Crucible Steel?

azmark · Aug 9, 2010

Just curious if anyone has heard of this technique? A coworker and I were talking about razors and he mentioned this since he is a collector of antiques he has an old shotgun out of Crucible steel. He was curious if they make/made razors out of this material?

Looks damascus like.

Yes, I spelled it wrong.

professorchaos · Aug 9, 2010

azmark said:
Just curious if anyone has heard of this technique? A coworker and I were talking about razors and he mentioned this since he is a collector of antiques he has an old shotgun out of Crucible steel. He was curious if they make/made razors out of this material?

Looks damascus like.

Yes, I spelled it wrong.

Intentionally or would you like some help? :001_tt2:

azmark · Aug 9, 2010

professorchaos said:
Intentionally or would you like some help?

It's a cross between LOL Cats, Spanish and English.

The Invisible Edge · Aug 9, 2010

Thought it was all made in crucibles? I have a pair of Edgar Allen razors that were made in 1927 to celebrate the pouring of the first electric crucible steel but I guess that was the method of heating it. :huh:

Neil Miller · Aug 9, 2010

azmark said:
Just curious if anyone has heard of this technique? A coworker and I were talking about razors and he mentioned this since he is a collector of antiques he has an old shotgun out of Crucible steel. He was curious if they make/made razors out of this material?

Looks damascus like.

Yes, I spelled it wrong.

Yes, razors were made from it. An early form of crucible steel was known as wootz and came from India - unlike today, they once made the best steel in the world. Wootz was also called damascus steel, although the formulation of original damascus steel has long been lost to us. Wootz was made using a crucible technique, which distinguishes it from the bloomery methods of steel making.

There are razors with "Fine India Steel" stamped on them - much later period, though.

Eventually bloomery methods attained enough heat to form cast iron - there are razors with "improved cast steel" stamped on them - again, from a much later period.

English steel was a bit variable in quality until swedish ore - very high grade steel with few impurities - was imported. This was formed into blister steel at first and then shear steel.

In 1740 in the UK Benjamin Huntsman re-developed the wootz method to turn blister steel into crucible steel - this is the stuff the razors were made of rather than the much earlier wootz steel.

The technique was relatively small scale until another englishman - Henry Bessemer - made the Bessemer Converter. I have seen mid to late 1800s razors with "Bessemer Steel" on them.

It seems that the processes were discovered, forgotten, rediscovered and re-developed and that razor makers used the most of the technology available at the time to make their razors out of.

Regards,
Neil

azmark · Aug 9, 2010

Neil Miller said:
Yes, razors were made from it. An early form of crucible steel was known as wootz and came from India - unlike today, they once made the best steel in the world. Wootz was also called damascus steel, although the formulation of original damascus steel has long been lost to us. Wootz was made using a crucible technique, which distinguishes it from the bloomery methods of steel making.

There are razors with "Fine India Steel" stamped on them - much later period, though.

Eventually bloomery methods attained enough heat to form cast iron - there are razors with "improved cast steel" stamped on them - again, from a much later period.

English steel was a bit variable in quality until swedish ore - very high grade steel with few impurities - was imported. This was formed into blister steel at first and then shear steel.

In 1740 in the UK Benjamin Huntsman re-developed the wootz method to turn blister steel into crucible steel - this is the stuff the razors were made of rather than the much earlier wootz steel.

The technique was relatively small scale until another englishman - Henry Bessemer - made the Bessemer Converter. I have seen mid to late 1800s razors with "Bessemer Steel" on them.

It seems that the processes were discovered, forgotten, rediscovered and re-developed and that razor makers used the most of the technology available at the time to make their razors out of.

Regards,
Neil