My son had 2 cork gaskets he had unused from rebuilding his car engine. How many strokes on the cork do you guys recommend..? I did 3 on a SuperMax Platinum that was shaving rough brand new. I might have over did it though. I won't find out until my shave tomorrow. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.!
Corking A Razor blade
- Thread starter fast shaver
- Start date
I've used the cork from a champagne bottle. 1 time was all I needed to smooth it out. Now I have quite the backlog of blades and just toss them if they are faulty.
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- #4
I was going to shave tomorrow but, decided to shave today instead. Corking completely made the blade dull as a butter knife.
I will never do this again.!
I will never do this again.!
If you cork a blade, use a real cork from a bottle - not one that is too hard. Start with one stroke on each side. Some folks use styrofoam instead of cork. I, for one, don't cork blades.
Some cork their blades. IME there was little or no difference, so I do not bother. YMMV for sure!
I see no reason to cork a blade. When one uses a new blade, just be very cautious on that first pass, the blade will smooth out on its own. I think corking a blade would do nothing that easy first pass would accomplish.
I have hand stroped and that seemed to be enough but usually dont.
Well said.
Don't wash,cork,dry,bake,freeze,worship,curse at,lubricate,tame,hoard,hide in a hole in the garden,strop,use for 100 times to see how long they last,use only once, your blades.
Just put them in your razor and simply SHAVE with them and than throw them away (after 4-7 shaves)
I corked all the time when I used DE/SE blades and just did a few strokes and it worked fine and smoothed blades.
I know I'm a year behind but have tested a few situations out. I used to hand strop my Astra SP blades before the first use and most times would end up with a smooth shave and then would not touch the blade for the next shaves until I threw it out. I find Astra SP's rough on the first shave so that is why I've done it in the past. I found that I did not get the consistency that I wanted when I hand stropped so I turned to doing one swipe on each side on a wine bottle cork. I tried doing it before each shave and only just before the first time shaving with the blade. I've found that both give great results. I'm going to stick with corking the blade prior to my first shave and that is it. To me, it makes a world of difference of if I do or don't cork my blade before shaving with it for the first time. After corking it, I'm never wondering if I'm going to have a good shave or not.
Voskhod blade definitely needs corking but I am against corking... The teflon coating does not allow it to cut at all, from the first pass.
lasta
Blade Biter
I don't cork. But I don't mind setting up a deal for someone to send me their "used once" blades.
I know this is an old thread. But if the OP is using an engine gasket, me thinks he was doing it wrong. 
I don’t cork often, but when I do, it helps. Predominately when old vintage blades come out of the stash, I may give them a corking if they are a little rough due to age, oxidation, whatever. More recently we did a Blade Challenge PIF with vintage Polsilvers, and the glue dots had dipped down onto the blade edge. A simple corking pushed the glue dots back to where they belong and smoothed out that 30 year old edge to perfection.
I don’t cork often, but when I do, it helps. Predominately when old vintage blades come out of the stash, I may give them a corking if they are a little rough due to age, oxidation, whatever. More recently we did a Blade Challenge PIF with vintage Polsilvers, and the glue dots had dipped down onto the blade edge. A simple corking pushed the glue dots back to where they belong and smoothed out that 30 year old edge to perfection.
