Can a Pakistani razor be sharpened for use as a knife?

A raszor that has been honed down or otherwise made such that she'll no longer be a shaver would be a better idea. I bet most people here on the forum have several of those...

CarrieM has a Timberwolf that she uses as a boxcutter, and the thing is really messed up. Soft steel and a thin blade is not a good combination for anything.

Like Holli says get an ebay junker and use it, better steel, better edge and probably cheaper in the long run. I have a couple of junk blades around here, one for boxes and electrical tape and one my wife uses for her sewing needs.

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Originally Posted by Sailor

Few reasons come to my mind why straight razor is not good for those things you mentioned.

1. The grind shape, be it wedge or hollow makes it difficult to make precise straight cuts when doing slices etc.
2. The blade is usually so thin that it wont last any harder materials than few times until you need to hone it again.

Maybe with little reshaping you could make a cool paper knife or something like, but straights are not handy in kitchen, be it Paki or any other blade.

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Sailor makes good points. A razor may not be very durable for butchering...
Unless it's a "chopper" :p Couldn't resist :)

you might as well by a 10 buck junker from Walmart, they have about the same edge retention.
F dick or Victorinox sell very well priced boning /fillet knives that will work superbly @ ~15-20 bucks.

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Originally Posted by khaos

Something I realised today is that I have a SORE need for a SHARP, precise butcher's knife. Not necessarily for skinning or carving, but for certain other parts of the animal-to-food process. Like a very large scalpel.

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Speaking of large scalpels. What about one of these from our friend 330mate

Japanese hand forged Shuzon Damascus knife & your name - eBay Carpentry, Woodworking, Tools, Tools, Hardware Locks, Collectibles. (end time 24-May-10 15:16:34 AEST)

I have a couple of straights from China and one from Pakistan, and that one is much worst than the ones from the China knives...

It would seem like it would need a lot of work to get sharp.

I want to try to make a wood carving knife from them, and the only way to make them sharp IMO is to grind the blade to get a flat bevel.

I should have bought another kind of blades for the same price...

Gilles

A razors edge is so fine that it would degrade pretty fast if you used it for anything other than shaving. The steel, especially on hollow grounds, is very thin and would wear out pretty fast.

You'd be better off getting a set of proper knives. Even a cheap knife would perform better as a knife than a cheap razor.

Back to the original question, yes !!!!

But as usual it depends on the razor...

Pakistani - Badger & Blade

In that thread, you will see how some people at B&B started a thread about shaving with them, and of course it takes a person (:fim:) from SRP to do the actual work... and then the thread died...

You are more than welcome to that POS blade that is already sharpened to shaveable (I don't guaranty it hehehe) but I am pulling the scales off of it...
PM me if you want it...

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Originally Posted by Stubear

A razors edge is so fine that it would degrade pretty fast if you used it for anything other than shaving. The steel, especially on hollow grounds, is very thin and would wear out pretty fast.

You'd be better off getting a set of proper knives. Even a cheap knife would perform better as a knife than a cheap razor.

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+1.

The razor would be beautiful--for the first few cuts. Then it would be worse than useless. Too thin a blade to hold an edge when being used to cut, rather than dragged along a surface, I think. The razor's edge would degrade so fast that you'd be re-honing every five minutes, particularly if what you're cutting up has any bones in it. Just MO, of course.

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Originally Posted by ndw76

A Pakistani razor would make a good letter opener.

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Although an actual letter opener would make for a better one.