Extending The Life Of Razor Blades..."resharpening" a cartridge?

M

mantic59

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Nov 24, 2010
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Razor Forum, I could use your input!

I'm finishing up one of my shaving videos, this one on extending the life of a razor blade. I discuss a number of strategies: making sure the blade edge is clean, preventing oxidation by using oils, and even a discussion of "alternative" methods like magnetic or metallergy-related products.

One thing I want to discuss is that--in my opinion--it is impossible to genuinely "resharpen" the edge of a cartridge blade, simply because you cannot access both sides of the edge (I was going to use footage of sharpening a straight-edge razor and using a steel on a kitchen knife to illustrate). I was also going to use some graphics to illustrate that a blade shaving across skin/hair will not "dull" or degrade just on one side of the blade, even though you're going in a single direction: both sides will have curls and deformations.

Is this a reasonable approach to take? Does the ability to possibly strop one side of a cartridge blade make enough of a difference to call it "resharpened?"

Do I need to cross-post this message in another part of the forum? Thanks for your help!

--Mark
 
You may be able to extend the life of a cartridge blade with one of those strops things you see advertised, but I don't believe that it will actually "resharpen" the blades. While I was still using a fusion razor I tried all the tricks I read and saw, but they never made a difference for me.

You are right in your thoughts that you can't just sharpen one side of a blade, both sides must be done more less equally. The direction that the blade sees is towards the open side of the blade so most of the deformation to the edge will be on that side, so the strop things will re-aline that but there will still be wear in the edge overall and the other side would need to be fixed as well
 
You don't need to access both sides of a blade to resharpen it, especially if it is chisel-ground.

But my question is this: Why? Purchased in hundreds, blades cost pennies each. it is not economically viable to resharpen them. Add to this the fact that razor blades are made of high-grade steel and recycle wonderfully, and I can see no incentive to sharpen them.
 
Are they talking about DE blades, or disposable type 4, 5 or 6-blade cartridges?
 
I think your approach will make sense. I have "honed" the edge by rubbing it dry against my jeans to clean off and fix the burs. I call it "honing" not sharpening because as you said...you just can't do both sides. Look foreword to the video
 
Gollnick said:
You don't need to access both sides of a blade to resharpen it, especially if it is chisel-ground.



But my question is this: Why? Purchased in hundreds, blades cost pennies each. it is not economically viable to resharpen them. Add to this the fact that razor blades are made of high-grade steel and recycle wonderfully, and I can see no incentive to sharpen them.
Click to expand...

I have never taken apart a cartridge blade, but none of the DE blades I have are chisel ground, and going by the new Gillette Pro Glide commercials they cartridge ones aren't chisel ground either. You still need to be able to get to both sides of a chisel ground edge to get it as sharp as possible. If you only ever work one side a bur will develop on the opposite side.

THG said:
Are they talking about DE blades, or disposable type 4, 5 or 6-blade cartridges?
Click to expand...

Yes Mantic is asking about cartridge blades

One thing I want to discuss is that--in my opinion--it is impossible to genuinely "resharpen" the edge of a cartridge blade
Click to expand...
 
Don't know about cartridge blades, but my father had a way of resharpening double edged blades from back in the WW II era when rationing was in effect. He used the inside edge of a glass water glass of the appropriate size. Just working it back and forth on the inside curvature of the water glass. Worked fine for him and I've tried with some success (I still use an old adjustable Gillette DE). Of course you need to do both sides of the blade. Just a thought somebody might like to try. Careful you don't slip and slice off the tip of a finger.

Rich S
 
Like Gollnick said, with the price of DE blades its not worth the trouble. I would be willing to bet that it wouldn't work as well on todays modern blades because they are much thinner than the blades used in WWII
 
Unky -

You're probably correct. I don't do it, I buy a dozen packs of DE blades every year of so. Just thought I'd pass the idea from my old man along for what's it's worth (probably not much :-)

Rich
 
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