Thread: Why are Damascus steel razors so expensive?

Originally Posted by Philadelph

That's actually a very poor, misinformed answer and I hope no member's take it as fact.

The truth is, as others have explained, that a LOT more goes into making the STEEL in itself than using a non-patterned steel. I have personally MADE damascus from scratch, and after allllll the hours, sweat, mistakes, and effort that went in it didn't even look that good. Once you have stood in front of the forge with the billet red-hot and then hammered and twisted the steel time after time (I'm leaving out a lot of steps here) you will TRULY understand why damascus is expensive. After I made those 2 billets (taught by someone who makes it regularly) I decided that I'd never want to make my own again rather than paying someone else to make it for me. It's really an intensive process that is sadly dismissed too often by those who have no idea.

On the contrary, sir. Yours is a common economic misconception. All that you say is well and good, but misses the fundamental microeconomic point. The effort that the maker puts into the product - the labor, the skill, the quality of the materials - none of this directly determines its value in the marketplace. Only the customer can do that. If the seller can convince a potential customer to accept his own valuation of the razor's worth, then so much the better for him. Possibly the potential customer will base his valuation on other aspects entirely, such as the fact that it was made in a particular country (USA! USA! USA!), and assign an extra value that the seller does not consider (or the reverse, which was a point of contention about the Hart razor). But possibly the potential customer will value such things differently than the seller does, in which case the seller must adjust his own valuation to match. Possibly uncomfortably lower, possibly gloriously higher. But there is nonetheless only a very imperfect match between the labor, skill, and material that goes into a product, and the value attached to that product. We see this all the time with guys griping about the cost of razors on ebay, or the cost of gillette razors, or the cost of Penhaligons shaving soap. While this may be an uncomfortable thing for a proud craftsman to think about, it is nonetheless a fact. It is possible that the two cannot agree on a common valuation, and the craftsman gets to admire his work sitting on his mantlepiece, and comfort himself that it is at least being appreciated properly by someone who truly understands it. But that doesn't pay the bills, nor does it mean that his valuation is the "correct" one, merely that he values his pride more than paying the bills.

To the extent that the damascus makers have succeeded in convincing their customers to value the labor and skill involved, they can charge a premium for their razors that is not justified by the actual shaving qualities. But there are other reasons to value damascus highly (aesthetics), as well as reasons to devalue it (layer transitions at the edge, higher maintenance to preserve those aesthetics, etc) which have nothing to do with skill or labor, and I would guess that few of the people on this forum who have ponied up for a damascus razor have the sort of appreciation for what goes into making it that you do, which makes yours an inadequate description for what establishes the value of damascus razors.

Originally Posted by red96ta

Filis are expensive not because they contain some magical quality, it's just because people will pay that much for them. Supply and demand.

Yep. The value of a Fili has very little to do with the cost to produce them, nor does the value of a dubl duck, nor the value of a Hart, or TI, or Dovo, or Livi. They are worth what they are, because people for a variety of reasons are willing to pay it. Rarity, coolness, investment potential, SRAD, whatever. But very little of it has anything to do with whatever went into the manufacture of those razors.