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Can you re sharpen de safety razors blades

I know it sounds counter intuitive as de razor blades are on of the few things in this world that are still pretty cheap but it still seems like a waste to throw them out and most recyclers don't want anything to do with them, but in their hay day there were devices that were meant to re sharpen the blades.
To see what I mean go to Imgur and do a search for "old school razor blade sharpener".
I don't know how good they were but wouldn't it be great if you could do just that make your favourite brand of blade last a bit longer those expensive blades wouldn't seem so expensive anymore.
 
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There is no picture, but bear in mind that the old blades where thicker and probably easier to sharpen.
And there were many who tried to sharpen modern blades to a certain degree of succes.
And there are modern attempts also mostly designed for carts and some which are for both. Different ideas behind it
But then again if you can get 100 blades for 20 euros lasting 500-1000 shaves… why bother to invest 50 euros to a little longe blade life.

Might be interesting for those using feather fhs in a oneblade or ac blades which are more expensive.
 
I imagine if you made a jig that would hold the blade to keep it from flexing and also to maintain the correct bevel it could be done just like a straight. In fact the jig I’m envisioning would look much like a shavette. Im sure one could 3D print such a thing. I’ve fooled around stropping DE blades, and gotten an extra day or two, but with what they cost, just doesn’t seem worth the effort.
 
Old-time DE blades were a tad thicker, usually were made from carbon steel, were mostly non-coated, and their lives could be extended with a number of sharpeners designed for the purpose. This was popular to do during the Great Depression; in relative terms DE razor blade prices may be the lowest they've ever been. Many old-timers, like my grandfather, used the inside of a drinking glass to refresh the edge; he also showed me how to reuse postage stamps- another story. There are many vintage sharpeners for DE blades out there. For kicks, I've tried a few modern blades in these old sharpeners without much success, the results were very disappointing. It seems with the modern stainless steel used now and the coatings applied the current blades are just not meant for home sharpening. I'm not even sure they could be machine re-sharpened easily.

Here's a link to one video on the production process for DE blades from "How It's Made":

 
There are ‘blade sharpeners’ from the old days when blades were relatively expensive.

I have no experience using these and would not bother given the reasonable price of modern blades.

’Traditional’ wet shaving is much friendlier to the environment than carts, even if you toss the blades!
 
...in their hay day...
Life was different in the hay day. Blades were made of carbon steel and people had lower expectations. Value of time was different as well.
Waste of time to even think about re-sharpening razor blades in today's world. Unless it is your hobby of course, then go for it and have fun.
 
Modern blades are generally stainless steel, coated with very thin layers of metal and Teflon. You can't reapply the coating at home, and the blade will not shave smoothly without it. Plus, decent blades are available for 8-9 cents each in quantity.
 
I just got this unique Stropper that was designed for both SE and double edge blades. Mind you this device is for stropping, not honing. I dont plan to use it for Stainless blades like the one I have pictured, but for older vintage blades with high carbon content.
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You simply can't strop modern stainless steel blades. The coatings have the purpose to prevent microcracks. If you strop these the coating will be scrubbed of and the blades will become dull. Also the kind of edge was altered. Vintage blades have often a thickness of 0.08 or even 0.06 mm, the modern blades are 0.10 mm thick. The manufacturers tried to make the blades sharper by reducing the thickness what made the blades less stable, to solve this problem the slant razor was invented. Some tried to give these blades more stability by stamping a wave pattern on the blade "Wellenschliff" in German. In the End they solved the problem with the sharpness by inventing the 3-facet-edge, the durability by coating and the stability by raising the thickness.
 
I got one of the old-timey blade sharpeners at an antique shop and gave it a try. It did nothing for the blade--I think @Ladit is correct about why it won't work. I've also tried honing the Feather FHS-10 for my OneBlade using an old AutoStrop--that also did nothing.
 

musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
I suppose if you purchased a fine Japanese water stone and maybe placed a small metal rule on one edge to create a bevel you could try sharpening the blade. The equipment would probably cost the same as 3 years worth of blades and you'd be working with exposed sharp edges in a process with no guarantee of successfully producing a working edge.

Personally, that's too risky and not a use of my time that sounds like much fun. But if you give it a go, be sure to report back.
 
I've used an antique Twinplex stropper on a few vintage blades from the 1970s (Personna Super Platinum Chromes and Gillette Spoilers) and a few old Gillette Carbons and a very old King Gillette blade from the 1920s. I agree with @Ladit the stropping stripped whatever protective coating was left on the blade. Once stropped, the blades were dull and worse off than before the stopping. However, I didn't try stropping a Personna 74 (my personal favorite) which is made of tungsten steel with is uncoated. I've been able to get over 30 shaves from a vintage Personna 74. I once pushed a Personna 74 DE past 50 shaves. It didn't get dull but I switched it out out of boredom.
 
During WW2 they used to sell a rotary strop with a leather disc. These were used to hone the Gillette Blue Blades that were manufactured well into the 1960s. I believe this method wouldn't work at all with modern blades.
 
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