(This post was last modified: 06-22-2016, 03:27 AM by celestino.)
Celestino
Love, Laughter & Shaving
Love, Laughter & Shaving
(06-22-2016, 06:36 AM)andrewjs18 Wrote: pretty cool. I think it begs the question as to whether or not it's worth the time since most DE blades are so cheap as it is.
(06-22-2016, 08:08 PM)ShadowsDad Wrote: Very interesting video. He's got a nice collection and the music isn't terrible. I noticed he was handling the blade with the sharp edges... what's up with that? I suspect the blade shown was quite dull.
As someone who has stropped a Rolls blade I am highly dubious about those methods in the video. Not even the Rolls jigs that are designed to work with the Rolls Razor work as advertised. Others have tried them and I did also. Maybe someone somewhere is successful with them, but I don't know of anyone.
OK, I'll write more. I know a gent in the UK who strops his carbon steel SE blades. But he strops them by hand and only carbon steel. I tried to strop my Rolls with the supplied jigs and after many hours gave up. I wound up using a modified Scary Sharp method that worked fantastically. It's simply not as easy as the sharpening jigs in the video make it appear to be.
My disposable blades are just that; disposable. I buy SE blades for about $.20 last I checked and per shave they cost me under $.01 per shave. It's just not worth my time to strop a blade for longer life. It makes far more sense to me to just stock more blades. Or if I really want to get costs down, to just use a Rolls and have a blade that will last for generations if it's cared for and kept sharp.
I have also tried to strop a Valet Autostrop blade, but it was a stainless blade of modern manufacture with miserable results. So then I tried to strop a brand new blade just to see what would happen and I destroyed the blade. Maybe it would work with a carbon steel blade, but I don't think it will bring a blade back to the sharpness we associate with a shave worthy edge today. I suspect in years past that the definition of shave worthy edge was lower than what we expect today if those sharpening jigs worked for them. They may also have had lower shave standards also, as men on the farm would shave once a week, so any beard reduction was a shaven face.
If anyone tries any of those sharpening jigs I'm extremely interested in how you make out with them. I wish you success, and my failure doesn't mean you won't be successful. Frankly, I hope they work for you. Please keep us updated. Yup, the prepper in me finds the idea quite attractive, I just haven't found those to work (the ones I tried) to work in practice.