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Pyramids for sharpening
- Thread starter Josh Feltman
- Start date
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- Feb 12, 2001
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- 4,501
you can laugh about it all you want, but I've been shaving with the same dead cat for the last six months
- Joined
- Aug 24, 1999
- Messages
- 933
Yeah, Josh, but I TOLD you...you're supposed to WAX your bikini line!!!
No but seriously (didn't expect to see THAT phrase in this thread, did'ja?!?)...while I'm not gonna run out and look for the Spyderco Pyramid System, I'm not above believing that there just might be something to all the hooie. Most idiocy in the New Age movement, somewhere, waaaaaaay back in time, was based in pragmatism. Is it any more silly to believe that a razor blade may experience some sort of molecular agitation (which manifests itself as a perceived sharpening of the edge) than it is to believe that your life will be more harmonious if you orient your sofa East-west at the Southern edge of your living room?
My feeling, personally is, if you can't prove it's wrong, and the belief isn't hurting anyone, it serves no useful purpose to attack a belief or a theory. It's like arguing religion or politics, the probability that you will EVER dissuade a person from their opinion is astronomically small. Almost like trying to dance on a razor's edge.
Completing a circular discussion, I am
No but seriously (didn't expect to see THAT phrase in this thread, did'ja?!?)...while I'm not gonna run out and look for the Spyderco Pyramid System, I'm not above believing that there just might be something to all the hooie. Most idiocy in the New Age movement, somewhere, waaaaaaay back in time, was based in pragmatism. Is it any more silly to believe that a razor blade may experience some sort of molecular agitation (which manifests itself as a perceived sharpening of the edge) than it is to believe that your life will be more harmonious if you orient your sofa East-west at the Southern edge of your living room?
My feeling, personally is, if you can't prove it's wrong, and the belief isn't hurting anyone, it serves no useful purpose to attack a belief or a theory. It's like arguing religion or politics, the probability that you will EVER dissuade a person from their opinion is astronomically small. Almost like trying to dance on a razor's edge.
Completing a circular discussion, I am
Elvislives
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 13, 1999
- Messages
- 3,034
Knowing that experimentation is the only way to find out for myself...
I just put my razor under a pyramid that I constructed of cardboard and yes, believe it or not, almost immediately, a monkey flew out of my butt...
I just put my razor under a pyramid that I constructed of cardboard and yes, believe it or not, almost immediately, a monkey flew out of my butt...
Cougar Allen
Buccaneer (ret.)
- Joined
- Oct 9, 1998
- Messages
- 76,016
When you use a blade and then let it sit for a few days, whether in a pyramid or not, it resharpens itself a little. No molecules are removed or added; they return to the alignment they had before they were disturbed by use.
The effect is slight. If you chop concrete with a blade and let it sit a few days the edge won't recover enough to be noticeable. If you shave once with a razor blade and let it sit a while the effect will be noticeable, both by feel and by microscopic examination. The effect is much greater with carbon steel such as the old Gillette Blue Blades than with modern high-alloy razor blades. Even with Blue Blades there is some microchipping as well as rolling and indenting of the edge, and even the misalignment doesn't correct itself perfectly.
Many people have discovered if they rotate several razor blades instead of using the same one every day they last longer. Again, the effect is much greater with Blue Blades than with high-alloy steel.
Many people, including me years ago, have done controlled experiments comparing a blade stored in a pyramid with one stored in a cube of the same volume and found the blade stored in the pyramid lasts longer than the one stored in a cube. I alternated using the two blades and measured sharpness by feel in shaving, by cutting paper, and by examining with a 20x loupe. Mine was not a double-blind experiment; I knew which was the pyramid blade, and you could argue my observations through the loupe were influenced by my expectations. My conclusion was there was a very noticeable difference with Blue Blades, possibly enough to be worth the trouble if you were very stingy ... really I considered it more fun than trouble. Later I tried the same experiment with higher-alloy blades and found the pyramid was so much less effective with them I eventually quit using it. (The fun aspect faded once I had nothing new to discover, too.)
I also did some experiments drying food and found it dried faster and was less prone to mold if I dried it in a pyramid than in a cube. It would be difficult to accuse myself of subjectivity there -- when you put some of the white of the same egg in a pyramid and some in a cube and come back later and find the eggwhite in the cube is all furry with mold and stinks and the eggwhite in the cube has dried without growing mold or stinking, and do that same experiment over and over, swapping the positions of the cube and the pyramid on the shelf ... it would be pretty hard to convince yourself there was no real difference in results and it's all in your head.
I used cardboard pyramids I constructed very precisely to the angle of the Great Pyramid and carefully aligned to true north, with the blade at the "King's Chamber" position. I vaguely recall doing some experiments with cones, and pyramids made to different angles, and placing blades and food in different parts of the pyramid, but it was a long time ago ... maybe I can find my notes if I look, but I've moved several times since then....
now some speculation
There's a hypothesis floating around that pyramids focus ambient microwave radiation and that somehow helps steel molecules realign themselves and accelerates drying, possibly inhibits the growth of mold and bacteria.... I don't know of any evidence to support that hypothesis. If it's true you'd think the same effect could be produced by a microwave transmitter, very likely better ... in all these years nobody has announced they've found they can do it that way (at least I haven't seen any such report).
There's another hypothesis that some ambient energy other than microwaves is being focused.
There's a hypothesis that all the observed effects are due to the focused microwave or other energy causing water molecules to evaporate faster, and the difference in sharpness is due to the control blade being more affected by microcorrosion.
an observation about human nature
I've often noticed how quick many people are to reject any reports of observations that they don't immediately see a reasonable explanation for ... and they are often very vehement about it; they really get upset. Then give them an explanation of why the observed event is happening, and often they can calm down very suddenly and stop being upset and stop denying its existence.
Heck, it isn't just "many people" -- I think we all have that tendency. We have to school ourselves to look at the observations first and not think about why, not think about whether it's possible until after we see whether we're observing it. Then, after we've made our observations, then we can think about why it's occurring -- and we might conclude that it seems our observations must be in error and go back and look at our observing methods and see if we can find a source of error. If we find a source of observational error then we'll have learned something....
The reality is there are a great many things science does not understand -- a few fewer every year, but there is no shortage of things science does not understand and there doesn't seem to be any danger of a shortage developing any time soon. Read any scientific journal and you'll see reports of observations of things no one understands, and observations of things that don't seem to be possible are not rare. Keep reading that journal and after a year you might find the observation is now understood, or it turned out to be in error, or it's still unexplained. Keep reading it more than a year and you'll find more of them are resolved ... and more unexplained observations are made ... the number of unexplained observations has been approximately constant through my lifetime ... but someday we'll understand everything ... if the human race survives long enough....
The effect is slight. If you chop concrete with a blade and let it sit a few days the edge won't recover enough to be noticeable. If you shave once with a razor blade and let it sit a while the effect will be noticeable, both by feel and by microscopic examination. The effect is much greater with carbon steel such as the old Gillette Blue Blades than with modern high-alloy razor blades. Even with Blue Blades there is some microchipping as well as rolling and indenting of the edge, and even the misalignment doesn't correct itself perfectly.
Many people have discovered if they rotate several razor blades instead of using the same one every day they last longer. Again, the effect is much greater with Blue Blades than with high-alloy steel.
Many people, including me years ago, have done controlled experiments comparing a blade stored in a pyramid with one stored in a cube of the same volume and found the blade stored in the pyramid lasts longer than the one stored in a cube. I alternated using the two blades and measured sharpness by feel in shaving, by cutting paper, and by examining with a 20x loupe. Mine was not a double-blind experiment; I knew which was the pyramid blade, and you could argue my observations through the loupe were influenced by my expectations. My conclusion was there was a very noticeable difference with Blue Blades, possibly enough to be worth the trouble if you were very stingy ... really I considered it more fun than trouble. Later I tried the same experiment with higher-alloy blades and found the pyramid was so much less effective with them I eventually quit using it. (The fun aspect faded once I had nothing new to discover, too.)
I also did some experiments drying food and found it dried faster and was less prone to mold if I dried it in a pyramid than in a cube. It would be difficult to accuse myself of subjectivity there -- when you put some of the white of the same egg in a pyramid and some in a cube and come back later and find the eggwhite in the cube is all furry with mold and stinks and the eggwhite in the cube has dried without growing mold or stinking, and do that same experiment over and over, swapping the positions of the cube and the pyramid on the shelf ... it would be pretty hard to convince yourself there was no real difference in results and it's all in your head.
I used cardboard pyramids I constructed very precisely to the angle of the Great Pyramid and carefully aligned to true north, with the blade at the "King's Chamber" position. I vaguely recall doing some experiments with cones, and pyramids made to different angles, and placing blades and food in different parts of the pyramid, but it was a long time ago ... maybe I can find my notes if I look, but I've moved several times since then....
now some speculation
There's a hypothesis floating around that pyramids focus ambient microwave radiation and that somehow helps steel molecules realign themselves and accelerates drying, possibly inhibits the growth of mold and bacteria.... I don't know of any evidence to support that hypothesis. If it's true you'd think the same effect could be produced by a microwave transmitter, very likely better ... in all these years nobody has announced they've found they can do it that way (at least I haven't seen any such report).
There's another hypothesis that some ambient energy other than microwaves is being focused.
There's a hypothesis that all the observed effects are due to the focused microwave or other energy causing water molecules to evaporate faster, and the difference in sharpness is due to the control blade being more affected by microcorrosion.
an observation about human nature
I've often noticed how quick many people are to reject any reports of observations that they don't immediately see a reasonable explanation for ... and they are often very vehement about it; they really get upset. Then give them an explanation of why the observed event is happening, and often they can calm down very suddenly and stop being upset and stop denying its existence.
Heck, it isn't just "many people" -- I think we all have that tendency. We have to school ourselves to look at the observations first and not think about why, not think about whether it's possible until after we see whether we're observing it. Then, after we've made our observations, then we can think about why it's occurring -- and we might conclude that it seems our observations must be in error and go back and look at our observing methods and see if we can find a source of error. If we find a source of observational error then we'll have learned something....
The reality is there are a great many things science does not understand -- a few fewer every year, but there is no shortage of things science does not understand and there doesn't seem to be any danger of a shortage developing any time soon. Read any scientific journal and you'll see reports of observations of things no one understands, and observations of things that don't seem to be possible are not rare. Keep reading that journal and after a year you might find the observation is now understood, or it turned out to be in error, or it's still unexplained. Keep reading it more than a year and you'll find more of them are resolved ... and more unexplained observations are made ... the number of unexplained observations has been approximately constant through my lifetime ... but someday we'll understand everything ... if the human race survives long enough....
Elvislives
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 13, 1999
- Messages
- 3,034
Humph. Well.... erumph....
Actually I've just been waiting for an opportunity to use the phrase "monkey flew out of my butt".
I will say it seems a lot of trouble to save a few cents on razors, if indeed it does work. Cool concept, although I find it hard to believe cardboard could channel cosmic power of any type...
Nodnarb
Actually I've just been waiting for an opportunity to use the phrase "monkey flew out of my butt".
I will say it seems a lot of trouble to save a few cents on razors, if indeed it does work. Cool concept, although I find it hard to believe cardboard could channel cosmic power of any type...
Nodnarb
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2001
- Messages
- 922
Good post, Cougar. There are lots of "phenomena" that we usually attribute to human invention or error, without considering the possibilities.
One example. It's often stated that ants and termites communicate through smell. That theory is popular largely because we can't think of anything else that works. But there have been expirements that dispute that. I'll briefly spell out one experiment that really blew me away.
Termites, along with "building materials" (read: dirt, dust, and other organic material) were placed in two sealed fish tanks. The tanks were placed side by side with a gap of approximately 2" between the walls. One would think that, since the termites could not communicate by smell (being in the sealed tanks), that they would build two seperate mounds, like this:
But in fact, they built one mound, like this:
So smell is out. Sound is probably out, at least in the sense that they could not make sounds loud enough to pass through the walls of the tanks.
What is it that directs the actions of all these little termites? Which termite, if you will, is the one saying, "Alright, you there, stick that piece of dirt right here." Something that we can't explain is controlling their actions.
If you're interested in this kind of stuff, then check out Seven Experiments That Could Change the World : A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science by Rupert Sheldrake. Apparently it's out of print, but I'm sure that you could find it at a (big) library or maybe a website like half.com.
NB - I had to mess around with the diagrams, because it kept pushing everything over to the left instead of repecting my spaces, but here's a quick explanation. The arrows represent the mounds. The periods represent empty space. The lines represent the tank walls.
BTW, the code function works really well when you want everything in equal space characters.
One example. It's often stated that ants and termites communicate through smell. That theory is popular largely because we can't think of anything else that works. But there have been expirements that dispute that. I'll briefly spell out one experiment that really blew me away.
Termites, along with "building materials" (read: dirt, dust, and other organic material) were placed in two sealed fish tanks. The tanks were placed side by side with a gap of approximately 2" between the walls. One would think that, since the termites could not communicate by smell (being in the sealed tanks), that they would build two seperate mounds, like this:
Code:
....^.....||.....^....
...^^^....||....^^^...
..^^^^^...||...^^^^^..
.^^^^^^^..||..^^^^^^^.
^^^^^^^^^.||.^^^^^^^^^
Code:
.....^.||.^.....
....^^.||.^^....
...^^^.||.^^^...
..^^^^.||.^^^^..
.^^^^^.||.^^^^^.
^^^^^^.||.^^^^^^So smell is out. Sound is probably out, at least in the sense that they could not make sounds loud enough to pass through the walls of the tanks.
What is it that directs the actions of all these little termites? Which termite, if you will, is the one saying, "Alright, you there, stick that piece of dirt right here." Something that we can't explain is controlling their actions.
If you're interested in this kind of stuff, then check out Seven Experiments That Could Change the World : A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science by Rupert Sheldrake. Apparently it's out of print, but I'm sure that you could find it at a (big) library or maybe a website like half.com.
NB - I had to mess around with the diagrams, because it kept pushing everything over to the left instead of repecting my spaces, but here's a quick explanation. The arrows represent the mounds. The periods represent empty space. The lines represent the tank walls.
BTW, the code function works really well when you want everything in equal space characters.
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2001
- Messages
- 18,959
Paracelsus,
Email for the latest drawings on the "Pig Launcher", I think I just about have it right this time.
I had to beef up the springs from the previous version, aka the "Cat Launcher", but since I baited it with double stuff Oreo's, and haven't seen tht pudgy neighbor kid in a few days, I'd say it probably worked well.
As always, your suggestions for design improvement are appreciated.
Email for the latest drawings on the "Pig Launcher", I think I just about have it right this time.
I had to beef up the springs from the previous version, aka the "Cat Launcher", but since I baited it with double stuff Oreo's, and haven't seen tht pudgy neighbor kid in a few days, I'd say it probably worked well.
As always, your suggestions for design improvement are appreciated.
- Joined
- May 26, 1999
- Messages
- 1,964
What kind of "pyramid" are y'all talking about? One with a triangular base and 3 sides or one with a square base and 4 sides? I'd like to try some experiments; it sounds like fun.
A test would be really easy to devise: Just take two blades, cut the same stuff with each one, store one in a pyramid and one in a box, then take them out and see which one's sharper. It's absolutely necessary though for the person testing the sharpness of the different blades to not know how they were stored, since in most cases sharpness is something you judge subjectively rather than measure objectively.
I personally don't think it'll work... but hey, you never know until you try. There's no reason to speculate on something like this when it can be tested so easily.
A test would be really easy to devise: Just take two blades, cut the same stuff with each one, store one in a pyramid and one in a box, then take them out and see which one's sharper. It's absolutely necessary though for the person testing the sharpness of the different blades to not know how they were stored, since in most cases sharpness is something you judge subjectively rather than measure objectively.
I personally don't think it'll work... but hey, you never know until you try. There's no reason to speculate on something like this when it can be tested so easily.
- Joined
- Apr 19, 1999
- Messages
- 2,259
Guys, guys....give Josh a break here will ya'?...No harm done with what he suggested right?...
I pretty much fascinated with phenomenons that Science ALONE cannot explain... I have personally experimented with a small scale pyramid made out of perspect and an apple in it's core. As strange as it may seem, the apple in the pyramid lasted longer than the one placed out-side on the lab table next to the pyramid. As much as a week and a half longer!
(I know where this is going....for your information, an apple in a fridge WILL last longer than any pyramid AND i have a fridge at home....)
I'm not sure about Josh's theory on the cutting edge within a pyramid but i do know that we don't laugh at things, believes or cultures we don't understand.
Just my 2 cents worth...
Eric Wong.
I pretty much fascinated with phenomenons that Science ALONE cannot explain... I have personally experimented with a small scale pyramid made out of perspect and an apple in it's core. As strange as it may seem, the apple in the pyramid lasted longer than the one placed out-side on the lab table next to the pyramid. As much as a week and a half longer!
(I know where this is going....for your information, an apple in a fridge WILL last longer than any pyramid AND i have a fridge at home....)I'm not sure about Josh's theory on the cutting edge within a pyramid but i do know that we don't laugh at things, believes or cultures we don't understand.
Just my 2 cents worth...
Eric Wong.
- Joined
- Oct 13, 1999
- Messages
- 567
Some people are so excruciatingly slow . . . the answer seems obvious to me. . .
SEND CLIFF STAMP A PYRAMID FOR TESTING!
LOL
SEND CLIFF STAMP A PYRAMID FOR TESTING!
LOL
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2001
- Messages
- 53
Here is an easy way to make a pyramid. just print this out and glue to a piece of cardboard ( if you have any whole pices of cardboard left in your house ) bend the carboard at the lines. glue the flap over and voila there's your pyramid. I cut a whole near the top and made a ramp to hold the blade. easier than lifting the pyramid and realigning it each time. Pyramid goes nort south blades point east or west.
) bend the carboard at the lines. glue the flap over and voila there's your pyramid. I cut a whole near the top and made a ramp to hold the blade. easier than lifting the pyramid and realigning it each time. Pyramid goes nort south blades point east or west.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 1998
- Messages
- 1,066
I just hit this one. Razoredj, LOL!!! on the leprosy line. As to the efficacy of "Pyramid Power" I remeber tons of this back in the late 60's and early 70's and supposed tests performed by believers and skeptics. If someone wants to conduct a test I suggest that they propose their testing method and ask for volunteers to perform double blind tests and suitable QA tests from another group. Proponents of the theory should construct a number of pyramids and a commercially available blade (read razor knife) should be selected and each set of blades and pyramids should go to the testers. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to have numbered blades go to pyramid holders that would put one blade in the pyrmid and another outside it. The blades would then be sent to a third party tester that would have no idea as to which went into the pyramid. The tester would perform cutting tests and would return the blades to the pyramid holder to go back into their "apparatus". The cycle would be repeated several time and the data would go to another person for blind analysis.
Or we could just have fun bantering it about.
Take care,
Mike
Or we could just have fun bantering it about.
Take care,
Mike
- Joined
- Apr 19, 1999
- Messages
- 2,259
Humm...what was i thinking?
Maybe it's my fault for not letting you know that the apple outside of the pyramid on the table was COVERED as well!? Duhhh! Simple Science 101...Nough' said.
Eric Wong.