Thread: Honing DE blades?

Originally Posted by Theseus

The de hones were made back when the blades were just uncoated steel, allowing them to be sharpened. Todays blades are coated which, from my understanding, gives the blades much of their sharpness. Honing them would only serve to remove the coating.

^^ I think this might be true. ^^

But that doesn't mean that every time I see one of those little DE hones on the Bay, that I don't want to give it a shot anyway lol. I think it would be fun giving it a go!

But you are kind of putting putting the horse before the carriage aren't you considering you don't even have a DE yet lol?

I initially bought the hone to try out as a touch-up hone for a straight razor without realizing how small it is.

It actually does have a flat side for straight razors and the curved for DE.

I'm working on (bidding) for a DE as we speak

Originally Posted by gcbryan

I initially bought the hone to try out as a touch-up hone for a straight razor without realizing how small it is.

It actually does have a flat side for straight razors and the curved for DE.

I'm working on (bidding) for a DE as we speak

You can buy some pretty cheap new ones on line. Are you going vintage only?

Originally Posted by Theseus

The de hones were made back when the blades were just uncoated steel, allowing them to be sharpened. Todays blades are coated which, from my understanding, gives the blades much of their sharpness. Honing them would only serve to remove the coating.

There is a lot of truth to this. I do believe that the sharpeners are meant for the thick older style blades. As for the modern blades, the coating doesn't impart sharpness per se but smoothness. The coating fills in the scratches left by the mechanical grinding process, giving the "smooth/sharp" feeling. After a few shaves the coating wears off and the blade feels harsh. So, as Theseus pointed out, if you tried a sharpener on a modern blade it would pretty much defeat the purpose.

IMO if anyone wants to extend the life of a blade by a shave or two try palm stropping. I've tried it and it seems to work.

Originally Posted by earcutter

You can buy some pretty cheap new ones on line. Are you going vintage only?

I just bought (ebay) a Gillette long black handle Super Adjustable razor so by late next week I will have a DE.

I didn't see this mentioned, I hand strop my DE blades on the palm of my hand. Someone had a video of this and if I can find it I'll add a link. I use Derby and Astra blades and use palm stropping when the blade is getting a little rough usually 10 strokes each side each edge, it works! If it extends my use of the blade I'm going to do it, doesn't take long. My .10 cent blades go up to three days longer, and I've had some last 30 days comfortably. I shave everyday, Head and face. If you do this to every blade that's about 100 more shaves in a yr. out of 52 blades, seems worth it to me. Someone check my math, I've been up since 20:30 yesterday the 10th with no sleep, it's 19:27 on the 11th right now and I've had two 5 hour energy drinks today weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Couldn't find the vid so I made onehttp://

That's certainly worth a try.

I just bought 100 Astra blades for less than $14 including shipping and shipped from within the U.S.

I think I'm set for a while!

Originally Posted by Tarkus

Here are a few examples
Some pretty unusual ideas

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Sweet i have two twin plex and one of the other one. the next thing i going to pick up is some of
those glass hones. but am afraid of getting bid up on the darn thing of some well glass collector.

Originally Posted by earcutter

You can buy some pretty cheap new ones on line. Are you going vintage only?

I have only bought vintage DE Razors are the non vintage ones worth buying.

Wanting to try honing these things put me in the market for some useless stuff.
got good this at a fair price Vintage Master Hone Safety Razor Sharpener Honer Blades Sharpener | eBay