Originally Posted by
Stubear
This is unfortunately one of those impossible questions as its really all down to personal taste..! :)
In general, good steel will be hard enough to take and hold a good shaving edge, but not so hard that it becomes chippy and brittle, and it will be able to be polished to a good smooth edge without micro chipping. But the rub is that different people will prefer the feel of different steel on their skin.
For example, I really like DD's. I think they shave so well that its one of the few vintage razors I own more than one of. W&B is the other. But other guys might prefer Torrey's, or Reynolds or whatever.... The list goes on.
So in order to analyse the steel of the best razor, we first have to come to an agreement of what is the "best" razor? But if I'm a DD guy and you're a Torrey guy we have a problem!
Razors like Zeepks are made from poor quality steel thats too soft or poorly made to take a good edge, which is what makes them bad but again thats a generalisation on what is "good" and what is "bad".
As to what makes a DD better than a W&B? Personal choice. They're both great shavers and analysis under a scope would probably reveal a fair few similarities, but some people prefer the feel of one razor to another.
I hope my ramblings were of some help! :)