Thread: Did the "Seven Day" sets have a function or were those a fad?

A thing to put in perspective is that "semainiers", or weekly sets, were not only made for razors, but for other kind of things as well.
The main usage for the word "semainier" in French designate a kind of dresser with seven drawers, so that you have a set of clothes for every day.
Then you can also find wax seals weekly sets.

I think in some case it went along some kind of "ritualized" kind of life. You can find sets in wich there are only 5 to 6 razors (because people would not shave on saturday and/or sunday)

I wonder just how "expensive" they were for the times? They were just razors after all.

They were OH MY GOD DAMN ARE YOU SERIOUS ? expensive.
We are talking times were a good tool was bought for life, and as much as possible given to your sons. Owning only one razor have been, at some times, a kind of prestige.

But more than that, while fans and ball notebooks were all the rage for the ladies, well, as far as vanity items go, men had a more reduced choice.
Therefore, some sets were sold as "expensive presents", like wedding presents for example, never to be used in their whole life for how precious they were. Some of these razors were, for example, sold in the arcades of the Palais Royal in France, for the visitors to the court of the French king in the early 19th century.

As for weekly sets being made for dignitaries or persons going abroad, I would not be so sure.
When you look at the French "necessaires" (be they necessaire de voyage (travel), or necessaire d'officier (army officer), they seldom have more than two razors.

Has there ever been any kind of empirical analysis of this? It isn't totally implausible that the very apex, after being deformed in shaving, might recover somewhat over time due to memory effects/elasticity in the steel.

Steel does have a memory and microscopically wants to go back to the original shape. You must remember that the actual cutting fin/edge, can only be seen with magnification of more than 1000 power.

To this day, Dovo recommends letting a razor rest for 48 hours to allow the burr to realign itself.

From the Dovo web site.

“We recommend that you store the straight razor in a well-ventilated place, as this is the best way to protect the metal from tarnishing or oxidation. Since the burr of the straight razor bends slightly during shaving, leave the straight razor to rest for 48 hours. During this time, the burr can realign itself”

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Steel does have a memory and microscopically wants to go back to the original shape. You must remember that the actual cutting fin/edge, can only be seen with magnification of more than 1000 power.

To this day, Dovo recommends letting a razor rest for 48 hours to allow the burr to realign itself.

From the Dovo web site.

“We recommend that you store the straight razor in a well-ventilated place, as this is the best way to protect the metal from tarnishing or oxidation. Since the burr of the straight razor bends slightly during shaving, leave the straight razor to rest for 48 hours. During this time, the burr can realign itself”

I'm going to have to question that. Steel springs back instantly if it is not bent to the point of deformation. If it is bent to the point of deformation, then I don't think that it will slowly repair itself. Granted, it is incredibly thin at this point, so it may behave slightly differently. But I doubt it.

If anything, I would say that they edge gets worse as it is stored due to oxidation and contamination. I always strop before I use a razor and after I use a razor. Strop before use to clean up the edge. Remove any dust or debris that may have accumulated as well as repair any damage that may have occurred. Strop after using the razor because you know darn well that you have now caused damage to the edge from cutting all that hair. If you strop after using the razor, then you have straightened the burr. I see absolutely no point in letting it "rest".

No one is saying that the edge will completely repair itself.

“Steel springs back instantly if it is not bent to the point of deformation.”
We are talking about a fin of metal that you can not see without 1000x magnification. Why would the fin not spring back?

Ask a machinist if metal moves. They will tell you the heat from your hands can alter a precision measurement from touching the tool or metal to be measured. As it cools it will return to the original size.

On a molecular level a lot is going on in steel that we do not, fully understand and some we do and can predict.

I do not know if anyone has documented the movement of a razor fin or can explain exactly if and why there is movement. But that is the mystery of honing, because we cannot see what happens in real time as a razor is honed or stropped.

So, is it possible? Yes, maybe.

We have a pretty good idea, but until relatively recently we did not even know what an edge looked like. (Experiments on Knife Sharpening. John D. Verhoeven, 2004)

"[I]Has there ever been any kind of empirical analysis of this? It is not totally implausible that the very apex, after being deformed in shaving, might recover somewhat over time due to memory effects/elasticity in the steel.[/I"]

No studies on fin re-alignment, that I am aware of.

We are talking about a fin of metal that you can not see without 1000x magnification. Why would the fin not spring back?

I think that it could spring back if it was not taken to the point of deformation, but I would guess that it happens right away. I would be surprised if it took overnight or 48 hours as Dovo says.

Ask a machinist if metal moves. They will tell you the heat from your hands can alter a precision measurement from touching the tool or metal to be measured. As it cools it will return to the original size.

I'm fully aware of this as I have been making and heat treating knives for 30 years now. Not to mention the 20 years I spent in the maintenance departments of heavy industrial manufacturing where we "heat fit" steel parts all the time. Twelve of those years were in a metal foundry/mill. We alloyed, cast, heat treated, aged and work hardened metal. I have never seen steel move due to "resting". I have seen it move due to temperature change though, but that is temperature related not time related.

When I was working in the factory making metal, we would artificially "age" it. This was the process of making it harder by speeding up the aging process (not to be confused with hardening and tempering). So letting metal "rest" can change its molecular structure (as in its hardness). That is well known in the metal industry. However, I have never seen it change shape by resting.

It would be fun to see if the fin re-aligns itself over time. I agree that it is possible, but my guess is that he fin moves considerably more due to temperature. Trying to correlate any movement to time, while excluding temperature variation, would prove to be challenging. Other factors such as temperature, oxidation, contamination, physical abuse (getting bumped) are going to have way more impact on the edge of a razor than time. Hence the reason to strop before and after each use.

I would be confident in saying that if you stropped your razor before and after each use, then you could use it every day (or multiple times a day if you were an old time barber) and not have to buy a second one in order to allow them to "rest" between uses.