TI C135 steel

Of the razors I own, my TIs are my favorites. That said, I don't have a TI with the C135 steel. For those of you who own a TI with a C135 steel blade, would you mind to comment on the steel?

My current TIs include a Super Gnome and a Le Grelot.

Thanks in advance.

So the Le Grelot is not really a TI. Le Grelot was bought and their last blanks were sold by TI, but the steel was still Le Grelot's own.

One of my TI is a C135. It is nice and I've never had to re-hone it. The feel on the skin is still smoother than a Swede or a stainless steel though. I had a vintage Spartacus and it did not feel that different.
The blade feels heavier on the C135, but it is hard to tell as it is difficult to find 2 blades with the same form factor and different steel.

I have two, they shave as well as anything else, really fine razors. The steel doesn't seem any harder to hone to me.

That said, neither are ground as well as they could be or as well as many vintage razors. Uneven bevels, wide bevels, etc but they shave extremely well. If you want one to shave with, one of the best choices. If you want an example of fine razor grinding and blade manufacturing, you might want to look elsewhere. My 11/16 is ground considerably better than the 7/8, however this is a small sample of 2.

Cheers, Steve

Steve56 said:

I have two, they shave as well as anything else, really fine razors. The steel doesn't seem any harder to hone to me.

That said, neither are ground as well as they could be or as well as many vintage razors. Uneven bevels, wide bevels, etc but they shave extremely well. If you want one to shave with, one of the best choices. If you want an example of fine razor grinding and blade manufacturing, you might want to look elsewhere. My 11/16 is ground considerably better than the 7/8, however this is a small sample of 2.

Cheers, Steve

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That's funny. Both of my TI's are a 7/8 and an 11/16 too.

Steve56 said:

I have two, they shave as well as anything else, really fine razors. The steel doesn't seem any harder to hone to me.

That said, neither are ground as well as they could be or as well as many vintage razors. Uneven bevels, wide bevels, etc but they shave extremely well. If you want one to shave with, one of the best choices. If you want an example of fine razor grinding and blade manufacturing, you might want to look elsewhere. My 11/16 is ground considerably better than the 7/8, however this is a small sample of 2.

Cheers, Steve

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My thoughts exactly. I can't believe a company charges upwards of $400 and in some cases more for something that isn't ground PERFECTLY.

I have a Special Coiffeur C135 that is great, it only needed a little pasted strop from new and was shaving well for 10+ shaves, then its had 3-4 visited to the stone each time needing very minimal work to bring it back to 10/10 sharp. Love the tang size for shaving and stropping.

The steel is good IMO, not any better than anything else. They also hone pretty much the same as anything else.

I had no good experience with the historic steel by TI, it was my first TI, almost impossible to shave correctly and without irritation. I tried many times, with several hones and strops, to get a comfortable edge, but no way. Now I have two new TI made with C135 steel and I had no problem at all, that steel seems harder than the other solingen razors I own, but no problems at all with honing and shaving. In my opinion they work better than the others, my skin seems to prefer stiffer blades and my 1/2 and x-thick grind TIs follow that way.

I rather like the way C135 shaves.

How does C135 fare with regard to oxidation, relative to traditional "carbon" steel and stainless/inox?

The C135 seems slightly more rust proof, but my TI razors are almost new compared to my old Pumas.

I had an early C135 blade, had the batch number on the tang - was a bear to hone. The next was a 1/4 hollow that had been honed with tape or something, again- a bear to hone. The next C135 experience was a much newer extra hollow and that one was also notably hard but the bevel was very thin and it honed pretty fast. Several others have passed through my hands but none really come to mind right now.
I'd guess their HT&T gets them an HRC that's point or two higher than average. Def seems harder than typical Sheffields and many Solingens. Some USA blades are right there, hardness wise, though.
Edge retention for C135 seems to be way above average to me, they also seem to take extreme-keen while maintaining smoothness equally.

My TI experiences are similar to Gamma's. I do find that work on the earlier parts of the progressions take longer because of the hardness of the steel but finishing is a bit easier.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I really do appreciate it.

A very interesting read. I too have a newer C135 inbound, thanks to threads like these... It will be interesting to see how it works out in comparison to my other nice shavers.

So I received my new TI La Legende #12 with the C125 steel yesterday. Would not pass HHT or cut hair reliably at skin level on my arm from the factory. So much for factory "shave ready-ness."

Spent some time on the hones last night. The bevel was completely uneven. After my efforts the shave test was not satisfactory. I have consulted with my professor and will be taking it back to the stones shortly. One thing is for certain, it is the hardest steel I have run across yet in my limited honing career.

To say it was not shave ready is an understatement.

Attila said:

A very interesting read. I too have a newer C135 inbound, thanks to threads like these... It will be interesting to see how it works out in comparison to my other nice shavers.

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Me too. Just pulled the trigger on a 6/8 Special C.

HappyOne said:

Me too. Just pulled the trigger on a 6/8 Special C.

View attachment 509944

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Very nice! Congrats! I hope it comes with a better edge than mine did.

Big fan of TI C135 steel. Keeps an edge for a long time. I can't thing of anything modern that's better.

I have several TI's with the C135 steel and find them to be excellent. I also found they need just a little more time on the finishing hone to hit the "sweet spot" (compared to some of my older blades).