Can you hone & use a "practice" str8 razor?

[wquiles]

I picked up a practice str8 razor (which of course is not sharpened), which should be cool to show my young son to do a fake shave with. But I am also wondering if these are hardened like "real" str8 razors, and therefore suitable for actual shaving once honed. So besides being blunt/un-sharpened, what else is different between these are the "real" thing?

Here is how it looks like:

 

[ANeat]

Thats pretty cool, tough to tell if it was hardened or not short of running a file across it somewhere. Depending on what the company that manufactured it did. At some point it got "practice razor" stamped on it. But after that did it continue on thru the process with 1000 other blades being seperated out at the grinding/sharpening stage? Did they just run a batch of practice razors from time to time and just get the shape, use less expensive steel possibly??

Who knows, someone here might,,,,,

 

[wquiles]

Two more close-ups:

 

[Legion]

I think these were used by apprentice barbers to learn the movements without cutting the heck out of the model. I don't think they are designed to be sharpened and used. One way to find out, though...

 

[wquiles]

OK, thanks. I am in no hurry to try it - I want my son to see if he likes the "fake" shaving - but if/when I try it, I will report back