SILVER STEEL from “Whut Izzit” KNIFE WORLD Magazine ©2003 ©2004 Page 1

WHUT IZZIT NUMBER 312 DECEMBER 2003 [excerpts]

by Bernard Levine

www.knife-expert.com

In the October and November columns I discussed a butcher knife marked J. AMES/ SILVER STEEL. It was made in the Massapoag Works in Sharon, Massachusetts.

In October I wrote, "'Silver Steel,' or 'Silver Combined With Steel,' was sometimes stamped on English razors of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Was silver really added to the alloy mix? I doubt it, but the only way to find out would be to sacrifice a piece of a 'silver steel' blade, and have it vaporized and analyzed. Does anybody have such a blade (preferably a rough relic) they are willing to sacrifice? I will pay for the analysis..."

Our editor, Mr. Mark Zalesky, was quick to volunteer a blade, from a well used razor marked JAMES JOHNSON/ SILVER STEEL. But then, when I tried calling Metal Analysis, Inc., the southern California ﬁrm which had spectro-analyzed a razor blade for me some years ago, I found that it had evidently gone out of business.

Soon afterwards, however, Mr. Bob Johnston of Pennsylvania, an analytical chemist who has helped Knife World several times before (in the study of deteriorating Celluloid, in the choice of solvents for cleaning blades, and in determining the composition of "Japanese sword oil"), stepped up to save the day. He wrote:

"PLEASE don't destroy any antique knives in an effort to check for silver. I have a Spectro X-Lab 2000 Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometer in my laboratory, and I would be happy to analyze one knife or one hundred knives at no cost to you, other than shipping.

"Unlike arc-spark or other methods, EDXRF is a completely non- destructive technique; even the patina won't be disturbed. The report will show the percentage of every element from magnesium [atomic number 12] to uranium [atomic number 92] on the periodic SILVER STEEL from “Whut Izzit” KNIFE WORLD Magazine ©2003 ©2004 page 2

table. The instrument chamber should be able to accommodate knives up to 10 inches long."

The only down-side to this high-tech test is that it does not measure the content of carbon [atomic number 6], the element which is alloyed with iron [atomic number 26] to form steel. Of course carbon must be part, indeed most, of the percentage unaccounted for in the EDXRF totals.

As soon as Mr. Zalesky had read this offer, he sent Mr. Johnston a diverse group of nine razors and two knives to test.

Here is the list.

(#1) JAMES / JOHNSON / SILVER STEEL - razor, no handle

(#2) J. AMES / SILVER STEEL - shoe knife [American]

(#3) J. SANGER / CAST STEEL - butcher knife [American]

(#4) J... / JO... / SILVE... (probably James Johnson Silver Steel) - mottled horn handle (blade etched "Patent Razor")

(#5) JOSEPH ELLIOTT'S / CELEBRATED RAZOR - genuine stag handle (stamped out on blade V (crown) R / UNIVERSALLY APPROVED / BEST SILVER STEEL)

(#6) V (crown) R / FINE SILVER STEEL - smooth bone with nickel silver inlays

(#7) W (crown) R / GEO. HAMMOND / SILVER STEEL - smooth bone with pique work

(#8) ?UPE SILV STEEL / T. ASCHER / SHEFFIELD - dark horn

(#9) SILVER STEEL / WARRANTED - dark horn (blade faintly etched "Washington, The Champion of Liberty")

(#10) JAMES JOHNSON'S / SUPERIOR SILVER STEEL / FITZWILLIAM STREET / SHEFFIELD (and stamped out on blade WARRANTED GOOD) - no handle

(#11) JOSEPH / ELLIOTT - no handle (stamped out on blade SILVER STEEL)

A chart of the test results is included on the following page. ND means "None Detected," less than 9 parts per million.

The elements shown are:

Si = Silicon Cr = Chromium Mn = Manganese Fe = Iron Co = Cobalt Ni = Nickel Cu = Copper Zn = Zinc Ag = Silver

Not shown are magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), phosphorus (P), and lead (Pb), which were present in some of the blades. Not measurable by this method are carbon (C) and oxygen (O), which were both certainly present (oxygen in the patina).

Element No Shoe knife Butcher Horn Stag handle Bone Bone Horn handle Horn handle No handle No handle Handle *J.Ames* knife handle Joseph Elliot handle handle with Silver Steel James Silver Steel J.Sanger J- Jo— Celebrated with shield Warranted Silv- Steel James Joseph Johnson Cast Steel Silve… Razor shield Geo. George Johnsons Elliot Silver- Universally Hammond Washington etch Superior Steel Approved Silver Steel T. Ascher Fine Silver Steel Best Silver Sheffield Silver Silver Fitzwilliam Steel Steel on Steel Street blade Sheffield

Al 0.09 ND 0.35 0.08 0.11 0.18 3.80 0.23 0.19 1.90 0.30

Si 0.26 0.21 0.64 0.13 0.26 0.22 0.5 0.34 0.26 0.45 1.10

Cr 0.19 0.07 0.02 0.04 0.05 0.03 0.04 ND 0.04 ND 0.02

Mn 0.65 0.22 0.09 0.05 0.08 0.09 0.08 0.15 0.77 0.07 0.08

Fe 98.05 98.7 97.75 99.2 99.24 99.18 94.78 98.87 98.28 96.92 97.63

Co 0.31 0.16 0.13 0.18 0.06 0.06 0.07 0.11 0.09 ND 0.10

Ni < 0.01 0.02 ND ND ND ND ND ND ND 0.02 ND

Cu 0.15 0.05 0.02 0.13 0.02 ND 0.13 ND 0.03 0.03 0.09

Zn < 0.01 0.08 0.07 ND ND ND 0.04 ND ND 0.01 0.01

Ag ND ND ND ND ND ND ND ND ND ND ND

The most immediate and obvious result is that there was no silver (Ag) at all detected in any of the blades.

In formal logic, one cannot prove a negative. Somewhere out there might be a SILVER STEEL blade that does contain some silver -- maybe even several such blades. But not one of these randomly collected blades contains any silver, which strongly suggests that SILVER STEEL was (as I suspected) just a marketing term -- much like the term SURGICAL STEEL used on some imported Japanese pocketknives in the 1980s.

Like all good experiments, this one answered the original question, but then presented us with several new questions. These blades do not contain any silver, but many of them do contain elements one would not expect to ﬁnd in a 19th century blade, notably aluminum and silicon.

Nowadays small but precise quantities of silicon are added to some blade and tool steels, as we shall see below. But this addition is mid 20th century technology, ﬁrst made possible by the electric furnace which was introduced to the steel industry in 1907.

As to aluminum, there is no good reason to add it to blade steel, and plenty of good reason not to. Moreover, prior to 1886, aluminum could only be reﬁned at great expense, and was much more costly than silver, and even than gold or platinum. Indeed aluminum was only ﬁrst isolated in 1825 or 1827, despite being the commonest metallic element on Earth.

Before the tests, I asked Mr. Johnston if perhaps the patina on the blades might distort the results. He replied, "There probably aren't really any contaminants in the patina. I would expect the patina to mainly consist of iron oxide [rust], maybe mixed with skin oil (ﬁngerprints) over many years of use, or organic residue from the sheath [or handle], or other things of that nature. Skin oil would leave some traces of chlorine and maybe sulfur and phosphorus in the patina, but we could ignore these. Organic residue isn't detected by X-Ray spectroscopy [the deﬁning elements of organic compounds are too light: hydrogen

(atomic number 1), carbon (6), and oxygen (8)]. Anyway, since the X-ray beam penetrates into the steel, overall the surface (patina) represents only a small percentage of the metal being analyzed."

Afterwards, when considering the high readings for aluminum and silicon, he offered this possible explanation. "If the blades were cleaned at any time with an abrasive that contains aluminum oxide, such as emery paper or maybe a cream polish, then aluminum oxide could have become embedded in the steel surface and that's why we're seeing so much in the x-ray spectrum... The numbers would be highly inﬂated since the aluminum from the polishing agents would be concentrated at the surface of the metal, and the x-ray beam doesn't penetrate very far... The only way to know if that's what happened would be to heavily clean the surface with steel wool to remove it, and I don't think we really want to do that. On the other hand, it could be that the iron ore contained a large amount of bauxite, and the aluminum is really part of the alloy."

I suppose these are possible. But in a highly finished blade, such as a straight razor, any leftover bits of abrasive on the surface would have marred the finish, and would likely have been cleaned off before or during the lapping and final polishing operations -- either in the original manufacture, or after re- sharpening. Here is how these steps were described in an 1840 magazine article:

"The lap is a wheel faced with lead, and dressed with flour emery and sweet oil. This process takes out all the marks left by the grindstone, and produces a smooth surface; it is fined still further after a piece of flint has been held in contact with the face of the lap, while running.

"It is now ready for the last polishing... the wheel is dressed with crocus, and the polisher occasionally dips a piece of wool hat in crocus, and holds it to the wheel; this gives a ﬁnishing lustre to the blade."

"Crocus" is nothing more than ﬁnely powdered red iron oxide, so called (I believe) because it looks like the spice called saffron, which is the pollen of an oriental crocus ﬂower (when diluted and cooked, saffron looks yellow, but when you buy it raw, it is rust color). Crocus would not show up separately in 21st century X-ray analysis, since it is just more iron. Residue from professional polishing, if any, would possibly include traces of lead from the lap wheel; negligible traces (under 0.01%) were indeed detected in the blades.

I am skeptical about the "abrasive hypothesis," so I proposed an alternative hypothesis which might explain the presence of variable amounts of aluminum and silicon -- neither of which would have been added intentionally back then. Cast steel was made by the prolonged (3+ days) heating of refined iron and charcoal in a sealed clay crucible. The compositions of fireclays used to make and seal crucibles varied, but they all included finely divided particles of various oxides of silicon and aluminum. It seems possible that small amounts of both elements could have been reduced by the high heat, and then dissolved in the steel -- or more simply that small particles of clay could have become suspended in the metal. The EDXRF Spectrometer computes the percentage of an element present in a sample, but does not reveal whether it is concentrated as a contaminant particle, or dispersed as a component.

To this Mr. Johnston responded, "It's certainly possible that these elements could come from the cast [steel] process (clay from the crucible or just from the ore), but they seem so high that I don't really think that's what is going on.

"When you see the raw data, you'll notice a lot of sulfur and phosphorus, for instance. We talked about the patina before we started the analysis, and I think that part of what we're seeing is the patina. The patina consists of everything that has happened to the blade over the last 150 years, as long as either a chemical reaction has occurred or something has become embedded on the surface of the metal.

"I'm of the opinion that the most likely sources of aluminum and silicon are polishing agents that have been used on the steel

over the years. Almost all grits are combinations of aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, and silicates (e.g. clay - magnesium aluminum silicate)... I checked back on the data from the two blades with the highest levels of aluminum, and they both also show signiﬁcant amounts of magnesium (which I didn't mention before). Unfortunately, we couldn't be sure whether this is just a surface effect (patina) or if it goes all the way through the steel, unless we thoroughly polished the surface with steel wool down to shiny metal. THEN, if the analysis still showed the same amounts of aluminum, silicon, and magnesium, we would know that these were part of the steel."

Unwilling to settle just for laboratory results, Mr. Johnston then searched the Internet for references to "Silver Steel." He discovered that in Great Britain today the term "Silver Steel" is still in common use. It is the name of a standard grade of bright ﬁnished high carbon tool steel. Several mills and many suppliers offer it for sale online. The largest is Peter Stubs of Warrington, England: http://www.peterstubs.com/silver.html which advertises, "Our experience in tools and with tool steels dates back 200 years, over 100 of which have been spent in the Silver Steel business."

Silver Steel is formally described by this speciﬁcation:

BS 1407:1987 High carbon bright steel (silver steel) detailed on the SteelSpec website (paid subscription only): http://www.steelspec.org.uk/index.htm

One of those steel suppliers, West Yorkshire Steel Co. Ltd., includes this description on its website, where it sells a range of shapes and sizes. http://www.westyorkssteel.com/Product_Info/Tool_Steel/silver.htm

Silver Steel is a 1% carbon tool steel supplied centreless ground to close tolerances. Available in 1, 2 or 3 metre lengths. Non standard sizes can be produced to your speciﬁc requirements.

Typical Analysis

Carbon 1.00% Silicon 0.30% Chromium 0.40% Manganese 0.35%

Hardening: Heat to 770/790 degrees C [1420-1450 degrees F] and thoroughly soak. Quench into well agitated water or preferably a 10% brine solution.

Tempering: Heat uniformly and thoroughly at the selected tempering temperatures and hold for at least one hour.

Temperature C Hardness RC 150 64/66 200 62/64 250 58/60 300 54/56

Mr. Johnston next found an Australian website with the following description: "Silver steel is a very hard material and therefore has good wear resisting properties. It is difficult to machine and hard to file, but is used almost exclusively for axles and other rotating parts. When heated to red heat and then quenched quickly in oil or water, it becomes so hard that it cannot be machined or filed. Thus, in its hardened state, it can be used for form tools or other hand-made cutting tools."

Then he found a website in the Republic of Slovenia, belonging to the steelmaking ﬁrm called Metal Ravne. This ﬁrm offers its own version of "Silver Steel," designated OH248, with a different analysis from the English version, much the way the Silver Steels of the past differed from each other in composition:

Carbon 0.75% Silicon 0.25% Manganese 0.50% Chromium 0.50% Molybdenum 0.33% Vanadium 0.25% Tungsten 0.60%

The ﬁrm says of OH248, "It is usually supplied as silver steel. Applications: tap drills, broaching tools, milling cutters, and other cutting tools."

Indeed the use of "Silver Steel" has a long history in Central Europe. Here is an example of this, sent in by Mr. Marc Levine of Massachusetts. It is a fancy German razor of the late 19th or early 20th century, with gold etching on handle and blade (on the front, anyway). It is marked BEST * QUALITAT/ *TUCKMAR*/ SILBERSTAHL SOLINGEN on the front of the tang, and WELT RUF/ SCHUTZ MARK/ 69 on the back. Silberstahl means "Silver Steel." Tuckmar is the brand, which I cannot identify, while the two lines on the back mean "world-wide renown/ trade mark."

Curiously, its handles really are made of silver. At least they are marked 800, which means 800 loth, 800/1000, or 80% ﬁne, the European standard for coin silver (American coin silver is 90% ﬁne).

And finally, returning to England, Mr. Johnston found this explanation of the meaning of "Silver Steel" in the clockmaking trade, which as you might recall was the source of the original invention of crucible cast steel back in 1742, by a Sheffield clockmaker named Benjamin Huntsman. "The most commonly available high carbon steel is known in this country as 'silver steel,' presumably due to its polished appearance since it contains no actual silver. On the other side of the Atlantic a similar material is known as "drill-rod" although this in fact is of a slightly superior specification. For many years silver steel was obtained in 13 inch or 6 ft long rods in a wide range of sections both round and square. Both fractional inch and Morse twist drill sizes were stock items and the material itself was usually sold by weight..."

We now seem to have cleared up most of the mystery of Silver Steel. What still remains is an etymological question. Was the term "Silver Steel" originally just descriptive of the alloy's

bright luster, as it is today in England -- and the term "Silver Combined With Steel" merely a marketers' mistaken elaboration upon this? Or are there really old blades out there that we have not tested yet, and that do contain a trace of elemental silver?

Watch this space next April 1 for an equally detailed analysis of J. R. R. Tolkien's Mithril, known in the common speech as "Truesilver," a secret Dwarvish alloy of mithium (Mi), derangium (Dg), alimony ($$), and twin (Tt).

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WHUT IZZIT NUMBER 313 JANUARY 2004 [excerpt]

by Bernard Levine

www.knife-expert.com

In last month's column, our unofﬁcial analytical chemist, Mr. Bob Johnston of Pennsylvania, reported on the actual composition of nine old straight razors and two old knives marked SILVER STEEL on their blades. As we had suspected, none of those blades contained any silver at all. To round out the experiment, our editor, Mr. Mark Zalesky, later sent Mr. Johnston two more razors. One was a Frederick Reynolds from Shefﬁeld, marked SILVER COMBINED WITH STEEL. The other was a German razor marked SILBERSTAHL/ GARANTI-SOLINGEN on the tang, and etched WORLD PEACE 1919. Silberstahl is German for Silver Steel. Mr. Johnston scanned both razors with his Spectro X-Lab 2000 Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometer. Neither blade contained even a trace amount of silver.

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