Why not 316L?

I can only make a few of these at a time, the 904L takes me more time to finish, but plan to have a few available next week.

shiftyeyes67k if you add your email to the product list("EMail Me" button), I can shoot you a note when available:

Cx-904L Product

If you prefer to shoot me a note from my website, also OK...

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Appreciate the consideration...

Sean

Materials are chosen for one of two reasons: application parameters or marketing. 303 and 304 far exceed the application requirements of a safety razor. There is no added functional benefit of 316L in a razor unless you plan to spend much time shaving while scuba diving.

I can think of one functional benefit of 316L in a razor:
A polished finish is more durable / less easily scratched in 316L, and even more so in 17-4.

Unless it’s been hardened, 316 has about the same hardness rating as 303/304 so I don’t believe there is any increase in polish durability. It’s true that 17-4 should be more scratch-resistant.

It seems to me that you actually do not know much about metallurgy.

Why I think so ?

Because there isn't a way for the Austenitic stainless steel alloys to be heat treated ,so to become harder.

The only way to harden those is by "cold 
forging/rolling  " or "work hardening" ,which BTW usually is not an acceptable situation during CNC or manual machining. 

You are not a machinist ( that's for sure 1000%)  ,but a clever (?) businessman .Try not to make a fool of yourself by fooling others.

The 303 you are using ( along with other razor makers ) is among the least preferable ss alloys for making a DE/SE razor .It just makes more profit for ya 
( by s(h)aving machining costs big-big-time ) . Nothing more than that.
Period.

Read couple of expert discussions about the matter:

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/forum...ty.183694/

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/forum...ess.86798/


And here's my own experience as a machinist ,having worked with both 303 & 316L ss alloys :

-316L machining cost is usually 5x 
the machining cost of 303.

-316L needs special coolant and special 
( super alloy ) carbide cutters,while 
machining of 303 can be done "dry" and 
with ordinary "high speed steel" cutters.

-316L is really a PITA to machine ,
while 303 is a piece of cake.

- Polishing 316L is a tedious task ,but 
the polished surface will last for long time.
The exact opposite goes for 303 -easy to polish ,looses luster quickly /scratches easily .

-I would not use anything made of 303 
to make contact with my skin .
Not approved for medical uses ,jewelry 
and for 
food/water/etc containers or processing machinery or tooling ( try to find some forks ,spoons or pans made of 303).

Since I started the thread, it came back to me.  You are actually addressing this to Shane at Blackland Razors.  Perhaps he'll read it now that I've tagged him.  I agree with you by the way on his lack of metallurgical knowledge, but he is more than just a clever salesman.  He is also an excellent and innovative razor designer.

If you say so ...
Who I'm to argue ? 

(Although ,I really do not think he is the actual designer .Have my reasons to believe so .Clever dude yes ,he might be .
Machinist no way ! Designer ? Hmmm 
I think there have been at least two different industrial designers working 
for the Blackland razors ,and Shane is neither of them .Carefully "studying" 
his razor line-up can reveal much about the men who designed them.If of course you have a keen and "trained to the art " eye.Furthermore ,usually an industrial designer is fully aware of the potentials and limitations of the material(s) used ,which Shane clearly lacks the knowledge of .)

If you say so ...
Who I'm to argue ? 

(Although ,I really do not think he is the actual designer .Have my reasons to believe so .Clever dude yes ,he might be .
Machinist no way ! Designer ? Hmmm 
I think there have been at least two different industrial designers working 
for the Blackland razors ,and Shane is neither of them .Carefully "studying" 
his razor line-up can reveal much about the men who designed them.If of course you have a keen and "trained to the art " eye.)

This is an interesting accusation. We've never worked with a single designer before. I'm not opposed to it, but every Blackland design so far has come directly and solely from me. I'll take this as a compliment since I'm not a trained designer. Thank you for thinking that it would take two professional designers to do what I do. That's one of the nicer things anyone has said about our designs.

And no, I'm not a machinist. But I now find myself in the machine shop nearly every day so I've become pretty familiar with the job.

This idea that I'm some business puppet master pulling the strings to maximize profit and outsource work is so funny to me because it's so different than my reality. What I actually do is chicken scratch some basic ideas onto a paper. I can't draw worth a damn so then I take them to CAD where I try to actually make some sense of it. I usually design the same thing a dozen times or more until it starts looking like what I envision. Then I 3D print it. Then I do that whole process a few more times until it's something kind of acceptable. Then I take it next door to Tyler our machinist where he tells me I'm insane. Then I convince him it's possible, he eventually agrees, and then we start prototyping. I stand in the same dirty machine shop and we discuss fixtures, tool packages, feeds and speeds, and collaborate on how to produce the design as efficiently and accurately as possible. Tyler programs the CAM and we start prototyping. Test, revise, repeat. It's very hands-on and I'm quite involved in the production these days. Then I polish about 80% of our razors while an employee handles the rest. I answer customer emails, ship orders if we're overwhelmed, and then do the typical "business stuff".

There's no corner office. No team of industrial designers. No greedy string-pulling. We're a very small team who works hard, gets our hands dirty, and tries to make the best razors possible.

In such case ,please accept my apologies.
In addition to being a clever dude I must admit
that you have a talent (being a self-taught designer ) into industrial designing .
You should attend (just for the fun of it ) some
designing courses .It would be a pity no to do so .
BTW ,I would be among the first to buy a Blackbird made out of 316L ( no matter the price ) .It is also a pity not to have the 316L option of such a great shaving tool.
Tried the brass one and I liked it very much .
The Ti option was a bit lightweight for my taste .
Go show Tyler how " insane" you really are!

( Would be a nice test for Tyler's machining skills and ...level of patience .Trust me ,machining 316L can bring a machinist very
close to the nervous breakdown zone ... )

Materials are chosen for one of two reasons: application parameters or marketing. 303 and 304 far exceed the application requirements of a safety razor. There is no added functional benefit of 316L in a razor unless you plan to spend much time shaving while scuba diving.

I have in fact considered this very thing with a Carbon 904L razor.