Thread: Silver Steel

I have 3 Razors from XIX century that are made in silver steel: a Rodgers stub tailed stamped "Cutler to His Majesty" (so it should be about 1830, right?) and two Joseph Elliots. All of them have the following problems:
- The steel is always clouded by some horrible greyish patina that I just seem unable to get rid of. It is casually spotted on the blade, nothing one would like.
- They lose their edge every time I use them, or almost.
- The edge has always dents. No matter how much I hone or strop it, there are very little chips every time. I can see them simply looking at the blade in front of a white paper. They are like the ones you can see on a normal edge put under the microscope, just are bigger. If I hone the blade, new chips appear while others go away.
- These razors show a tendency to diffuse pitting that I had not found in other types of steel blades from the same period, and their pitting is harder to clean also.

Now I wonder: did I have bad luck, or is there anybody else who noticed these problems? Is Silver Steel good or not?

I believe, Silver steel and problems with your razors are not connected.
First of all, a great number of Sheffield razors in 19th century were made from Silver steel. And they don't have such problems.
And second, after 1820, when Michael Faraday discovered a way to add silver to cast steel. Many straight razor blades, manufactured after this date are etched or stamped "Silver Steel", "Celebrated Silver Steel Razor", etc.
But it don't mean, that all of them had silver. Advertising was at that time too.
Overall, old Sheffield razors are my favorites, and among them a lot of "Silver steel" razors. And they all are very fine.

I prefer old Sheffields' as well. And wedges. I have other razors from the same period and place that have not this kind of problems. Some of them are made of a steel that is similar in its appearance, but the only three that say "silver steel" are these. In particular the problem of the little chips on the edge (they don't hinder the shave, however) is common to these three only. That's why I suspected it was due to the presence of silver. My John Barber, for example, seems to be in silver steel, has the same kind of pitting tendency, but its edge is perfect to the eye...
If the tendency to a micro-chipped ( ) edge is not due to silver, where should I look for its reason? This is the most important issue, since my aim is to make them good shavers!

Silver steel never had silver in it. It is high carbon steel that looks almost like silver.
Silver steel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think the confusion goes back to when "silver steel" was first invented. It had some small amount of silver in it but the silver steel razors have are called that because of their appearance and they never had any silver within. Probably two entirely different animals. At any rate you can buy vintage razors with silver steel, they are common and they don't chip any more or less than any others. You will have to look elsewhere for why you're razors are chipping.

What are you honing them on? My old Sheffield Wedge seems to respond well to coticule and a PHIG..

I have two thoughts: 1) maybe you are trying to hone these out to finer grits than the steel will support, so the edge breaks down the first time you use it, and 2) something bad somehow happened to the temper in the steel. I don't know how someone could mess up the temper without also cooking the scales.

Too much honing pressure could also make a fragile edge. You can flex the blade an end up honing away steel just behind the edge.

That's all I can think of. Good luck getting them to shave.

Thanks for the suggestion about the hone. I admit I am not so experienced with hone types as I am with razors, so that can be the reason for these bad edges. Since I'm building a collection of antique (read pre-Madrid) razors I also look from hones from the same period. Probably they are not that good anymore. I will look for better hones