Thread: Cheap Razors

In my local pawnshop today and noticed he had a stack of straights made in Pakistan 1.99 each. They are probably not hardened correctly, but would make a good practice tool for stropping/honing. Or the scales are crappy and could be a good platform to practice rescaling. Thought about getting 1 or 3 to dink around with. What do you guys think?

Good practice for rescaling: Sure.
Good practice for honing: Don't waste your time.

You could make a good cheese slicer out of them though!

Seriously though, the Pakistani blades are worth every penny you pay for them. Sometimes. Most of the time, they're not worth your time to even pick up.

Two words: Letter opener.

Originally Posted by EMC45

In my local pawnshop today and noticed he had a stack of straights made in Pakistan 1.99 each. They are probably not hardened correctly, but would make a good practice tool for stropping/honing. Or the scales are crappy and could be a good platform to practice rescaling. Thought about getting 1 or 3 to dink around with. What do you guys think?

Skip it.

They aren't worth practicing with because they are sharp enough to hurt a strop but since they can't be shaved with you will never know if you are practicing correctly or just building bad habits. As far as honing, again how will you know if you are doing it correctly if the blade is incapable of getting sharper. You would get just as effective a practice using a Popsicle stick and at least then you'd get to enjoy the Popsicle first.

stropping and honing are overmystified. Just get a decent razor and start honing and stropping. You'll learn fast. You don't need to practice.

Originally Posted by loueedacat

stropping and honing are overmystified. Just get a decent razor and start honing and stropping. You'll learn fast. You don't need to practice.

I agree with you on this. I'm a newbie. I bought 4 new razors and had the first one pre sharpened. The other 3 are just as sharp after reading a lot and not rushing it. As a matter of fact. The one that shaves the best is a Dovo 5/8 blackstar that I sharpened myself.

I got the Norton 4000/8000 and the Shapton M5 12000. Watched Lynn's DVD and honed the razors. Not much practice needed.

Feedback is all important – if you don’t feel success in a razor that allows you to actually shave, you will just go away ****ed off. Most of the cheap Pakistani and 440 Surgical Grade Stainless just will not sharpen even if you are good at the game. Unfair of a newbie to subject one’s self to those kind of odds. Get a couple VINTAGE cheapies on E-Bay to learn with, you will do fine. A little staining and some pitting will kill value for a collector, but will let you pick up a most adequately sharpen able piece of steel.

Originally Posted by kahunamoose

Feedback is all important – if you don’t feel success in a razor that allows you to actually shave, you will just go away ****ed off. Most of the cheap Pakistani and 440 Surgical Grade Stainless just will not sharpen even if you are good at the game. Unfair of a newbie to subject one’s self to those kind of odds. Get a couple VINTAGE cheapies on E-Bay to learn with, you will do fine. A little staining and some pitting will kill value for a collector, but will let you pick up a most adequately sharpen able piece of steel.

They speak the truth.