont require different materials for honing, but they do sometimes require a slightly different number of strokes on the hones, as you can read in this pyramid honing guide.

Lynn has said that stainless razors seem to do better with slightly more polishing strokes at the end of the honing. But you can use the same hones for them.

In terms of telling them apart, some of the newer razors (DOVO for a start) actually mark the razors as stainless. But other than that, I'm not sure how to tell them apart. Hopefully one of the steel guys will chime in here!

Good luck and keep us posted!

Some brands are marked Friodur, Rostfri, or SS. Off the top of my head I would say that most have some designation on the tang marking them as stainless. A big exception being custom razors.

Try a magnet. Most (but not all) stainless steel isn't magnetic.

Brian

Originally Posted by Benthic

Try a magnet. Most (but not all) stainless steel isn't magnetic.

Brian

The high-carbon stainless used in quality cutlery will still be magnetic.

This reminds of some old posts here on SRP.
What was said then was that you can put a drop of orange or lemon juice in the blade (for example in the back of the shank or in the tail) - if it's carbon it will change color, if not it's stainless.

Here are a few rules of thumb. If a razor is vintage, it will virtually always say "stainless", "Inox" or "rostfrei" on it. If it's made anywhere else, it's almost certainly high carbon steel. A drop of lemon juice or vinegar will turn high carbon a dark color where it contacts. It could take a few minutes, though.

Care for it as though it's high carbon steel and you'll do just fine. It doesn't require any different hones or different strops. You just have to hone them till they're sharp enough to suit your fancy. I think high carbon steel will take a better edge, but that's just one man's opinion.

If you want a proof positive test just immerse the blade in some salt water for a couple of hours and you'll know for sure. It should only take you a couple hours of polishing to get all the rust off. Or you can crush up the blade to a very fine powder and if you happen to have a X-Ray defractor lying around the house you could then identify all the elements in the mix

Seriously, I've never seen a vintage stainless that didn't indicate stainless. In those days it was a real feature in a razor and most companies advertised that fact.

Originally Posted by PapaBull

Here are a few rules of thumb. If a razor is vintage, it will virtually always say "stainless", "Inox" or "rostfrei" on it. If it's made anywhere else, it's almost certainly high carbon steel. A drop of lemon juice or vinegar will turn high carbon a dark color where it contacts. It could take a few minutes, though.

Care for it as though it's high carbon steel and you'll do just fine. It doesn't require any different hones or different strops. You just have to hone them till they're sharp enough to suit your fancy. I think high carbon steel will take a better edge, but that's just one man's opinion.

I guess these razors are not stainless then
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...tml#post595498

as there are no such marks on them.

Any carbon steel is going to be magnetic to some degree or another.