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Shaving Oddities!

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
I was buying some Vintage Gillette razors at a Antique store and the fellow who owned the store was showing me some scuttles when I came across this relic. The sharpener hone was patented in the 1930's(dirty thirties) so that could tell us that blades were expensive and scarce for folks who had very little and had to watch every penny.
I have seen different versions of this sort of a sharpener hone, but this glass is very dark and black.
The thirties brought out a lot of invitations to try and survive and it made north Americans more frugal in there effort to survive a financial disaster.
This MFG even went to the extreme to patented the device to protect his ideas.
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Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
interesting historic item!

would be nice to see the vintage gillette's that you scored!!
When researching old razors you almost have to be a Sherlock Holmes to figure what you have.
The American made flare tip super speeds were easy to figure because of date codes, the silver one is a 1956 and the black handle one is a 1967 model.
The British rockets are from the 1950's and the silver one is almost like new.(English versions had no date codes also)
The British rocket gold one is normal color from what I researched because it was anodized on the brass and its not a bright gold IMO.
The two older models(Gillette new long combs) are very hard to source dates because they were made in Canada and the numbering systems are not there so from my best invesitgations they are from the 1930's. The new long comb with the rounded ball nose was fixed with some locktite "609" because it was loose.
The British rockets are very nice daily drivers with hardly any alum sting test and will give a DFS(beautiful razors to use and forgiving with the sharpest blades). The other razors I 'am just starting to use and test.
Central Alberta razors.JPG
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Those sharpeners were made for the blades of the day, not our thinner, coated ones.

I was thinking the same. Carbon steel is generally easier to sharpen than stainless (less wear resistant) and also less prone to micro chipping. I think most of my blades suffer tiny fractures at the edge rather than just wear, based on the way bright spots appear on the light bounce tests.
 

ajkel64

Check Out Chick
Staff member
Great razors, you have done well there. Interesting how they tried to make the blades go further in days gone by.
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
Well I have been doing a little experimenting with a straight sided clear small drinking glass and added some very fine diamond .25 micron polishing paste with no luck.(Personna red blade after 6 regular shaves started honing on shave #7 with diamond paste}not the desirable results> blade became dull and tugged hard IMO.)(would not cut free standing hair on my arm that well.)
On to experiment #2 with just water like the MFG suggests. ( not using the antique glass sharpener yet.) Blade I will be using is a Astra SP with 6 shaves already and will hone and try #7 shave tomorrow.(Very promising- cut free standing hair on my arm with ease.)
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I must be the curious experimental shaving enthusiast ......... who jumps over dimes to save pennies.:a6::frown2::idea::detective::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol1:
 
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Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
July 31st 2018, Well had my first shave with this make shift glass hone from a straight sided drinking glass and the shave was excellent (BBS), this is the first time that I have had positive results from many attempts from denim to leather to .25 micron diamond paste and hand stropping. The secret to this early experiment procedure testing IMO is fill the glass with hot tap water and dump some out and tilt the glass 30 degrees approx keeping some hot water in the glass pointed slightly down sideways and press blade so it does not bottom out in the center and swish left to right for maybe 6 to 10 complete cycles and flip and do the other side and do the same cycles. The results to me were a sharp blade but a little different feel it seemed.
From other research articles this will not sharpen a blunted or very dull blade because it does have the grit coarseness to recoup a bad edge, this method is keeping a blade sharp as the blade is becoming slowly worse as it degrades a little. It is more a stropping method possibly and with some edge rejuvenation.
The hot water softens the steel a little so the honing is more effective and any edge curling can be brought back more easily.
People think that stainless steel is hard but carbon steel from my machining experience is usually harder if heat treated properly.
It's a little early to get far fetched with this simple honing method so will do some more testing & see if it will keep the edge up and for how many shaves?
Blade in experiment is a ASTRA SP now on shave #7 but shave Seven is first with glass honed edge!
 
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AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Thanks for the update on the experiment. It will be interesting to see mow much extra blade life this method gives you.

People think that stainless steel is hard but carbon steel from my machining experience is usually harder if heat treated properly.

As a rough generalisation, carbon steels can be treated harder than stainless steels, but stainless is more wear resistant, and can be harder to sharpen as a result.
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
As a rough generalisation, carbon steels can be treated harder than stainless steels, but stainless is more wear resistant, and can be harder to sharpen as a result.
Looks like you know steels IMO, I worked at a pulp mill and stainless steels are a very common alloyed steel we used all the time, it can come in different grades like 316L,309L,304 And also Duplex stainless steel which is a specialty stainless that can be used in the harshest environments were as high carbon steel could never withstand those demanding environments and were a titanium steel could but will warp if say a pump shaft is to long (pricey titanium stuff some pump shafts were well over $15,000.00 for a medium length}3.5"Diam X48"length). I worked as a Machinist- Millwright -welder in a very demanding work place trying to keep the facility operating for 24 yrs. Some of my drawings and slight material changes are used to this day to keep the place running! A small glimpse in my easy life know.:scooter::smartass:
 
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AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Looks like you know steels IMO, I worked at a pulp mill and stainless steels is a very common alloyed steel we used all the time, it can come in different grades like duplex stainless steel which is a special stainless that can be used in the harshest environments were a high carbon steel could never withstand those demanding environments were a titanium steel could but will warp if say a pump shaft is to long. I worked as a achinist Millwright welder

Yeah, my background is in specialist machining, both in the machining processes themselves, plus tool design and plant modifications. Duplex and Super Duplex type stainlesses were a nightmare to get to chip. I never worked on anything over 10 tonnes, but have worked on tooling for machining components up to 400 tonnes. Fabrication isn't a strong point of mine, and thankfully most of the welds we needed were pretty straightforward fillets. I just drew it up and let the welders decide on preheating, wire choices, and whatever else they needed to make it work. Aside from sequencing a few long run high penetration welds to minimise distortion, I pretty much left them to do whatever they need to, and let me know if I'd done anything problematic for them.
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
Yeah, my background is in specialist machining, both in the machining processes themselves, plus tool design and plant modifications. Duplex and Super Duplex type stainlesses were a nightmare to get to chip. I never worked on anything over 10 tonnes, but have worked on tooling for machining components up to 400 tonnes. Fabrication isn't a strong point of mine, and thankfully most of the welds we needed were pretty straightforward fillets. I just drew it up and let the welders decide on preheating, wire choices, and whatever else they needed to make it work. Aside from sequencing a few long run high penetration welds to minimise distortion, I pretty much left them to do whatever they need to, and let me know if I'd done anything problematic for them.
Are you retired now or still tinkering in your profession!
 
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