Any opinions about these damascus steel straight razors on Ebay? Very cool looking, but how hard are they to get a shave ready edge, and what did you use to put edge on?
New Damascus steel Straight Razor
- Thread starter gonzo4str8rzrs
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Just my opinion.....never buy a razor unless you are sure you know who made it and you are sure they are reputable. There is a lot of cool looking junk out there. As always, "if the deal looks too good to be true, it probably is". Caveat emptor.
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- #4
I have a good friend who hones and sharpens many knives. I am hoping he can make it happen for an edge. If not, It did not cost me much to have a cool looking Razor I can take and post pictures of at least. LOL
I have 2. Neither of which I have been able to shave with.
One had an elaborated horn set of scales. Looking really cool, but really big (and I am not one to complain about heavy scaled).
Anyway, those scales are useless as the blade was not mounted straight in it and thus bangs on it every time I close it.
The blade itself was real Damascus. I can tell as I had to hone the spine severely to get to an angle I could set a bevel on.
I might be able to hone and shave with it now that the bevel is set, but I have not bothered as the blade would get ruined right away due to its misplacement.
That one I paid about $50, and I think it was shipped from the UK.
The second one I did not bother working much on it as the first time I started it on a stone, the water washed out some of the Damascus pattern.
That one I paid about $25 and got it in France.
That's the sum of my experience so far.
One had an elaborated horn set of scales. Looking really cool, but really big (and I am not one to complain about heavy scaled).
Anyway, those scales are useless as the blade was not mounted straight in it and thus bangs on it every time I close it.
The blade itself was real Damascus. I can tell as I had to hone the spine severely to get to an angle I could set a bevel on.
I might be able to hone and shave with it now that the bevel is set, but I have not bothered as the blade would get ruined right away due to its misplacement.
That one I paid about $50, and I think it was shipped from the UK.
The second one I did not bother working much on it as the first time I started it on a stone, the water washed out some of the Damascus pattern.
That one I paid about $25 and got it in France.
That's the sum of my experience so far.
If water washed out the Damascus pattern it's not Damascus
Just remember that sharpening a knife is way different than sharpening a razor in terms of bevel angle and grit stones. I've heard countless stories of knife sharpeners trashing a nice razor because of improper honing.
I remember reading somewhere that the process of making Damascus steel has been lost through the ages. Most patterned steel sold today as "Damascus" is just that, patterned steel and was not produced using the ancient process.
Yes, that is why I did not bother honing it.
It is not lost. The raw materials are harder to get and it is not simple to do. Simple pattern welding a steel cable or chain saw blade is much simpler and many don't know the difference.
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- #12
Great feedback gents
Plus, once the knife sharpening friend starts fooling with straights we will gain another convert.
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- #14
He hones many razors, but also hones and sharpens knives.
I think this was the article I read
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/29/science/the-mystery-of-damascus-steel-appears-solved.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/29/science/the-mystery-of-damascus-steel-appears-solved.html
+1. A friend had his SR sharpened by one of those self professed sharpening gurus and asked me to try a pick up the pieces afterwards. After several hours, I was able to make it shave-ready, but the razor was practically ruined as far as looks go.
You are correct about modern Damascus. A lot of times it described as PWS (pattern welded steel)
It all about the aesthetics, that's it.
A guy that knows a ton more about steel then me broke it down like this....
Damascus steel came about because there wasn't enough really good steel available. So they took the really good steel and mixed it with their not so good steel. That gave them enough OK steel to make what they needed.
That about sums it... it came out of necessity, there is not magic to it
Isn't that the same process that the Japanese used for Samurai blades?
Similar. The Samurai method (also used for a lot of Japanese knives) uses forge-welded layers of two different steels - a very hard (but brittle) steel in the centre to take and hold the edge, and softer steel each side to provide support and strength against breaking.
You are correct about modern Damascus. A lot of times it described as PWS (pattern welded steel)
It all about the aesthetics, that's it.
A guy that knows a ton more about steel then me broke it down like this....
Damascus steel came about because there wasn't enough really good steel available. So they took the really good steel and mixed it with their not so good steel. That gave them enough OK steel to make what they needed.
That about sums it... it came out of necessity, there is not magic to it
These are both true. By folding the steel and banging on it over and over, you knock out a lot of the impurities that the steel has. This was much more of an issue back before the industrial revolution, of course. The pattern welded, Damascus look was a by-product of this process, not the desired outcome. The Japanese and the Persians were just making the best from the materials at hand. Pretty patterns to sell a knife or razor is a modern invention.
The laminated steel the Japanese used for swords (and is still used in nice kitchen knives) is a different process, aimed at keeping the properties of different types of steel where they are best utilised. That is the hard cutting steel in the core, surrounded buy softer, more flexible (and usually cheaper) stuff.
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