Silver steel is common tool steel

Tool steel

Tool steel refers to a variety of carbon and alloy steels that are particularly well-suited to be made into tools. Their suitability comes from their distinctive hardness, resistance to abrasion, their ability to hold a cutting edge, and/or their resistance to deformation at elevated temperatures...

 that is supplied as a centerless ground round bar (with tolerances similar to that of drill rod).

Amongst other applications, it has been widely used to make such things as punches, engravers, screwdrivers. Sheffield silver steel is used in France as a blade steel for straight razors. In Finland, German silver steel was widely used for Puukko

Puukko

A puukko is a small traditional Finnish belt-knife with a single curving cutting edge and a flat back.- Design :The basic components of a puukko are a hilt and a blade along with a sheath, which can be attached to a belt. The blade is short, typically less than 100 mm.The flat back allows the...

 knives.

The composition is defined by UK specification BS-1407, and is as follows: carbon 0.95–1.25, manganese 0.25–0.45, chromium 0.35–0.45, silicon 0.40 max. In the annealed state is has a hardness of 27 HRC

Rockwell scale

The Rockwell scale is a hardness scale based on the indentation hardness of a material. The Rockwell test determines the hardness by measuring the depth of penetration of an indenter under a large load compared to the penetration made by a preload. There are different scales, denoted by a single...

. It can be hardened to 64 HRC.

The European/Werkstoff equivalent grades are 1.2210 / 115CrV3 with a composition of: carbon 1.10–1.25, manganese 0.20–0.40, chromium 0.50–0.80, silicon 0.15-0.30, vanadium 0.07-0.12