Thread: double edge blade stroping....

Physical it's possible, but does it improve the blade or does the blade last longer regarding number of shaves????

Modern blades are really inferior to the old ones. The old ones like the gillette blue was carbon steel and when it dulled you could strop-hone them. Newer blades shave better because of the coating on them. Take the coating off and you have a very rough stainless blade. If you want to strop one of those the work probably isn't worth the cost of a new blade.

What is the coating you mention? and how long before it wears off?

Originally Posted by PaulA

What is the coating you mention? and how long before it wears off?

All modern blades have coatings. Platinum of some kind or teflon or some other substance. The manufacturers tell you not to wipe the blade after use. The coating is microns thin. Most DE blades last 3-5 shaves and that's how long the coatings last.

That makes sense.....no more wiping the blade.

Thanks.....

I remember once making a strop for a fellow for a safety razor - I think it was called an Velet Autostrop and I think it was a single edged razor. Not sure if there are many around and I guess they are probably all vintage if you find one, but they were definitely made to be stropped.

James.

Originally Posted by PaulA

Physical it's possible, but does it improve the blade or does the blade last longer regarding number of shaves????

As others noted almost all DE blades have a thin PTFE (teflon) coating.
PTFE is a world class improvement to any razor... however the heat needed to fuse
it to the blade harms the temper.

The steel of DE blades is darn fine steel. I have started saving all my DE blades.
Perhaps one of the hammer and fire folk could crucible fuse or hammer weld them
and spit a razor out for me ;-)

People have been trying to do this forever. If it was easy the razor landscape would be very different.

A DE has a built in compare and contrast trick. Try something on one edge. Mark with ink and
shave test. A clever person could make a Rolls razor like strop/ hone that used modern hones
and automated the process.

I think folk will find that the temper of the steel has suffered and the PTFE combined with Pt/Cr
and electric etched final edges do not leave a working edge that resharpens worth a darn.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I remember once making a strop for a fellow for a safety razor - I think it was called an Velet Autostrop and I think it was a single edged razor. Not sure if there are many around and I guess they are probably all vintage if you find one, but they were definitely made to be stropped.

James.

Those things float around Ebay, quite often.

Vintage Twinplex Stropper Razor Blade Sharpener Model G 200 | eBay

yep

Are we talking honing or stropping? As in stropping the blade on leather vs. honing the blade on a stone?

I think honing would be... well, they just aren't that expensive and like it's been said, with today's DE's, it probably wouldn't bode well. But I have stopped a Feather over my leather strop once to see if it would tame that first shave... I think it worked. I only did it that one time, and that was a while ago.