Thread: Sharpening

Score!

Whaddya know...two of 'em, back to back!

There's an antique shop near me that has some kind of sharpener, I've never seen one like it. It looks like a fishing reel. You slide out a little clamp, put in the blade, put the clamp back into the device, and turn the handle. The clamp spins around inside the device which has hones or maybe leather on the inside wall.

Originally Posted by ChesterCopperpot

There's an antique shop near me that has some kind of sharpener, I've never seen one like it. It looks like a fishing reel. You slide out a little clamp, put in the blade, put the clamp back into the device, and turn the handle. The clamp spins around inside the device which has hones or maybe leather on the inside wall.

There were all kinds of gizmos made to extend the life of disposable blades. Modern DE blades are a different animal. They are thinner and depend on coatings to do the job because the actual blade quality and edge quality is inferior to the vintage stuff. So, once the coatings go you would have to do some major honing on them. Considering the cost of the blades it's probably not worth the effort and the vintage sharpeners were not designed to do extensive honing.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

There were all kinds of gizmos made to extend the life of disposable blades. Modern DE blades are a different animal. They are thinner and depend on coatings to do the job because the actual blade quality and edge quality is inferior to the vintage stuff. So, once the coatings go you would have to do some major honing on them. Considering the cost of the blades it's probably not worth the effort and the vintage sharpeners were not designed to do extensive honing.

Yeah, it's definitely a curiosity, I wouldn't try to use it for its intended purpose especially since quality blades are so cheap. It's an ingenious piece of machinery, it's much more impressive than my poor description implies.

ive seen my fair share of weird de dlade sharpeners, i dont use safety razors much but i found that taking the blade out of my valet auto strop and stropping it on an old belt works nice

Hello,

In my searching and asking about safety razors i found out i have inherited my great grandfather's razor. It's copper, with copper rusting (green/blue), Clabar Switzerland. any recommendations on cleaning the rust and dirt and getting ready to use besides buying razor blades?

Ok correction it's an old Gillette, the copper corrosion is in the handle texture and i can't get rid of it easily.

Understand how you enjoy sharpening your own SR, but with DE blades so cheap (besides modern ones inability to hone) why would you continue your quest for sharpening your own DE blades.

The DE has its own allure and routine that more than makes up for the difference in SR's. You get to try a myriad of blades, each performing differently on different beards. That and the difference in shave experience from razor to razor (ie a Gillette Tech from a Superspeed).

Only way you'll achieve your wishes are the Rolls Razor (I have one) and trust me, if your goal is to introduce your skeptical friends to wet shaving the Rolls is an equally HORRIFYING route to go. You'll be asking them to shave with a knife on a stick. That or try and find some vintage all steel blades and one of those 'reel' looking spin sharpeners - and hope you find one with good leather in it. But I would think that's even MORE involved than SR and would probably turn off your friends. Better to wean cartridge users to SR's and the ability to change to what I consider a new superior safety blade each week than to scare them with 80 year old all steel 'vintage' blades and questionable sharpening novelties. If your friends attempts at using these contraptions don't produce absolutely razor sharp blades EVERYTIME, it will only take ONE bad shave (and the cuts that go along with duller blades) to make your friends hate you ;->

Originally Posted by Deerhunter1995

ive seen my fair share of weird de dlade sharpeners, i dont use safety razors much but i found that taking the blade out of my valet auto strop and stropping it on an old belt works nice

You can also hone them this way, especially with the rolls. I'm sure you could send it to get honed from the classifieds just the same as any str8 razor blade. I honed my friends on a jnat

Let's think about this. I used to have an old British sports car that came with a set of tire irons. It also had a spare tire in the "boot." Why on earth would I try and take the tire off the rim and patch it by the side of the road when I can just put the spare on? Same goes with the DE razor. Except for those older Rolls models, DE razors are made to accept new blades when the blade wears out. If you have the urge to hone your razor stick with straight razors.