Silver steel is common tool steel that is supplied as a centerless ground round bar (with tolerances similar to that of drill bit). The name comes from the highly polished appearance of the rods; there is no silver in the alloy.
In the annealed state it has a hardness of 27 HRC. It can be hardened to 64 HRC.
The composition is defined by the British Standard BS-1407.
The European/Werkstoff equivalent is 1.2210 / 115CrV3, which also includes some vanadium.
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.