The Steelmakers' Edge

The battle of the blades is raging among major U.S. razor manufacturers, all of whom have introduced a long-lasting but costly stainless steel product. No matter which razor gets the edge, the steelmakers of Sweden stand to benefit, for they supply the stainless steel used in 90% of the blades.

Cornering the market for the new blade steel is typical of Sweden, which has become a steel power even though its output--3,600,000 tons last year--is barely 1% of the world total. The Cartier of steel, Sweden has a reputation for quality that keeps its steelmakers expanding and operating at full blast, while U.S. and European mills are short of orders in a ruthlessly competitive market.

No Rust. Sweden's predominance stems chiefly from its high-purity native ore and its postwar development of the KALDO process, which rivals Austria's vaunted L-D process as the most important new "oxygen" method of making steel. By lacing jets of oxygen into rotating, electrically heated furnaces, KALDO produces steel of exceptionally high and uniform quality.

Stainless is created by blending the high-grade steel with chromium carbides, which toughen it, make it resistant to rust, corrosion and great heat. Sweden's steelmakers cold-roll the stainless steel to 4/1,000 in., then grind, polish and cut it into blade-wide coils before shipping it to the blademakers, who stamp and sharpen the final blade. Stainless is also indispensable in making nuclear reactors, missiles, jet engines and supersonic plane wings, as well as surgical instruments and food-processing equipment.

Prized Order. Of Sweden's 30 steelmakers, two dominate the stainless blade market. One is Sandvik Steel Works, a $100 million-a-year company that sells more than half of the world's regular razor-blade steel. Its far-traveling president, Engineer Wilhelm Haglund, 60, made several flying trips to Boston in the past year to win the prized order to become Gillette's prime supplier for stainless.

But the biggest by far is the Uddeholm Co., which originally solved the one problem besetting ordinary stainless steel: sharpening it. An Uddeholm scientist 40 years ago devised a method for aligning the chromium particles into an even pattern so that the stainless blade could be honed as keenly as carbon steel. Uddeholm sold batches of that steel to Gillette in the 1930s, but stainless blades did not catch on because shavers found them irregular in quality. A sudden and tremendous demand began a year ago, after Britain's Wilkinson Sword Ltd. brought out a blade coated with silicon plastic to make it smooth as well as sharp.* Wilkinson's steel comes from Uddeholm, which also supplies American Safety Razor and Schick. Under its research-minded president, Wilhelm Ekman, 51, Uddeholm has quadrupled its stainless blade output since 1961, now produces 80% to 90% of Sweden's stainless blade steel, and has annual sales of $109 million.

* A tip from the steel experts to those shavers who take a sporting glee in eking out as many shaves as possible from a single blade: rinse but never wipe the blade, because that removes the silicon coat and causes the razor to snag on the beard.

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