Thread: Uranium Glass hone?

Is anyone here familiar with the following:
URANIUM GLASS RAZOR BLADE SHARPENER LILLICRAPS HONE - eBay, Barber Shop, Shaving, Vanity, Perfume, Shaving, Collectables. (end time 01-Aug-10 16:41:28 AEST)

Says it is a razor sharpener. How does it work? Is it radioactive? Does anyone have one?
I really like unusual items, and this struck me as such.

That's an old razor blade sharpening, for sharpening disposable blades (like a DE blade) and not a straight razor. I think the way it works is you put the blade in the curved part and push it back and forth, up and down, then sides like it's riding a half-pipe.

Don't try and use it on a straight razor! And as far as it being uranium....I'm sure it's just glass that's reactive to UV light. I don't think they would've gotten away with selling radioactive blade sharpeners!

+1, I think thats how they're used.

The uranium thing is a marketing gimmick, a bit like makers producing magnetic blades that were supposed to give better shaves.

This glass is also called Vaseline glass and it really DOES contain 2% Uranium Dioxide. It is slightly radioactive but has been proven safe.

Vaseline Glass Collectors, Inc.

Originally Posted by aroliver59

This glass is also called Vaseline glass and it really DOES contain 2% Uranium Dioxide. It is slightly radioactive but has been proven safe.

Vaseline Glass Collectors, Inc.

Really? That's neat and unexpected! Very cool.

Radioactivity was very chic back in the 1920s. There were actually mass-marketed bottled waters with radium added, for health (!!), and you could buy radioisotope-lined water coolers. This trend went on until a wealthy New York mogul had his jaw fall off.


Kind of like "Doctors smoke Camels for better health" in the '50s. Can't wait to see what we know about antioxidants and tofu in another 50 years!

Wouldnt that be ironic? Tofu being more toxic than arsenic or something..?

Here's just two of the uranium glass items i have

cool i think

ian

Originally Posted by Stubear

Wouldnt that be ironic? Tofu being more toxic than arsenic or something..?

There's that old Woody Allen movie, sleepers I think where he wakes up 100 years later and everyone smokes cigarettes and eat high fat high sugar food because they found its good for you and all the low fat and health food really kills you. There's also a scene where he finds his old car a VW Beetle and after 100 years of sitting there he just gets in turns the key and it starts right up and he drives off.

Originally Posted by aroliver59

This glass is also called Vaseline glass and it really DOES contain 2% Uranium Dioxide. It is slightly radioactive but has been proven safe.

Vaseline Glass Collectors, Inc.

Proven safe is a reach.
The hazard is minimal but not zero.
Uranium itself is not a serious gamma emitter
it is the uranium daughter products that are. But
bound in glass they are bound together.

If you have one behind glass in the shave den I do not see
any problem. If you had one and kept it in your pocket
I would scold you.

A collector with fifty+ lined up on shelves in a
study that shares a wall with the kids room
I would scold you.

At one time a common ceramic glaze obtained
its bright orange color from uranium. It was found
to fog film quickly and is no longer a legal ceramic glaze.
I have measured some years ago and they are rather
radioactive. I would not keep these ceramics in my house.

As other noted they are hones for DE razor blades
and the uranium does not add anything to its functionality
as a sharpener. It is a beautiful color and yes I want one.

Glass DE sharpeners were common and clean or with
a touch of chalk dust paste could sharpen the old
blue blades.

As for glass sharpeners a plate glass surface with
a thin layer of diamond/ CeOx/ CrOx, AlOx or other
well classified fine abrasive paste can be used to hone
razors. Material on the order of 2 micron or less should
make a fine hone suspended in vaseline or olive oil.