Thread: Silver Steel Question

Hello All,

I am looking around and doing my research for my first new sr8. Have a few used ones which are working out great. For those of you that have a sliver steel razor is there any advantage to them? Quality, shavability (is that a word?), honing, etc.

Any opinions are appreciated.

Thanks,
John

Many of us feel it was just a gimmick to set the razors apart from the heard. I am not aware of any razors being sold today using that term so that should tell you something. Isn't hind sight great!

It's just Carbon Steel. I know of nothing that really distinguishes it from say Swedish Steel. It's probably all the same. I guess one of our metallurgists will chime in with the technical skinny on it.

Hello Joed,

Dovo currently sells a 5/8 silver steel razor with ebony scales.

Also, the reference to Sheffield silver steel and French straight razors

here

would seem to indicate that TI razors are made of silver steel (just not marketed as such).

Thanks,
Mike

Originally Posted by Joed

...I am not aware of any razors being sold today using that term so that should tell you something...

Going by memory, because I'm too lazy to look it up, Michael Faraday, better known for his contributions to the science of electricity, developed Silver Steel. Back in the early 1800s he began experimenting with alloying small amounts of silver into cast steel with the intent of finding a more rust resistant alloy.

It wasn't a success and it is doubtful that the process was continued but the marketability of the name didn't escape the notice of the razor makers. Before you knew it many of them began etching and stamping their blades as Silver Steel.

TI marked blades as being of Silver Steel until fairly recently when they went to what they claim is a new alloy. The long and short of it is there is no particular benefit AFAIK in having a razor so marked. Nothing wrong with it either. I've got some old Greaves, among others marked silver steel and some TI razors. All good shavers.

Great advice guys. That definitely helps in making my decision.

Yes, hindsight is great.

Thanks again.

Some of the newer silver steel has a little better rust resistanse then the 10** or "plain steel" types
Silver steel means it contains over a certain persentage of silver

All different steel have small differences in feel (dont know this in peticular)
Its a good name to sell sinse its known as a prechious metal (and may sound exotic)

Here is a blurb from a bio of Faraday found on google books by Thompson ;


Faraday's scientific activities in the year 1820 were very marked. New researches on steel had been going on for some months. It had been hoped that by alloying iron with some other metals, such as silver, platinum, or nickel, a non-rusting alloy might be found.

This idea took its rise from the erroneous notion that meteoric iron, which is richly alloyed with nickel, does not rust. Faraday found nickel steel to be more readily oxidised, not less, than ordinary steel. The platinum steel was also a failure. Silver steel was of more interest, though it was found impossible to incorporate in the alloy more than a small percentage of silver.

Nevertheless, silver steel was used for some time by a Sheffield firm for manufacture of fenders. The alloys of iron with platinum, iridium, and rhodium were also of no great use. But the research demonstrated the surprising effects which minute quantities of other metals may have upon the quality of steel.

Occasionally in later life Faraday would present one of his friends with a razor made from his own special steel. A paper on the use of alloys of steel in surgical instrument making was published in the Quarterly Journal in collaboration with Mr. Stodart.

Originally Posted by mikey

Hello Joed,

Dovo currently sells a 5/8 silver steel razor with ebony scales.

That was my first razor. Great shaver.

Originally Posted by markevens

That was my first razor. Great shaver.

Same here and I just bought another Silver Steel Blade... I hope it's not a gimmick!

--Shoki