Hand made Damascus Straight Razors off ebay good?

[zammboss]

been seeing some "hand made" blades under 50$ on ebay. Can you trust that they are actually good Damascus steel blades?

 

[johnmrson]

No, they are junk. There is a reason that a real Damascus costs about $1000.

 

[zammboss]

figured that. just thought maybe someone was selling something they did not know was worth the price.

 

[Bayamontate]

Junk is correct.

I have been sent several for honing, while some may take an edge after a lot of work none will hold that edge very long, maybe one pass if you are lucky. They suffer from severe micro-chipping as well.

 

[DogHair]

I'm surprised they are still being sold. I assume it's the same guy?

 

[Buddel]

If you will take 25 from this "masterpieces" from the producer in Pakistan this is the pricelist. What do you think about the qualitiy

 

[SliceOfLife]

If the scales weren't so stupidly huge, I would have paid that for some of the bone or horn scales back when I restored a ton of razors. But they're so damn big and weird shaped that the prospect of stropping a razor in them was unappealing. I wish he'd make some normal-sized and shaped razors so we could steal scales off them, because honestly the scales quality doesn't look terrible (from the eBay pics).

 

[Legion]

That is actually interesting. I'm quite sure they are rubbish for shaving, but I wonder if someone who was handy could re purpose the Damascus blades into something else. Damascus cigar cutter, anyone?

If they are actually pattern welded steel it might be worth playing with a few on the grinder. Just an idea.

 

[chuckr9]

I got one on the bay and after 2-1/2 hours of bevel setting got an excellent shave out of it. However, the next time I tried to use it the edge was in need of a full TU (very brittle steel). Thus I would not recommend one for anything other than display (they do look nice!).