Sharpening Double Edge Blades

I was talking with one of my old friends who was a young man during World War II. I was telling him about how stropping a disposable razor against your forearm definitely works and makes the blade last much longer and he told me this story. During the war, steel was in short supply so they had to make things like double edge blades for their safety razors last. He said what they did was take a small juice glass and put the blade in the glass. Then they would press down on the thin blade to give it a slight curve and rubbed it back and forth about ten times inside the glass. He said it worked like a charm.

They did make little curved hones like thisAttachment 154018
for sharpening DE-blades but I don't know if they'd be very effective on modern DE-blades.

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Originally Posted by Baxxer

They did make little curved hones like this
for sharpening DE-blades but I don't know if they'd be very effective on modern DE-blades.

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Got one of those kicking around somewhere from the father in-law but never tried it. I think back in the dirty 30's people tried running it around the inside of a glass, according to my dad. Also heard of them stropping DE blades on the forearm, palm of the hand or pants. Must be other ways and gadgets too. Don't know if it would do much good with today's coated blades though.

Bob

I have a couple of DE blade sharpeners, mechanical though. One is a Kriss Kross circular in shape, it holds the blade and picks it up and flips it on a piece of leather while you crank it. The other one I have is very small and is mechanical also, you lay the blade in it, close it up like a book and move a handle back and fourth. But as everyone has said they don't work with modern DE blades and their coating's. I've had success palm stropping a modern DE blade, it seems to extend the blade life by removing the gunk you can't see, for a couple of more shaves.

Very cool to have someone to talk to about this stuff who actually had to use this equipment!