What is corking a blade?

[lasta]

Ouchyfoot, Ideally that is the best method to let your beard skin be the strop when shaving and that is what 99% of us do, but then you get a good blade that is brand new that corking seems to smooth it out to work well. You only do it once on first use works for me and and corking is a form of stropping (straighting the curve edges of the blade) IMO. Anyways corking has been around a lot longer than I have been traditional wet shaving and some old timers used it for what ever reason. Corking 1 time is like losing 1 shave blade life is my rule of thumb I figure, so not a big deal for some of us.

Hi Ron,

My personal conclusion, but just about all modern blades do not have burs or curved edges: Scanning Electron Microscope Blade Edge Images - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/scanning-electron-microscope-blade-edge-images.386550/

Corking might remove the imperfect coatings on the very apex of the blade edge, but those will naturally come off within a couple of strokes anyways. Whereas sinking the blade into cork most likely will also remove the purposefully applied coatings on the bevel.

I'd wager if Refinedshave re-did their tests, sharpness after 1/2 strokes will be more or less equal to sharpness after shave 1.

There really is a reason why the "do not wipe blade" is inked on wrappers.

 

[Ron R]

Hi Ron,

My personal conclusion, but just about all modern blades do not have burs or curved edges: Scanning Electron Microscope Blade Edge Images - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/scanning-electron-microscope-blade-edge-images.386550/

Corking might remove the imperfect coatings on the very apex of the blade edge, but those will naturally come off within a couple of strokes anyways. Whereas sinking the blade into cork most likely will also remove the purposefully apply coatings on the bevel.

I'd wager if Refinedshave re-did their tests, sharpness after 1/2 strokes will be more or less equal to sharpness after shave 1.

There really is a reason why the "do not wipe blade" is inked on wrappers.

Any blade with a Teflon coating you are correct because of its softness will have the protective wrapper mention do not wipe, Teflon is used for improving blade smoothness. To improve the edge strength manufactures also use other metals like iridium or platinum. Iridium is one of the hardest metals know to man and very expensive. I think when they sputter on the coatings they can over do it possibly at times. Any ways you should just tap dry on a towel razor blades that are wet IMO.