Is there some kind of folk magic to nailing razor blades to the wall?

Factual Questions
1

Okay, I know this is kind of a crazy question, but it’s the only hypothesis I could come up with that fits. We’re trying to fix up a retail space my boyfriend rented for his business, and the place was evidently rented for decades by absolutely crazy people. The building is from the 50’s, and was occupied since I can remember by a sewing machine store. In other words, I assume it was owned by old Southern ladies.

So we get in there and we find wacky-ass wiring, and ugly wallpaper, and bathrooms that you’d really have to see to believe, and storerooms that to me look exactly like where they take you to torture you before they disappear you. And we find… razor blades. There’s one that’s nailed very precisely to a framing member - right in the middle, through the middle hole, precisely centered. There are numbers pencilled in on the walls everywhere, so I don’t know if this is significant, but right over that razor blade there’s 7-78 (maybe August of 1978?).

We also find razor blades, like, everywhere else (but not nailed down.) I’m not talking about the insides of walls, like I’ve heard some people finding which means there was a “razor blade drop” in the wall where you just dispose of your blades by chucking them into the wall. These aren’t closed in walls. There are just, like, secret razor blades. On girders and stuff.

So everybody is coming up with theories about Gladys and Ethel and their husbands, the self-styled electricians. But the only one that makes even remote sense is mine, which is that it’s some sort of women-magic. (Hell, my dad honestly, in the back of his head, believes that if you dig a hole in the wrong phase of the moon you either get too little or too much dirt.) Can anybody offer an explanation, thatwise or other?

2

No folk magic I know of. Perhaps having something magnetic that was bigger than a nail made it easier to find the studs later?

3

Wow, great guess.

However, it sounds like Hoodoo to me.

4

What planet is this building on, where August is the seventh month? See, here on Earth, it’s July that’s the seventh month.

Oh, wait, you said 1978, right? Never mind.

No seriously, never mind. I’ve said too much already.

5

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
Okay, I know this is kind of a crazy question, but it’s the only hypothesis I could come up with that fits. We’re trying to fix up a retail space my boyfriend rented for his business, and the place was evidently rented for decades by absolutely crazy people. The building is from the 50’s, and was occupied since I can remember by a sewing machine store. In other words, I assume it was owned by old Southern ladies.

So we get in there and we find wacky-ass wiring, and ugly wallpaper, and bathrooms that you’d really have to see to believe, and storerooms that to me look exactly like where they take you to torture you before they disappear you. And we find… razor blades. There’s one that’s nailed very precisely to a framing member - right in the middle, through the middle hole, precisely centered. There are numbers pencilled in on the walls everywhere, so I don’t know if this is significant, but right over that razor blade there’s 7-78 (maybe August of 1978?).

We also find razor blades, like, everywhere else (but not nailed down.) I’m not talking about the insides of walls, like I’ve heard some people finding which means there was a “razor blade drop” in the wall where you just dispose of your blades by chucking them into the wall. These aren’t closed in walls. There are just, like, secret razor blades. On girders and stuff.

So everybody is coming up with theories about Gladys and Ethel and their husbands, the self-styled electricians. But the only one that makes even remote sense is mine, which is that it’s some sort of women-magic. (Hell, my dad honestly, in the back of his head, believes that if you dig a hole in the wrong phase of the moon you either get too little or too much dirt.) Can anybody offer an explanation, thatwise or other?
[/QUOTE]

Here’s my theories:
Naturally, they would have used them for cutting thread.
OSHA includes regulation on the disposal of used razor blades.

That sort of thing would cost money, so they just started hiding them.
You could apply the same logic to writing on the walls: Why would you pay for paper when the walls are perfectly capable of doing the same operation?

6

[QUOTE=spayced]
Here’s my theories:
Naturally, they would have used them for cutting thread.
OSHA includes regulation on the disposal of used razor blades.

[/QUOTE]

Maybe, but it seems like a long shot.

Why are we discarding the plain crazy theory so quickly?

7

Hmm, it’s quite common theme in many folk beliefs to place thorns or other sharp thing on the routes that supposedly can be used by evil spirits or demons. Maybe it’s variant of that magic. Also, sharp metal objects often were seen as effective against demonic beings. Razorblades are metal, sharp, and can be easily hidden or placed on possible paths of evil forces without hindering daily use of facility.

My (somewhat educated) WAG would be that these razor blades were placed to protect house from haunting by ghosts. Are they perchance placed near windows, doors, ventilation shafts, walkways etc.?

8

[QUOTE=Dr. Drake]
No folk magic I know of. Perhaps having something magnetic that was bigger than a nail made it easier to find the studs later?
[/QUOTE]

You can find the studs by looking at them - this wall was never closed in. And it’s not actually a stud - it’s one of those little horizontal between the studs pieces. Nothing specially wiring-related - the wiring is everywhere.

Haven’t noticed that the razors are specifically at significant places (doorways, etc.) - but we haven’t been cataloging them.

9

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
And it’s not actually a stud - it’s one of those little horizontal between the studs pieces.
[/QUOTE]

They’re “Noggins” or “Dwangs” - that doesn’t help answer the puzzle, but hey

10

[QUOTE=Capt B. Phart]
They’re “Noggins” or “Dwangs” - that doesn’t help answer the puzzle, but hey
[/QUOTE]

Really? Now when I yell “Hey, guys, you are not gonna believe where this wire goes!” I’ll know how to describe it. “They wound it around the dwang three times and then it goes out through a hole but back in through another hole…”

11

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
Really? Now when I yell “Hey, guys, you are not gonna believe where this wire goes!” I’ll know how to describe it. “They wound it around the dwang three times and then it goes out through a hole but back in through another hole…”
[/QUOTE]

Isn’t that a Pennsylvania Bowline? :wink:

Once, we hired a professional wallpaper hanger. As he scurried around, he kept a razor blade partly in his mouth. He needed both hands free, but he also needed the blade for trimming. He could grab it when he needed it, and when it dulled, he’d grab a new one.

That doesn’t really answer the mystery, though. It doesn’t explain the one nailed to the wall, and it doesn’t explain the ones lying on girders and such.

I just thought of something. Take one of the blades, and carefully lay it on the surface of a bowl of water. Surface tension will keep it from sinking, but if it swings around to a north-south alignment, it has been magnetized. If so, test a few more. You may have stumbled onto the former nest of some Magnetic South cultists. They’re not particularly dangerous, but other “Maggies” will detect your place, and they’ll want to come in to hold Re-alignment ceremonies, which take about 52 minutes. If you’d rather not have that, get rid of all the razor blades and have the place degaussed.

On the other hand, you could consider becoming Maggies yourselves. Overall, they’re a cheerful bunch, and they seldom get lost.

12

I had a grandmother who was deathly afraid of lightning. She never did anything with razor blades, but she had a few other things she did to prevent strikes. Could the razor blades be lightning related?

13

What, you never heard of the Razor Bunny?

He hides the blades. Kids find them. Festive merry-making (and maybe a trip or two to the emergency room) ensues.

(Hey, urban myths have to start somewhere, right?)

14

[QUOTE=Yllaria]
I had a grandmother who was deathly afraid of lightning. She never did anything with razor blades, but she had a few other things she did to prevent strikes. Could the razor blades be lightning related?
[/QUOTE]

It’s as likely as anything else. I asked a few people of various South Carolina birthplaces and races, and I did hear that you put coins on the windowsill to keep the hag out. Not the same thing, but related? (Have not found any razor blades near the windows, but there are only two windows - the big front ones.)

15

[QUOTE=Zsofia]

So we get in there and we find wacky-ass wiring, and ugly wallpaper, and bathrooms that you’d really have to see to believe, and storerooms that to me look exactly like where they take you to torture you before they disappear you. And we find… razor blades. There’s one that’s nailed very precisely to a framing member - right in the middle, through the middle hole, precisely centered. There are numbers pencilled in on the walls everywhere, so I don’t know if this is significant, but right over that razor blade there’s 7-78 (maybe August of 1978?).

We also find razor blades, like, everywhere else (but not nailed down.)
[/QUOTE]

OK, nailing down one razor blade is the what-the-heck kind of thing I might do if I happened to be holding a razor blade, a nail, and a hammer, and didn’t have anything better to do at the moment. I might even chuckle at the puzzlement of some future inhabitant such as yourself, who might find it and wonder why the hell it was there. Some of us are just cruel that way, sorry.

Numbers on the walls and several razor blades placed among the woodwork begins to look like a habit. It could just be an OCD thing. People get a strange idea sometimes and can’t shake it off, so they feel like the have to do something about it. Over and over again.

Come to think of it, the demon thing actually sounds plausible. I do seem to recall some tradition about iron having power over spirits. A person afflicted with sleep paralysis might try almost anything to alleviate it, if they didn’t find out what it was (i.e., were afraid to tell a doctor about it for fear of being locked up).

Wacky-ass wiring doesn’t sound all that surprising. It always seems to be a good idea at the moment. Likewise, all wallpaper is “what were they thinking?” ugly after a few years (or sooner, often much sooner). Then somebody calls it “retro” and it’s pretty again.

Since I have to see the bathrooms to believe them, I guess I don’t believe them. I probably never will.

As for that wooden crosspiece, I thought that was called a firestop, but it doesn’t do much good if there’s no wallboard.

16

[QUOTE=mwbrooks]
Come to think of it, the demon thing actually sounds plausible. I do seem to recall some tradition about iron having power over spirits. A person afflicted with sleep paralysis might try almost anything to alleviate it, if they didn’t find out what it was (i.e., were afraid to tell a doctor about it for fear of being locked up).
[/QUOTE]
You’re right. In his book on the subject, David Hufford mentions that driving a knife into the bedpost is a traditional fix for sleep paralysis; knife = sharp iron object = razor; bedpost = stable wooden household object = dwang. I think this is a sensible suggestion.

17

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
we haven’t been cataloging them.
[/QUOTE]

Heh.

18

[QUOTE=puppygod]
Hmm, it’s quite common theme in many folk beliefs to place thorns or other sharp thing on the routes that supposedly can be used by evil spirits or demons. Maybe it’s variant of that magic. Also, sharp metal objects often were seen as effective against demonic beings. Razorblades are metal, sharp, and can be easily hidden or placed on possible paths of evil forces without hindering daily use of facility.

My (somewhat educated) WAG would be that these razor blades were placed to protect house from haunting by ghosts. Are they perchance placed near windows, doors, ventilation shafts, walkways etc.?
[/QUOTE]

That’s more or less what I came into the thread to post.

19

From Frazer’s The Golden Bough [abridged one-volume ed.], pp. 262-3:

"This superstitious objection to iron perhaps dates from that early time in the history of society when iron was still a novelty, and as such was viewed by many with suspicion and dislike…

The general dislike of innovation, which always makes itself strongly felt in the sphere of religion, is sufficient by itself to account for the superstitious aversion to iron entertained by kings and priests and attributed by them to the gods… Their antipathy to the metal furnishes men with a weapon which may be turned against the spirits when occasion serves. As their dislike of iron is supposed to be so great that they will not approach persons and things protected by the obnoxious metal, iron may obviously be employed as a charm for banning ghosts and other dangerous spirits. And often it is so used. Thus in the Highlands of Scotland the great safeguard against the elfin race is iron, or, better yet, steel. The metal in any form, whether as a sword, a knife, a gun-barrel, or what not, is all-powerful for this purpose. Whenever you enter a fairy dwelling you should always remember to stick a piece of steel, such as a knife, a needle, or a fish-hook, in the door; for then the elves will not be able to shut the door till[sic] you come out again… A knife or nail in your pocket is quite enough to prevent the fairies from lifting you up at night. Nails in the front of the bed ward off elves from women “in the straw” and from their babes; but to make quite sure it is better to put the smoothing iron under the bed, and the reaping-hook in the window… Music discoursed on a Jew’s harp keeps the elfin women away from the hunter, because the tongue of the instrument is of steel…"

20

[QUOTE=KneadToKnow]
Heh.
[/QUOTE]

<snerk> I didn’t even notice that I wrote that. (I believe that would be “realia.”)