Sharpen a step bit?

Fairly common antique store item--I doubt if I paid over 5 bucks for it....

The blades are still widely availablle and since they're so incredibly cheap, I haven't felt athe need to try resharpening.

Reply to
PrecisionmachinisT
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Ow-ow-ow-ow... now I've got a couple bloody spots on my neck just thinking about it.

I can draw blood with an electric razor shaving every other day. Gave up anything blade like years ago...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

(...)

You are passing up the opportunity to own one of these?

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--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Now I'm shaving every other day, too.

By the third morning, I'm looking very 'Homeless Chic'. :)

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

What I find to be very effective is a Norton water stone:

.

I use the 220/1000 combo stone. This leaves a slight wire edge that works well with food. The finer stones leave a mirror edge that's good for wood.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

Water stones are favored by some, and the wave of interest in Japanese woodworking back in the '70s introduced them to American users. People who like them seem to swear by them.

Two things have always put me off about them. First, they wear out several times faster than oil stones. That really shouldn't be an issue -- some of my oil stones are over 70 years old -- but it hasn't encouraged me to buy any to try them.

Second, I'm a cheapskate, and I already have several lifetimes' worth of oil stones. I'm going to wear out long before they do.

When you have five grades of synthetic bench stones and five more grades of natural ones (including translucent gray Arkansas -- finer than surgical black), you can work any blade down fast to a superb edge and it feels indulgent to spend money on something else. I'd try the ceramic stones first, if I was going to experiment.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

I still prefer the two bladed system, I tried one of the five blade units that arrived in the mail as a free sample and while it did a good job considering I only shave my lips and neck, it felt all wrong

- something like shaving with a file (METALWORK).

Reply to
grmiller

(...)

I've been using TRAC II clone blades for the last few years since my local retailers stopped selling the originals.

The clones are convenient and cheap from my eBay retailer. They *do* have quality issues, though. Most last several shaves but some start tearing skin right out of the box.

I don't recall such inconsistency when I was using a safety razor. But that was a long time ago so they might have been as bad.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

[ ... ]

Depends on where and when you are. I had an uncle who used to be a flyer in the Navy in the mid 1950s, and apparently he had problems getting razor blades on shipboard for a reasonable price (if at all). So he used that, and showed it to me as a kid. (He was back in the 'states by then, but traveling and not able to restock as conveniently as he would like.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

I gave up *shaving* at all decades ago. :-) (About 1976 or so.)

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Interesting! Sounds a little hazardous, potentially. The Kriss Kross razor sharpener appeals to my whacky side.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

[snip] Dan

Water stones do wear out faster than oil stones, but they also work a lot faster. And I've yet to wear any stone out. I use wet-dry sandpaper on a piece of plate glass for coarse work.

The fancy Japanese waterstones don't work any better than the Norton synthetic stones, and are a whole lot cheaper. Isn't this a reversal - domestic product undersells asian product.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

I've been lucky yard saleing, plus some of the chinese copies @5/$1 aren't too bad, at least the bunch I bought a couple years back. By the time I run out of blades, someone else (caregiver) will be shaving me, probably with clippers.

Reply to
grmiller

How thweet! You mutht look jutht like Georgy!

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-- Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling. -- Margaret Lee Runbeck

Reply to
Larry Jaques

As long as you are old enough and skillful enough to handle a double-edged blade safely, all you have to do is put it inside the glass tumbler (with blade edges parallel to the axis of the tumbler) and place your fingertip against the weird-shaped center groove (which is not sharp at all) and slip it back and forth around the inside of the tumbler. Your fingers should not be anywhere near the edges while sharpening.

Later years had dispensers for the double-edged blades to slide them out and hook them on the center post of the razor, but earlier ones (in particular before the stainless steel ones came out) were typically wrapped in oiled paper to prevent rust. If you don't cut yourself unwrapping the blade, you won't cut yourself using the tumbler as a sharpener.

When was the Kriss Kross sharpener first produced? O.K. I see some listed from the 1920s. Looking at the video of one in operation, it looks designed for single-edged blades.

eBay auction # 290693260234 says that it is for double-edged blades, but the Kriss Kross razor shown in auction # 250892753075 explicitly states that it is for a single-edged blade -- and it looks like it needs to have a triangular shape (narrower away from the edge) t fit in the sharpener.

If you like mechanically interesting shaving gear, check out the Rolls Razor. eBay auction # 140739120533 shows one in rather good condition and clear photos.

Essentially, it is a permanent blade (a section of a straight razor blade) which bayonets onto a spike in the case. The case has two covers, one of which contains a honing stone, and the other contains a leather strop. They are keyed so each will only go on the proper side of the case. There is a handle which moves the blade and spike back and forth in the case, advancing edge first when in contact with the honing stone, and drawing edge last on the leather strop. There is a safety guard on the blade, detented so it will flip clear during the honing or sharpening. There is a separate handle which slides onto the back edge of the blade and then clamps in place.

Eventually the blade wears back form repeated sharpening over the decades, and the kit in this auction appears to have a spare blade in a Bakelite case.

This video:

shows it being stropped but not honed -- and the fellow demonstrating it is not that familiar with it. The case should be held in the left hand while the right hand operates the handle -- and it does not make nearly the noise recorded in normal use. Also, he stores the shaving handle in the wrong place. It normally stores inside the sharpening handle.

This one shows it better, but he does not understand that the honing is done only every so often, not every day.

I actually used one of these back when I shaved.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Hell, I have enough material here to make two of those.

:)

--Winnie

Reply to
Winston

Very cool.

Not as whimsical as the Kriss Kross, but built like a battleship.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Condolences. I have so little, it takes until 5pm the _second_ day for my 5 o'clock shadow to appear. Me happy!

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one's life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself. -- Louis L'Amour

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Ed Huntress wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Not a good idea, Ed. Bicycle chains depend on the grease put in at assembly, Anything that degreases the chain ruins it. Would like to try it on a stone, though. Did learn a trick in High School shop. Take a very course stone and scrape some bits onto a piece of plate glass. Add some water and use that to true and resurface a stone. Used that to straighten my old speed skate sharpening stones a number of times. Karl Pearson

Reply to
Sternpaddler

That's an interesting idea. On the couple of occassions I've had to flatten a hollowed stone I've used coarse emery cloth (silicon carbide) thumbtacked to a scrap of plywood, with some kerosene for lubricant. It works pretty quick on an aluminum oxide stone, which is the only kind I've had to flatten.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

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