# Why Are There Razor Blades in My Walls? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476 "2003-11-16T00:35:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/41 "2003-11-17T16:18:29Z")
What **Philster** says is so true! The stuff behind would gross you out if not actually make some of you sick. Last Thursday, I was replacing some steel casement windows in a 90 yr old house. I had on my sheilds, gloves, hat, etc… When I pulled down one frame, a pile of spiders, some live some mummified, came down on me. Talk about gross! An even bigger problem in most bathrooms is rot and mold. Often, we have to rebuild an entire wall or two and part of the floor because of the rot. As for the mold, we have test kits. If it’s the bad stuff, we hire a service to come out to take care of it. Sometimes, even the service can’t help. A friend of mine went into the hospital because of the bad mold. His house had to be virtually rebuilt. Almost every bit of flooring, drywall, etc… had to go, as did about a third of the framing. :eek: So, razors in wall? Not a huge problem. Yeah, they could’ve figured out a better way. But, with this particular solution, all that had to be done was cut a small slot. The most cost effective solution to a minor problem. ## And, now that you know they are in there, be careful. 🙂 It’s all cold and rainy today, and all I have is outside work. ☹ A builder called early today to set up a meeting to see if we want to work together. I meet him tomorrow. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![heresiarch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/42 "2003-11-17T18:23:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cdhostage \* > \*\*Why in heaven’s name would you do that? Assume your wall’s going to stand forever and the razor blades are going to never be a bother to anyone? > > Rusty razor blades are still sharp as hell. There’s no other option for a piece of steel a twentieth of an inch thick. Hey, let’s leave these in the wall! Let’s make a problem for someone in the future instead of dealing with it ourselves. I love America. \*\* Well personally, I stick razor blades in my walls so that the mice will get tetanus and die. We don’t have any mice, so I guess it’s working. ---
**Author:** ![Meemo180](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Meemo180](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meemo180)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/43 "2018-05-05T23:01:06Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I’ve got one of those slots in the medicine cabinet of my bathroom in my apartment. I had no idea what it was until a friend of mine pointed it out. My building is pretty old; I bet there’s lots of old blades back there. Insane that you still use this. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/44 "2018-05-05T23:10:56Z")
Before the thread is locked for the “empty” bump, I want to say I’m glad I saw it. Fascinating factoid I had never heard of before now. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/45 "2018-05-05T23:27:48Z")
We don’t have this in the UK, but after my wife’s parents died and we were clearing the house, we found a dozen or so tobacco tins full of rusty blades on a shelf in his shed. We took them in for recycling, but I wonder if a slot in the wall isn’t actually a better idea. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/46 "2018-05-05T23:33:48Z")
I still use mine. Safety razprs rock, and my bathroom is from 1960. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/47 "2018-05-05T23:44:07Z")
I always thought the slot in my Grannys bathroom was Gramps’ secret penny bank. As a kid I used to dream about how much money was in that wall. Gramps was so old he must have saved at least a million pennies, seemed like a lot back then. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/48 "2018-05-05T23:58:06Z")
My God! I’ve missed Torgo. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/49 "2018-05-06T00:04:10Z")
> [@Meemo180](#): > > Insane that you still use this. How sane is it that you didn’t notice that this thread was 15 years old? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/50 "2018-05-06T00:20:01Z")
Fifteen years later! I’m regularly using double-edged safety razors, but not dropping them into a slot in the medicine cabinet, because my bathroom doesn’t have a medicine cabinet. But I bet there are blades inside the wall. My previous house had them (although the medicine cabinet was newer and had no slot), and when I had the plumbers in to fix the sink, they had to extract a crap ton of blades with a magnet before they could get started. I recall there being a slot in the house I grew up in, which was built in 1977—must have been on the tail end of that practice. My dad showed me what it was for. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/51 "2018-05-06T00:34:33Z")
A few months ago, a friend of mine at work mentioned finding razor blades when he was doing some remodeling. I think the house I grew up in had the razor disposal slot (it was built in the 1950s). My current house doesn’t, but I’m old enough that I knew what my work buddy was talking about when he mentioned finding the blades. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/52 "2018-05-06T00:39:45Z")
Some airline bathrooms still have razor blade disposal slots. God only knows where they end up. [http://firesomeonetoday.com/blog/archives/2007/04/how-you-know-yo.html](http://firesomeonetoday.com/blog/archives/2007/04/how-you-know-yo.html) ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/53 "2018-05-06T01:02:49Z")
Nothing in Melbourne. Apart from the fact that it just never occurred to anyone here, drywall was a later innovation: you wouldn’t easily get a medicine cabinet or a slot /in/ hard plaster. And when I was a kid in Arizona, I lived in a house with simple cinder-block walls. No easy way to get a slot in that either. ---
**Author:** ![Toledo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@Toledo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toledo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/54 "2018-05-06T01:19:00Z")
You mentioned Motel of the Mysteries. It’s by David MacCauley, and is a wonderful send-up of archeology, lots of references to Carnavon and Carter finding King Tut’s tomb. The Motel is named Toot-n-Come-On, one of the pictures has a wall calendar on the back wall with a picture of King Tut’s mask, and so on. The more you know about the original discovery, the funnier the book is. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/55 "2018-05-06T17:03:26Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Slight hijack: are these razor blade slots used in other countries besides the US? _ **It strikes me as a very “American” idea - crude and simple but effective** _. I don’t remember seeing them in Europe, but then again I wasn’t even old enough to use razors the last time I was there. I’m sorry, but you’ve confused “America” with “Soviet Union.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/56 "2018-05-06T17:37:47Z")
> [@t-keela](#): > > Actually they did come up with a better solution. Many of the double safety razor blade came in little metal tin. You would push the new blade out with your thumb via a hole in the middle top. I’ve seen those. [They look like this](https://www.duluthtrading.com/store/product/shaving-blades-double-edge-razor-blades-59064.aspx). The new one comes out the top, and you put the used one in the bottom. To me that makes more sense than hiding them inside your wall. Or maybe not. Maybe they should have slots for other things, too–anything you don’t want to deal with, or for people to find in the trash: old love letters, unused prescription drugs, empty booze bottles, etc. A new way to sweep things under the carpet. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/57 "2018-05-06T17:45:32Z")
Move the slot every 20 years and eventually, you have a low wall of armor to hide behind in the event of a home invasion. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![pmwgreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@pmwgreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pmwgreen)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/58 "2018-05-06T18:17:23Z")
I just find this all fascinating. Was this a new question in 2003? Had anybody asked it before? At some point everyone in America must have known about that slot. Did people forget? ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/59 "2018-05-06T20:24:43Z")
I use the razor slot in my chest to hold those disposable nail files. So far, I’ve lost maybe 3 down into the void in the year we’ve been here. Not the brightest idea I’ve ever had. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476/60 "2018-05-06T20:35:57Z")
My house was built in the 1970s and there is a slot for razorblades in the back of the medicine cabinet. I’ve never used it, since I use pink disposable shavers, but I knew what it was for. Since the only previous owner of the house was also a single lady, I have no idea if there are in fact any razorblades down inside the wall. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-razor-blades-in-my-walls/213476.md?page=4)