The best scissors, penknives, razors and lancets are made of cast steel. Table knives, plane irons and chisels of a very superior kind are made of shear steel, while common steel is wrought up into ordinary cutlery.

In making razors, the workman, being furnished with a bar of cast steel, forges his blade from it. After being brought into true shape by filing, the blade is exposed to a cherry-red heat and instantly quenched in cold water. The blade is then tempered by first brightening one side and then heating it over a fire free from flame and smoke, until the bright surface acquires a straw color (or it may be tempered differently). It is again quenched, and is then ready for being ground and polished