Which razors have highest quality steel?

I have shaved with five different razors that have all been honed identically; i.e., shapton 1-4-8k .5m Crox, .05m aluminum oxide polish. They all passed the hanging hair test, but they all shave differently. I think the difference relates to the grain structure and hardness of the steel- mainly the grain structure though.

In order of performance:

1) Wade Butcher 5/8 hollow & Henckles 5/8 hollow (different feel, but tied for first)
2) Wade butcher 6/8 wedge
3) "Prima Solingen" 8/8 hollow
4) Damascus "made in germany" 5/8 hollow

My question is: In your experience, which razor brands have given you the best shave and why?

Just about everything I can think of would come before the actual steel... ie: The size, grind, bevel, stone, beard, and on annd on

Also your definition of "Best" and mine, and his, and his, and his, are most likely very different...

I know what my best shaving razor has been so far, and still is, and trust me it is not anything special by make or steel.... It just fits me the best...

Yep...basicaly what Glen said. What works for you may not work for me and vise versa. And that even gets into finishing hones etc. Its all personal choice and feel, and part of the joy of this shaving is finding what works best for you. And it gives you an excuse to buy more razors just to test your theories..lol :nj

And from the steel's perspective, the grain is microscopic. Even less than the diameter of a single hair. The difference between 14-17 nanometer for iron carbide grain and 17-181 micrometer for hair. With the right magnification these are both visible, but feeling them would be highly subjective.

I define best in terms of how smooth the shave is; i.e., how little I feel the hairs coming off. The bevel angle and degree of polish are two important variables in determining smoothness. The reason I was asking about peoples' experiences is because some types of steel do not respond to polishing as well. When I'm looking on ebay for restore projects, I want to identify good candidates.

I understand your point about the importance of edge geometry, but I still think the quality of the steel determines the how well the edge responds to honing, which affects shave quality.

As time goes by you will find that the person honing the razor and them the hones used will effect the shave quality of the razor more than anything else for quality razors. The metal properties of the steel do play a major part in the equation when inferior metals are used but after that is settled the metal is less of a factor that is observed in shave quality most of the time.

+1 If the straight razor is honed correctly, they all should give a great shave.

Pabster

'Best' is subjective when it comes to steel.

For example a steel can be made harder but that comes at the price of making the steel more brittle.

There is no magic steel that is better than all the others.

What you do have is crap inconsistent steel, which is found in cheap Pakistani or Chinese razors. With reputable manufacturers you have minor variations of good steel which the marketing departments of the razor manufacturers like to say are huge differences.

Yup, no doubt about it, I prefer that nanometer steel too. It is head and shoulders above that gigameter stuff. I hear, though, that there is some groundbreaking work being done in crucibles across Pakistan where they are just about ready to introduce some powdered terameter mega-alloy to the world. Word on the street has it that half the known whiskers are ready to give up just from knowing that the tera-mega technology is about to be used against them by Zeepks everwhere.

This progress thing has me just postively flabbergasted.

:beer2:

I've got to agree with Joe and Glen. Good steel is, more or less, good steel; the bigger factor is what you do to it and with it. You'll feel things like grind/size/weight much more than you will the differences in the steel itself.