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Vintage razor sharpener.
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Previously: https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...1542#post74627
I used to use a water glass to hone the edges of my blades put blade on inside of glass and move around with finger got 2 or 3 more shaves per blade .Appropriate drinking glass from mess hall. A 10 pack of blades would last a month
I've seen the type that you put the blade inside and close the lid and crank. The blade is stropped on one side, turned over and stropped on the opposite side. The one's I've seen kind of look like a small crank-type pencil sharpener.
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Originally Posted by VinnieL
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I always thought that was a most innovative solution with it mechanically turning the blade over and stropping the other side.
It's very satisfying to watch in action too. I found it on ebay, for around $30-$70.
https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...pener_ebay.jpg
I'm with VinnieL on that. Wonder why someone didn't do it for Plane Irons=no need now we have Tormek.
I never thought of using the bottom of a glass, but I have used many a Ceramic Coffee Cups "Base" to hone up my knives, using Water OR Waterless either way!
One Stroke and you will see grey on your bare ceramic edge!
philip
Very cool machine.
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Now that style is the one I have seen most often areound antique stores and malls.
They look nice but I’ve always polished my razor blades on the inside of a tumbler glass and found that it works rather well.
How did these devices to sharpen what I understand to be disposable blades make the "business case," at the time? Were "disposable" razor blades much more expensive, at the time? I don't believe disposable safety blades were used in barber shops; barbers mostly used straight razors, as I understand. It was a point of pride to wield one well. Safety razors were for amateurs. As I was told, you had to shave a balloon with a straight razor to graduate from the trade school. So these sharpening tools were sold for personal use, i.e., two or three shaving person households, right? You can only squeeze so much cost-savings when you're just going through a few a month.
How do you manufacture and sell a complex mechanical device as well as the case for investing the time to perform the task, to sharpen a throwaway blade? The same blade you use a few times, then re-purpose it to line the wall behind your medicine cabinet?
I've been wrong before, but I believe that back in the day when these were made the cost of razor blades was very high. Razor blades are high IMHO today for what they are. Also our society was not as mobile back then and it also might have been more difficult to go to the store to get blades. At one time barber shops also sold razords and blades. And you are correct about the straight razor being king back in history. That is why going to the barber shop to get a shave was a common thing. Many men never learned how to weild a straight razor without drawing blood. Many barbers would also hne and strop your straight razor for you for a small charge. Remember we were not a "throw-away society" many decades ago as we are now. I have also read stories of men who stropped their straight razor or a blade on their denium pants in order to get the edge back again. In today's era many newer barbers do face shaves , changing the trend from about the 1960's forward until now.
During the depression there would have been a call for sharpening razor blades. An individual probably couldn't have justified buying a machine but a barber or entrepreneur might have invested to make a few coins.
During the war, were razor blades scarce for civilians? Considering they're made from a good grade of steel, it seems likely. Again a market for sharpening machines created by the economic conditions of the times.
Economics, pure and simple. I don't know what the machine would cost, but when I was using the Mach 3 blades, I'd get two to three shaves out of them, and those suckers are expensive, and with the oilfield flat money is in short supply rite now. If someone made a sharpener for it I would have invested in it for sure. Since going to a straight razor solved this issue, along with razor bumps, and I already had the stones to sharpen, that's what I'm using.
Good for you! I have in the past shaved with a straight edge, but have kind of gotten out of the habit lately due to time restraints. Nothing shaves like a good straight edge. I do purchase blades from the Dollar shave Club and find them as good if not better than other brands. In history there were two Gillettes, Only one company survived and it was King Gillette. Although others such as Shick also make blades and razors, but all are now expensive. I understand that this Dollar shave Club has put a big dent in Gillette's sales, selling their blades for $1.00 each. This company has generated some good competition for them.
What grit stone do you use (water stone I presume).Quote:
Originally Posted by will52100
First, I only shave about twice a week, if I had to stumble into the bathroom and shave every day before coffee then I wouldn't be using a straight edge, or at least not more than once as I'd kill myself with it. That said, I haven't shaved with a regular razor in a couple of years an
As for honing, I use a set of Sharpton ceramic water stones, final grit 8000 grit and strop with leather. I'd like to get a 16,000 grit stone, but this is what I had for honing wood chisels.
I haven't used a razor since I was 23 I figured all that shaving every Morning at 5 :Am for 6 years was enough for a life time. Many times having to shave again in the evening before going on night duty. For the past 40 years I have just used the electric clipper that I use to give myself a hair cut once in a while when my beard starts to bother me
OK Thanks guys.One of my sons uses a straight razor so I bought him a water stone ,ceramic, about 6000 grit and he said it wasn't fine enough. I don't know why he even uses one as he has skin like mine & suffers from a condition like acne: according to a skin specialist I was a decendant from someone who survived the "great plague" but I haven't done the research to verify (much easier these days). I used to use an electric 3 head razor but in recent years I use a battery clipper or a disposable. I advised my son to strop it & he already was.He was after a grit like 15000 but the cost benefit seemed outragous beside the difficulty in sourcing one. I did buy one (about 12000 grit i think) only to find it was broken upon opening: only a corner. It was Chinese, & not Veritas or similar quality but extremely expensive, so returned it post haste.
That rite there is one reason I don't really like shaving. Of course with my beard as course as it is, it drives me crazy after 3-4 days and itches like crazy.Quote:
I haven't used a razor since I was 23 I figured all that shaving every Morning at 5 :Am for 6 years was enough for a life time. Many times having to shave again in the evening before going on night duty. For the past 40 years I have just used the electric clipper that I use to give myself a hair cut once in a while when my beard starts to bother me
I've got fair skin, red hair and most razors I've used give me bumps if I go more than a day or two without shaving. Took me a few times to learn to shave with a straight razor, but now I have no intention of going back. My 8000 grit ceramic is just barely fine enough, and that's using a nagura stone to produce a slurry. I'd like to add a 16,000 grit, but those suckers are expensive, maybe one day.
Vintage twinplex blade stropper.
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I used to see those a lot at auctions. The concept has been around almost as long as twin-edged blades and the "hoe" razor.
Why is he holding it in the wrong handd?
5:21 video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxSqQ8_YsCc
Who would of thought that there are So Many ways to sharpen the old double edge blades!
I can remember my Grandfather having one similar to what you mention. It was for double edged blades, and you put it in an enclosed thing and turned a crank. I don't think you had to change the blade position, you just put it in and turned the crank. I think the blade somehow flipped itself, but I might be wrong. He passed away in 1960, so it was many years ago for me to remember. That was one thing of his that I always wished I could have gotten. Don't know what happened tp it after he died....possibly to his son.