Silver steel

Silver steel is common tool steel that is supplied as a centerless ground round bar. The name comes from the highly polished appearance of the rods; there is no silver in the alloy.

Characteristics

In the annealed state it has a hardness of 27 HRC. It can be hardened to 64 HRC.

Composition

The composition is defined by the British Standard BS-1407.
The European/Werkstoff equivalent is 1.2210 / 115CrV3, which also includes some vanadium.

Applications

Amongst other applications, it has been widely used to make such things as punches, engravers, and screwdrivers. Sheffield silver steel is used in France as a blade steel for straight razors. In Finland, German silver steel was and still is widely used for Puukko knives.