I've just gone through my standard honing routine and I have a razor that is still far from sharp so I was wondering if it's stainless steel? If not, it's very hard steel.
Is a Le Grelot Hospital stainless?
- Thread starter johnmrson
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I don't think they are stainless, but I could be wrong. FWIIW, I've honed 10 or so Le Grelots and they all took a good bit more work to get them nice and sharp.
I would be curious to know as well. I've got one, but it hasn't gotten to the point of needing honing yet
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- #4
Well I don't know if it's stainless or just really hard carbon steel but it took a heck of alot of honing to get it to a shave ready state. It's nice and sharp now though 
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In the time it took me to hone the LeGrelot, I honed a Dubl Duck, a Henckels and a Kaufmann.
.In the time it took me to hone the LeGrelot, I honed a Dubl Duck, a Henckels and a Kaufmann.
Got a magnet handy? See if it sticks to the blade. If it does it isn't stainless
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- #6
I do have a magnet handy and it stuck to the razor so it isn't stainless. It must just be really hard steel.
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I remember Marcus saying it was really hard steel... It does rust really quickly but I think any straight rust really quickly if you leave water on it...
The Le grelots have really hard steel and are hard to hone and that's a known fact. I doubt is stainless though.
Not all stainless steel is non-magnetic. For example, both of my two Friodurs happily stick to a magnet.
I don't know if any Le Grelots are made of stainless steel, though. Anyway, I would probably first blame the tempering and hardening of the steel, undiscovered geometry issues with the blade or the honer if the razor is difficult to hone.
Yea but it will not grab the way steel does. If it does you have some serious low grade stainless going on. I've worked in machine shops all my life and it's a quick way to see what type of metal your working with. I have had stainless that had a low pull to it but you still know it's stainless. That's my experience anyway
I just did another test with my 5/8" vintage Friodur, a new Dovo Inox, a W&B, and a Filarmonica. (All shave very well, by the way.) They all feel similarly magnetic using the same magnet. Upon some research, I found that austenite is non-magnetic while martensite is strongly magnetic. Martensite is the extremely hard iron alloy phase that allows one to create a blade with a strong and durable cutting edge. So, in reality, if your blade is made of stainless steel and non-magnetic, you likely will have a blade that won't hold a good edge because it has lost its temper. Then, at least in the case of stainless steel on any sort of knife, the magnetic pull is not a sign of the quality of the steel but of the temper.
Anecdotally, my Spyderco Caly 3 had a much lower pull to it, but it also contains ZDP-189 (extremely high chromium content, not sure how that effects things) sandwiched between layers of 420J2 (tempered to be soft so as to provide spring to the blade, so probably low in martensite and high in non-magnetic austenite).
Since I don't manufacture razors i'll accept that. It's never let me down yet when doing my job.
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- #13
Well, I honed up my second Le Grelot Hospital on the weekend and the difference is chalk and cheese. This one ended up with a sensationally sharp edge (I shaved with it this morning) with just the standard honing laps.
It's amazing the difference between the two. The first one took a huge number of laps on the stones before I could get an edge that I could shave with and I'm still not happy that it's as sharp as it should be. The second one literally got a razor sharp edge with alot less honing and after using it this morning, I couldn't be happier with how sharp it is.
I tried the magnet test again on a couple of razors that I know are stainless and it stuck the same to them as it did to the carbon ones.
It's amazing the difference between the two. The first one took a huge number of laps on the stones before I could get an edge that I could shave with and I'm still not happy that it's as sharp as it should be. The second one literally got a razor sharp edge with alot less honing and after using it this morning, I couldn't be happier with how sharp it is.
I tried the magnet test again on a couple of razors that I know are stainless and it stuck the same to them as it did to the carbon ones.
