Thread: Honing DE blades?

I'm more interested in if it works than necessarily continuing to do it. It's actually no work however. Why throw something away if making 4 or 5 passes on the curved hone extends the life for another few days?

No holder is required. You just put your thumb on the middle of the blade and slide it back and forth a few times and turn it over and do the same.

These old safety razor hones were sold and I'm assuming were used as well. I'm just curious as to how well they worked.

Maybe it doesn't work with the edge coatings used today?

Originally Posted by gcbryan

I'm more interested in if it works than necessarily continuing to do it. It's actually no work however. Why throw something away if making 4 or 5 passes on the curved hone extends the life for another few days?

No holder is required. You just put your thumb on the middle of the blade and slide it back and forth a few times and turn it over and do the same.

These old safety razor hones were sold and I'm assuming were used as well. I'm just curious as to how well they worked.

Maybe it doesn't work with the edge coatings used today?

I am inline to think they work well other wise people would not have bought them.

But man haggeling with folks is the roots of my buying.
so i got one curved hone for de blades a swiss de blade sharpener with two stones and one leather.
and three that use the crank. but i have not used any of them yet.
One of the stropping devices for them should possible work to get a few more shaves.
cause by using it the unseen edge gets bent out of place so we strop the blades to get it correct.

Since the creation of the safety razor there were countless companies that came up with the cure all for the dull D.E. blade. People bought into the idea of sharpening blades and saving a fortune. Little did they know that after they got these contraptions home they might if they were lucky to get 1 possibly 2 more shaves out of a blade.

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.

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 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.

What I have learned from a gentleman that was older than dirt itself is to use the bottom of a glass to act as a strop. The glass must be made of glass and also be concave. Place the DE blade in the bottom and rub it around flip and repeat. I have tried this and it did bring some of the keenness back. I only did it once so I have no clue as to how many times this might be done but I image it can be done more than once. It might scratch the bottom of the glass so don't use it on your wife's good ones.

Here are a few examples
Some pretty unusual ideas