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DE blade stroping

Shavin’ Yeti

Shavin’ Yeti

Sr. Shave Member
I came across an interesting picture of a patent for a blade stroping device. After doing the February one blade challenge and extending blade use life, I’m now wondering why this isn’t something that can be purchased. If I had the tools and a machine shop, I would attempt to make one.

F6AA7B1F-6EB3-4C55-B4E7-9F74B1AC4B08.jpeg
 
I have a few stroppers for single edge blades. Some razors like the Valet and the Wilkinson, has the mechanics to strop a blade, built in, so you could strop inbetween shaves.

Stropping blades was much more useful back in the day when carbon steel blades were used. They would dull faster than today’s Stainless/Platinum blades. And I think back then, blades were proportionally more expensive, so it was advantageous to keep a blade going as long as you could. Nowadays, blades are so cheap nobody cares about extending the life.

Some folks do palm strop or jean strop their blades inbetween uses. I attempted palm stropping a few times but never saw any noticeable benefit.

And my autocorrect wants to turn Strop into Strip.... every time. Apologies if I missed one when I went back through.
 
I used a carbon steel blade for the February challenge. Stropping and honing the blade did help keep it going for an entire month.

Those techniques don't really work for stainless blades. I don't think stropping does much, but also doesn't hurt. Honing a stainless blade can ruin the edge.
 
Spider said:
I have a few stroppers for single edge blades. Some razors like the Valet and the Wilkinson, has the mechanics to strop a blade, built in, so you could strop inbetween shaves.

Stropping blades was much more useful back in the day when carbon steel blades were used. They would dull faster than today’s Stainless/Platinum blades. And I think back then, blades were proportionally more expensive, so it was advantageous to keep a blade going as long as you could. Nowadays, blades are so cheap nobody cares about extending the life.

Some folks do palm strop or jean strop their blades inbetween uses. I attempted palm stropping a few times but never saw any noticeable benefit.

And my autocorrect wants to turn Strop into Strip.... every time. Apologies if I missed one when I went back through.
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Thanks for the info. I tried to do a jean strop during the one blade challenge and it might or might not have helped.
 
I'm really surprised someone hasn't produced a product that can resharpen DE blades. There's plenty of meat left on them. I think the main reason is that they cost something like 10 cents each so why bother? I hate like heck to pitch them in the trash. My wife uses my old DE blades so between the two of us we get at least 3 weeks of continual use out of one blade. When we both used carts we'd spend at least $9 in the same 3 week period for razors. Not a bad return on a dime. Still, someone is missing a huge business opportunity. I'm thinking what would likely happen is one of the big razor companies would pay you for your idea and deep six it. That happened to a guy my Dad worked with. He invented a type of brake bad that would wear forever and...............wait for it.............one of the big companies that manufactured brake parts bought the idea and deep sixed it. These companies want us to keep buying. Take batteries for instance......we have batteries charging high tech things that last for years yet my AA battery might make it a few months.
 
People, what you perceive as sharpness is not that at all as the human skin is only so sensitive. What we sense as smoothness is actually sharpness. Gillette discovered this via research in the late 50's and as a result introd their first coated blade, albeit carbon: Gillette Super Blue. It's the coating(s) which impart the smoothness and not the sharpness. Platinum, chrome, etc., are sputtered onto only the edges to help the edges hold up. Stropping only serves to remove the coatings and results in a crappy shave.

 
Blade-meister said:
I'm really surprised someone hasn't produced a product that can resharpen DE blades. There's plenty of meat left on them. I think the main reason is that they cost something like 10 cents each so why bother? I hate like heck to pitch them in the trash. My wife uses my old DE blades so between the two of us we get at least 3 weeks of continual use out of one blade. When we both used carts we'd spend at least $9 in the same 3 week period for razors. Not a bad return on a dime. Still, someone is missing a huge business opportunity. I'm thinking what would likely happen is one of the big razor companies would pay you for your idea and deep six it. That happened to a guy my Dad worked with. He invented a type of brake bad that would wear forever and...............wait for it.............one of the big companies that manufactured brake parts bought the idea and deep sixed it. These companies want us to keep buying. Take batteries for instance......we have batteries charging high tech things that last for years yet my AA battery might make it a few months.
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There have been various devices attempted in the past but I don’t think any really caught on as much as a cheap blade you can just toss when done.
 
Bogeyman said:
People, what you perceive as sharpness is not that at all as the human skin is only so sensitive. What we sense as smoothness is actually sharpness. Gillette discovered this via research in the late 50's and as a result introd their first coated blade, albeit carbon: Gillette Super Blue. It's the coating(s) which impart the smoothness and not the sharpness. Platinum, chrome, etc., are sputtered onto only the edges to help the edges hold up. Stropping only serves to remove the coatings and results in a crappy shave.

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That's great for coated blades. so what's your argument in the case of non coated?
 
uacowboy said:
That's great for coated blades. so what's your argument in the case of non coated?
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A. I have no "argument"

B. The only non-coated blade I know of are the Treet "Black Beauty" blades and smooth they ain't.

All modern stainless blades that I know of are coated.
 
Bogeyman said:
People, what you perceive as sharpness is not that at all as the human skin is only so sensitive. What we sense as smoothness is actually sharpness. Gillette discovered this via research in the late 50's and as a result introd their first coated blade, albeit carbon: Gillette Super Blue. It's the coating(s) which impart the smoothness and not the sharpness. Platinum, chrome, etc., are sputtered onto only the edges to help the edges hold up. Stropping only serves to remove the coatings and results in a crappy shave.

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Any idea how long the coating lasts? 3 shaves, 30 shaves, 100 shaves? Just curious.
 
@Bogeyman
I have to disagree with you to a point. I do agree that skin sensitivity and blade smoothness both play a factor in perceived sharpness.
However. The bevel angles and the keenness of the edge do also play into it.

For example. If you go to home depot and grab a $12 block plane off the shelf and try to plane a piece of wood, you will encounter a fair bit of resistance getting bulky chips. Yet if you take one of the Japanese Kanna wood planes, you can cut a consistent one piece chip of wood that is a thickness around 1/3 the thickness of a sheet of paper.

Very similar cutting action to a DE blade as they are pushed/pulled through the substance being cut, yet drastically different results due to the level of sharpness. That said, there will be variations due to the species of wood being planed. Same with a DE blade. There will be variations in peoples thickness/toughness/volume of facial hair as well as the sensitivity of their skin that will affect how different blades cut.
There will be limits to what we can actually perceive, but that will vary by person.
 
ShawnF said:
@Bogeyman
I have to disagree with you to a point. I do agree that skin sensitivity and blade smoothness both play a factor in perceived sharpness.
However. The bevel angles and the keenness of the edge do also play into it...
Click to expand...

Of course hone angles play a part and DE blades have varying angles, at least among Gillette DE blades between approx. 12 & 17 degrees. BUT, a DE blade doesn't have the mass of a wood plane or Bowie knife to "horse" its way through something. The blade edge would chip & break. Any blade can only be so sharp before the edge will fail. That is where the edge hardening comes into play. That is also why steel makers are constantly making new "super" steels to better bridge the gap between sharpness and resilience/durability. What razor blade makers have done is to harden the edges to where they will hold up for extended shaving and aided smoothness with blade coatings.
 
I’ve been told you can kinda tune up a blade on the inside of a glass drinking glass (obviously a straight sided one) haven’t tried that yet.
 
Bogeyman said:
Of course hone angles play a part and DE blades have varying angles, at least among Gillette DE blades between approx. 12 & 17 degrees. BUT, a DE blade doesn't have the mass of a wood plane or Bowie knife to "horse" its way through something. The blade edge would chip & break. Any blade can only be so sharp before the edge will fail. That is where the edge hardening comes into play. That is also why steel makers are constantly making new "super" steels to better bridge the gap between sharpness and resilience/durability. What razor blade makers have done is to harden the edges to where they will hold up for extended shaving and aided smoothness with blade coatings.
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I never said that a DE blade would do what a plane does. That was an example of another instance where sharpness makes a difference.

Since I forge and heat treat my own knives, I like to think I have a basic idea of how edge hardness works also. My point is that you can take a piece of tool steel or super steel and throw any sort of coating on it you want, but when you run it down your face despite being smooth it won't cut a damn thing until you put an edge on it.

Yes, they have made blades harder and smoother, but without the edge that means absolutely nothing.
 
NurseDave said:
I just save mine up and will send them to @ShawnF when I get enough for him to forge into a kitchen knife.
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I’ve been wet shaving for almost 10 years, and I still haven’t filled up my soup can blade bank with blades. It’ll take forever to get enough steel to make a knife.
 
NurseDave said:
I just save mine up and will send them to @ShawnF when I get enough for him to forge into a kitchen knife.
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Spider said:
I’ve been wet shaving for almost 10 years, and I still haven’t filled up my soup can blade bank with blades. It’ll take forever to get enough steel to make a knife.
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At the risk of seeming like I am going to commit to this, it wouldn't take hundreds of blades. You could combine them with powdered steel in a canister damascus.
The big trick would be getting the coating cleaned off and getting the stainless steel to forge weld with the carbon steel.
 
ShawnF said:
...My point is that you can take a piece of tool steel or super steel and throw any sort of coating on it you want, but when you run it down your face despite being smooth it won't cut a damn thing until you put an edge on it.

Yes, they have made blades harder and smoother, but without the edge that means absolutely nothing.
Click to expand...

I guess I don't understand why that fact is in question here. Of course, razor blades have an edge, THE MAIN point I am trying to make is that when you get to really, really sharp, e.g., under 0.3 micron (which happens to be less than thickness of a human hair cuticle) the edge becomes fragile. Obviously, razor blade makers don't use tool steel such as D2 to make blades as the cost would be exorbitant and it's not needed. That's why they sputter the blades' edges with chromium, platinum & borium. That hardens the edges to withstand usage, i.e., hold up longer & better. The PTFE (and other proprietary coatings) not only serve to add smoothness, but they also protect the sputtered edge for as long as possible. The razor blade's edge is actually cutting THROUGH the coatings as we're talking microns here, 1×10⁻⁶ meter; that is, one millionth of a meter. One micron =0.00003937007874015748 inches.
 
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