Straight Razor use as a weapon?

Often, people ask me "isn't a straight razor a deadly weapon?". I tell them, "so is a road flare".

I wouldn't think that a str8 would be a very effective weapon, except if the victim him/herself were unarmed. In that case, so is a 2x4.

Haven't a few mobsters lost their lives in a barber's chair at the hands of a member of an opposing gang?

In that position, you could also get the guy with an ice pick, a kitchen knife, a beer bottle, a brick, a hammer, a crow bar, a random rock a golf club, even a fountain pen if you use it right.

There's many potentially deadly weapons around. Life is full of danger.

http://www.martialbladeconcepts.com/reviews.htm

Looks interesting.

~John

A straight razor would be a weapon of last resort. Brass knuckles would be more useful, in my opinion. A razor hitting anything hard with force will be broken to near uselessness and that would include hitting a bone, a metal snap, a wristwatch, etc. In a struggle, I imagine it would be broken after the first slash if a slashing cut was even made before breaking. A Barber's use Wedge might be the exception to that, but the edge would certainly be trashed very quickly.

Razors are not weapons, although I suppose they could be used as one just like a car antenna, trash can lid, broken piece of glass, beer bottle and all sorts of other things can be used as a weapon.

A good knife is a real weapon. I've got a whole bunch of razor laying around the house all over the place. I don't worry about some intruder using one against me and I certainly don't have any plans of reaching for one in home defense. I've got real weapons for that. I also don't carry a razor out. A good knife takes up about as much space as a razor if you plan to carry and would be useful for a lot of things, self-defense being the least likely of all all those things.

I can remember my grandmother having one in her purse when I was young. I had asked her about it, and she told me was "you never know when it will come in handy"





David

I carried one when I was a teenager and worked and hung around with friends on Grimsby Docks ( it was damn rough and violent place in a fishing town), It isn't something I'm proud of 30 years on; So this post is merely to show how dangerous it can be.

I was a 'pretty boy' back then which casued problems for me in the bars and after being involved in a few fights with drunk fisherman and dockers, when I 'd had knives and saps used against me, I decided to I needed something as a last ditch weapon for self defence, an older 'teddy boy' suggested and showed different ways of useing the straight razor - so I started carrrieing it in 2 small elastic loops stitched under the collar of my jacket .

It could be reached really quickly, deployed by a spin of my wrist and a forward flip brought it against my opponents body. I practiced the move hundreds of times and used it twice.
both situations stopped me being killed; once where a fisherman had me against a wall, with a filleting knife to my face and me gripping his knife wrist, the razor went through his jacket and jumper and into his forearm to the bone, he let go and I ran to get away from him leaving the razor wedged in his arm and the second time was when a drunk docker tried to drown me and got a slashed open wrist for his troubles .

There's a song Jimmie Rodgers recorded around 1930, "Gambling Barroom Blues"
"I reached down for my razor and then we knocked around. Then, I pulled my pistol and quickly smoked him down."
I'd say most of the blade fighting, however, was done with knives. Most of the instances of razor slashing I've read about have been done on people who weren't in a situation to fight back.

Look at this video regarding the razor as a weapon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s7zMyr_jVg