Reminds me of butchers steels when I was working beef kill... Sheffield steel, a pipe steel, is the pinnacle of knife sharpening for a slaughterman. Fdick used to be good steel too but it's all Chinese garbage now. Even the knives are trash. Only good for gutting niggers.That's how I feel about old school British (Reynolds) steel vs aluminum, carbon fiber, titanium, chinesium, etc. The older British steel isn't so hard or brittle that it can't be worked on and the weight savings over 80yrs of "improvement" with newer materials for frame tubing still only amount to a couple lbs (alot if you're just talking about frame weight, but not much in the grand scheme of things) which a human being could just diet away if it actually mattered to them. Reynolds 531 is still technically in use (520, 525, and 725 are all the same composition as 531 which has been around since the 1950s, theyre just treated differently) , all the thinner, newer, "better" metals are hardened to the point that they cant really be worked on or repaired when damaged because its all too brittle and re heating it lessens the life span (especially near the joints of welded or brazed framework) and starts the countdown toward material failure. Older steel can be cold worked and is only heavier because the tubing gauges are thicker, the material itself isn't heavier. Carbon is a death trap, no carbon is meant to last or able to last indefinitely in the way that 70+ year old steel can. Aluminum is shit, it doesn't rust, but it's still shit. Titanium is expensive and difficult to work with for the same reasons the "better" steels are. 531 has been used in everything from airplane parts to car chassis to bicycle frames for a reason.
Ever see one of these, grab it. You'll be able to sell it to literally anyone in the meat industry at a premium ($200) who knows their shit. The wooden handle has to go but it's easily replaced.

