Thread: New! From Pakistan!

Originally Posted by turbine712

the forging process on the e-bay site Pretty interesting

Indeed! I like how you can hear the workers coughing because they don't have proper ventilation for the gas motor powering the metal hammer (I don't know the proper name). Knives, razors, toxic fumes, and heavy machinery that can crush every bone in your hand instantly

sorry if I sound mean spirited the damn sound of that engine gave me a headache

A true sweat shop!

I think it is called a drop forge. Imagine what it could do to your hand! Liquify it, probably. Anyway, how can it be a sweat shop..they had one fan, didn't they? No eye protection evident on anyone. Guess there is no Pakistan OSHA to regulate worker safety. None of these concerns would affect the quality of the steel however. Hope the razors take and hold a good edge. If so, I will buy one too, with only slight shame. Thanks again for taking a probable hit for the SRP team!

Wow, that process is OLD SCHOOL

Aw that wasn't so bad! A building that looks like it was built around 40AD, workers hammering steel on the dirt floor, lots of flowing robes or whatever they're called that will ignite quickly if the worker get too close to the heat, no ventilation - but there was a fan! Definitely had a fan there! Yessiree Bob! They take care of their craftsmen there!

Kidding aside, they're certainly going "old school" but I suspect it's more accurately called "on the cheap". But, that would explain why (if the blades are actually good) why they can charge so little. There's not much in the way of overhead there!

Thanks for the video link Turbine! Well Kees I suspect a lot of us are hoping for the best for you and are thankful that you're going to venture into the murky depths of Pakistani Damascus steel for us all. It sure would be nice to discover a source for Damascus that can take an edge and hold it for a loooong time - all at a very nice price.

Originally Posted by Galopede

Well Wootz and Damascus steel came from India, Pakistan originally and they sold billets to the middle east where they made swords etc, so they invented it!
Gareth

Quite right! The method of manufacture may well be old-school, but something tells me that if we saw a Japanese man in a home-forge clouting away at red-hot bit of steel many members would be swooning in ecstacy...

I do hope Kees gets a bargain, but I am doubtful about the smoothness of a simple damascus edge - meant to be a bit serrated if the pattern is all over the place, isn't it?

Looks more like pattern-welded than damascus to me - but I didn't watch the video - my Firefox browser wouldn't play it directly but wanted me to save it as a file. My PC has been hit by too many viruses for me to do that...

Maybe it will make a nice display piece.

I hope it works out. Thats a fair bit of money to throw down on a chance...

I too would be very interesting to see how this turns out
Best wishes with that

I saw one of those, but it had been rescaled with a set of wood scales and then it had a "Solingen" silver inlay glued on top of the scales a little while back on Ebay. The guy was trying to sell it as a Solingen damascus razor!


For $60, I'd have taken a flyer on it as well.






But then again, I also like Double Arrows...