Sharpening disposable gillette progide blades

[Brian Deakin]

Can anyone please advise s it possible to sharpen or prolong the life of disposable blades?

I have seen links to stropping using denim

My question could I stop the blade using a arkansas jewellers stone


regards Brian

[Jim Matthews]

There are lots of gizmos designed to make these last longer.

Every one of them has the same problem, the blade housing
will drag and keep the hone or strop from touching one or more blade.

The straight edge razor afficionadae will rightly hold up their blades as the pinnacle of shaving excellence.
(Cheaper, in the long run too.)

I recommend you seach "Dorco" and buy those, instead.
If you search the clearance kiosks of Target you will often find
outdated store brand razors, made by Dorco for little money.

Disposable razors are aptly named.

Get your cost per unit down below 50 cents, and be done with it.

Been there, done that, bought a commerative T-shirt.

[David Weaver]

If you're going to try it, you want clean smooth leather. As smooth as you can find.

Straight razor is a good option, too.
Some of those blades are coated (all of them?) With something really hard that might not like stropping or respond to it at all.

In my opinion, you want to go to an old Gillette double edge style razor and use an inexpensive blade like astra (12 cents each and very good) if you want to get away from the scam that the current razor cartridges have become.

[Rod Sheridan]

I agree with David, buy a new razor that takes the standard double edged blades.

The blades are less than 50 cents each, the razors work great.

Sometimes newer isn't better...........Rod.

[Myk Rian]

Don't shave, but take on the new look by using a trimmer.

[John Pratt]

you might try the guys over at shavemyface.com (a forum dedicated shaving)

[David Weaver]

One of the members on SRP (another forum) was claiming 8 months on a cartridge where he used "Scrub leather" (his term, suppose that means rough) and then followed it by stropping on chromium oxide treated leather. He said it was better than new.

It's worth a shot. Check on graded chromium oxide powder or sticks over there (I know you can get them in the UK, the straight razor community has a ton of UK members).

I'd still rather use a straight razor, but it's definitely not cheaper to use a straight razor if you can stretch a cartridge out to use one or two a year. Before I shaved with a straight razor, I used to stretch my cartridges to 2 or 3 months each out of cheapness. The only thing I had to do was get used to shaving with a cartridge that is a bit more dull. Probably the damage on them is more of a problem than the wear, and the chromium oxide would smooth that out.

[Bill Gugel]

Dry the blade after each use. It will stay sharp a lot longer.

[Howard Garner]

Agree!
Dry and CLEAN.
Makes then last much longer.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I agree with the others- get a safety razor (double edge disposable blade old-school razor) and if you are really frugal you can strop the blades to sharpen them, although blades are very cheap. A good safety razor will shave almost as good as a straight razor.

As as for smooth leather, I discovered that my low angle planes with very sharp blades could be used to smooth the surface of veg-tan leather, and I also sand it with fine grit just like wood to get it smooth. I use that for strops. Charge with green chromium oxide. I sharpen blades for razor knives that way.