Sharpening single edge razor blades

annr

annr

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Nov 15, 2006
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Can anyone suggest ways to re-sharpen single-edge razor blades? If you have tried this, do they get as sharp as they were out of the box?
(I know that most of them aren't really fantastically sharp to begin with.)
 
Well, I've sharpened my box cutter a few times, just because it was old, corroded and I didn't feel like replacing it. Didn't work that well, but it has one of those long, sgmented blades you break sections off of, so it flexed a lot which made sharpening difficult. Other than that, I'd imagine that with the right stones and a strop you could get them quite sharp.
 
You pretty much sharpen them like a knife except at a very low honing angle. It also helps to strop them. The biggest problem is how to hold them. I have some needle-nose Vice-Grip pliers that help a lot. Often I sharpen the blades while they are in the box cutter or scraper in which they are normally used.
 
Only thing I've ever heard about re-sharpening razor blades is that some guys used to sharpen the double edged kind on the inside of a glass, just hold it down with your finger and go back and forth, side to side to lap or burnish the edge. Might work with a single edge blade ... you could even adjust the sharpening angle by picking a glass with bigger or smaller diameter :), maybe use some kind of ceramic mug or straight sided dish if it's really dull.
 
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