Bakelite blade bank

[gearchow]

I picked this up at a antique mall this last summer, just got around to figuring out what I will do with it. Got it for $2 because - I'm guessing - it's filled with blades. I want to use it to hold my still wrapped blades and as a blade bank, but I will need to open up the bottom to get the old ones out and to be able to reuse in the future.

When folks say "bakelite", they usually mean catalin. This is "bakelite".

I'm thinking it's art deco style?



At first I managed to get a few blades to slide back out of the slots, but there is a big "chunk" of used blades turned sideways and rusted together. Got a little more cleaning and polishing to do.




When they made this, they had to make the closure after the main body was made. I'm figuring carefully saw most of that closure out (the shiny part), clean out the blades and then tape it up again so I can reuse it. Sound like a plan?




-jim

 

[Haegar]

I'm figuring carefully saw most of that closure out (the shiny part), clean out the blades and then tape it up again so I can reuse it. Sound like a plan?

It looks like that shiny part was pressed in place, maybe even without gluing or heat-bonding. Maybe you can pop it out by reaching with a small screwdriver into the corners. If this is not possible without being afraid of breaking the box I also would use a drill and a saw to get that cover out, but I would remove it completely and then make a new cover of the same thickness and size (or a bit smaller) and fix it with some elastic silicone putty. Good luck and take care of your fingers when tinkering close to the rusty rubbish!

P.S.
BTW: Cool little box at a nice price!

 

[mjclark]

Congrats! That is a sweet piece of Art Deco design

 

[gearchow]

So I finally got around to taking off the bottom of this bank and emptying it out. I used a Dremel with cut of wheel to cut the bottom out, leaving a fairly large boundary around. I plan on using some foil tape to close it up. I actually sorted through the used blades and here are the unique ones I found:



Cutout:



Taped up:



Gonna enjoy using this. To think that they used to fill these up and then toss them in the dump.

-jim

 

[gearchow]

btw, that Gillette thin blade (bottom) is an 03 - 1944


-jim

 

[Toothpick]

It's nice to know the gents back then couldn't settle on one blade either.
Very cool blade bank. Now I'm going to be looking for a unique one too

 

[Toothpick]

Also is very cool to see blades that I have actually used. The Gillette and Pal I've used. Terrible shaves, but I used them!