Keep your DE blades sharp !

[5savages]

Cryogenics, man, cryogenics. If you're not using cryogenics, you might as well give up.

[Rjack]

laser hair removal. Solves all these problems.

[nteeman]

Why not put the magnet in your mouth while shaving. Use your tongue to move it to the area you are shaving and that way you could actually be sharpening the blade as you use it! If this works you may look into flavored magnets so they will taste good at the same time you are sharpening your blade while shaving. Of course you must be careful not to swallow your magnet - that could lead to dull blades.

[goby]

Part of me says "This is so silly." HOWEVER......

Isn't the difference between a great blade and terrible blade measured in microns? We certainly can't see a sharp blade vs. a dull blade. Could a magnet change things just enough?

Or perhaps all blades really should last 3 weeks? I've going for Shave 9 with my Dorco today.

[bkfist]

...and do you feel some Agyptian grittyness when using blades treated this way? Which sides of the pyramids is most effective

I think that 99.9% of mystics agree that the INside is most effective.

[Icebear]

No... it doesn't get "bent over" and sharpening is not a process of "straightening it out".
It gets worn and rounded, and can only be sharpened by grinding that edge back to a point.

Even if the edge were simply being "bent over", simply resting it on a magnet would not straighten it out.

Look up some posts from user Seraphim. He's posted some beautiful microscope images of straight razors that he has sharpened, showing the various stages in the sharpening process.
Sharpening is a process of REMOVING metal... not bending it.
Every time a razor is sharpened, the width of the blade is reduced by a few microns.


Also...

Take your blade out of the razor and see if it even sticks to the magnet.
Most modern blades are stainless and a magnet will have no effect on it.

Hi Rich,

thanks a lot for your time taking it at least not only from the mystic/funny side ...
I have a sharpening DVD from JapaneseKnives.com which gives very valuable info about sharpening. At least it improved my technique so I sharpen and don't actually ruin my knives. I do sharpen my kitchen knifes with various Japanese wet stones and after the 6k grid they are decently sharp, I haven't tried shaving yet .

Once the thin edge is gone indeed the blade itself can only be sharpened by grinding, actually removing material, you're absolutely right.
On western style knife that you keep sharp on a steel however there is a thin edge which actually is used to cut and not the blade itself.
I will try to take a picture of the edge of my chef's knife and see if I can work something out to explain it better. This thin edge is usually not worn but just bent and for a certain amount of time just putting it back in the upright position by honing on a sharpening steel will be sufficient to continue cutting. At some point you will need to grind a new edge.

And yes, definitely the blades are magnetic, the only metal part in my Merkur Bakelit is the blade and it does stick to the magnet. Of course the magnet also sticks to the DE blades alone but the point is that the edge is just near but not in direct contact with the magnet otherwise you dull the edge like with too heavy corking instead of pulling the edge.

And don't let someone kid yourself about "ah, that's just a magnet, that's never gonna pull a metal edge in position" Once you experienced two of these little neodymium critters clash together and you tried to take them apart, you will have some respect. They come with warning instructions ... no kids toy etc.

[Cogwulf]

Take your blade out of the razor and see if it even sticks to the magnet.
Most modern blades are stainless and a magnet will have no effect on it.

Stainless blades are magnetic. Ask anyone with a BRW handle.

Razors are only around 15% Chromium and no other major alloying elements. They are slightly less magnetic than mild steel but not by much. Stainless steel usually stays magnetic until you start adding lots of nickel or manganese.


An interesting thing about magnets which is similar to this idea, is the use of magnets wrapped around water pipes to prevent limescale formation. It has been shown to work by causing the lime to form a different structure which has a higher solubility in water rather than the form which causes permanent deposits, no one is sure why though.
As for razors though, I can't see any similar process happening to stop it corroding. Also, I thought that it has generally been shown that mechanical damage to the edge is the main factor in shortening blade life and there is negligible change during the time it is not being used, so if a magnet does make any difference to the life of the blade it would only be if you were using the razor once a month.

[mblakele]

Razors are only around 15% Chromium and no other major alloying elements. They are slightly less magnetic than mild steel but not by much. Stainless steel usually stays magnetic until you start adding lots of nickel or manganese.

Yes - folks often have very simplistic ideas about stainless steel. Engineers specify a broad variety of corrosion-resistant steels with widely-varying properties, and then everyone calls them all "stainless" and expects identical behavior. I have some "all stainless" table knives that use two different grades, with the result that the blades are ferromagnetic and the handles are not. The blades occasionally develop rust specks, which I polish off. The handle material does not, but it probably would not take a decent edge either.

An interesting thing about magnets which is similar to this idea, is the use of magnets wrapped around water pipes to prevent limescale formation. It has been shown to work by causing the lime to form a different structure which has a higher solubility in water rather than the form which causes permanent deposits, no one is sure why though.
As for razors though, I can't see any similar process happening to stop it corroding. Also, I thought that it has generally been shown that mechanical damage to the edge is the main factor in shortening blade life and there is negligible change during the time it is not being used, so if a magnet does make any difference to the life of the blade it would only be if you were using the razor once a month.

Are we talking about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_water_treatment or something else? The authors of the wikipedia article seem skeptical: http://www.epjap.org/action/displayA...86004202000253 seems to be the only favorable study they cite, and there are several unfavorable citations. Here's part of the abstract from the favorable study:

The amount of deposit for untreated water, composed mostly of calcite, increased exponentially with temperature reaching 20 g/m of tube at the warm end of the heat exchanger. The mass of the deposit for magnetically treated water did not depend on temperature and was only ca. 0.5 g/m of tube. It was composed of mainly noncrystalline silica-rich material. Further results were obtained from the practical installation at three blocks of a 1 GW power plant. The soft, amorphous deposit for magnetically treated water had a specific surface area of 80 m2/g and an infrared spectrum similar to that of a silicate hydrogel. Therefore, it appeared that, as a result of the passage through the magnetic device, crystallization of carbonates in water was blocked due to initiation of another, competitive process. This process is the activation of the colloidal silica, which will adsorb calcium, magnesium or other metal ions and then precipitate from the solution as the coagulated agglomerate. The most probable mechanism responsible for silica activation is a Lorentz-force induced deformation of the diffuse layer leading to the increased counterion concentration in the adsorption layer of the negatively charged silica.

If the magnetic force were strong to keep normal scale from forming, then the razor idea might be somewhat plausible under some circumstances. According to the study quoted at http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthr...feather-blades the degradation in Feather blades after five shaves, visible under scanning electron microscope (SEM), was not from corrosion. Mechanical damage may not be the most important factor either, although it was observed.

...deterioration is a function of the number of shaves, not a function of corrosion due to humidity. Grains on the faces of either side of the bevel are shown to pull out with continued use, leaving behind a textured surface that might be responsible for nicks and cuts. Portions of the very tip are also fractured off as seen from the side profile view which may also lead to nicks and cuts. The edge tip radius of the razor blade has also been shown to increase with continued use, which will hinder the ability of the razor blade to shear through whiskers given the greater surface area. The razor blades were likely sputtered with a very thin layer of Pt only for protection of the blade during the shelf life, or possibly marketing. It should be stated that this experiment has a very small sample size of razor blades, and all of the shaving was performed by one individual. Any inconsistencies with the experimenter would lead to inaccurate results. More testing shaves would be needed with various razor blades, performed by various people, in order to get better quantitative results.

The experimenter was not able to identify the source of the extra material on the blade edge, which increased the tip radius. I had guessed soap scum, but calcite deposits might be a reasonable candidate. If so, preventing calcite deposits might make the blade feel sharper through more shaves - but would not prevent nicks from surface roughening or edge damage. Also, water hardness seems to affect soap scum, and that might be involved.

Interesting stuff, but more study is needed. I think it's unlikely that an ordinary fridge magnet would have much of an effect, but with hard water a strong rare-earth magnet or electromagnet might.

[Go West Young Man]

If you spin your razor at the right speed while setting in on the magnet, you can generate enough current to run a scuttle to heat your lather.

[mkornecki]

...There is no scientific proof of any kind ...

You should have stopped right there, instead of replying in a pseudoscientific way to people who correctly alluded to the riduclousness of your claim.

You have as much evidence of those who claim that chanting "sharpa sharpa sharpa" at their blades 3 times a day aids longevity, which is none.

I am offended by this quackery.

I

[binowatch]

It would be interesting to start a thread documenting all the techniques proposed to make razor blades last longer. We have so far: 1. Rest on Magnet 2. soak in alcohol. 3. soak in mineral oil. 4. I will add soak in Ballistol (really like soaking in mineral oil. 5.?? ANY OTHERS?

[Icebear]

You should have stopped right there, instead of replying in a pseudoscientific way to people who correctly alluded to the riduclousness of your claim.

You have as much evidence of those who claim that chanting "sharpa sharpa sharpa" at their blades 3 times a day aids longevity, which is none.

I am offended by this quackery.

I

Ho ho ho,
sorry if you feel offended by someone sharing an experience that worked for him and could possibly work for others too. I have no commercial interest in this, just sharing something for anyone positively interested in thinking about it and potentially give it a try himself. If you come around a magnet just try it yourself. 2$ will not burn a huge whole in anyone's pocket, will it? Relax.

[Oblique Human]

Does your shave experience vary drastically when you don't follow this regimen i.e. razor burn etc ?

[Matt555]

I use a blade once and then throw it away. That is how I make sure I always have a sharp blade! It is foolproof.

[mkornecki]

Ho ho ho,
sorry if you feel offended by someone sharing an experience that worked for him and could possibly work for others too. I have no commercial interest in this, just sharing something for anyone positively interested in thinking about it and potentially give it a try himself. If you come around a magnet just try it yourself. 2$ will not burn a huge whole in anyone's pocket, will it? Relax.

Please tell me how you properly aligned the magnet fields of the magnet with the blade of the razor, so that the blade is properly aligned instead of being further warped.

You are contributing to the dumbing down of society.

[global_dev]

It would be interesting to start a thread documenting all the techniques proposed to make razor blades last longer. We have so far: 1. Rest on Magnet 2. soak in alcohol. 3. soak in mineral oil. 4. I will add soak in Ballistol (really like soaking in mineral oil. 5.?? ANY OTHERS?

jeans or palm stropping?

[Oblique Human]

You should have stopped right there, instead of replying in a pseudoscientific way to people who correctly alluded to the riduclousness of your claim.


You have as much evidence of those who claim that chanting "sharpa sharpa sharpa" at their blades 3 times a day aids longevity, which is none.

I am offended by this quackery.

I

Why would you be offended? Why are you offended? What Icebear describes in perfectly good faith is no more quackery than palm-stropping or hanging our brushes to dry upside-down. We are a group of like-minded people going against the current, indulging in a practice deemed unduly time consuming and uneconomical by millions and even the original tool manufacturers themselves. We nurture a habit based upon deep personal experience and that is what bonds us here, from guys from Maine to Pakistan to Japan. I relish these tidbits members share and you, Sir, have absolutely no right to insult a member in such a manner.

I am offended by your narrow-minded intolerance.

[mkornecki]

Why would you be offended? Why are you offended?

His attempt to offer up some sort of rebuttal against those who correctly lump his claim in with pyramid power(for example), is offensive. I find those who speak to others, as if they know, when they know squat, insulting.

I am offended by your narrow-minded intolerance.

Careful there, I might just point my magnets in your direction. You should be awed, cause you know ... MAGNETS.

[xraygun]

It would be interesting to start a thread documenting all the techniques proposed to make razor blades last longer. We have so far: 1. Rest on Magnet 2. soak in alcohol. 3. soak in mineral oil. 4. I will add soak in Ballistol (really like soaking in mineral oil. 5.?? ANY OTHERS?

My dip in 151. The golden color of Rum has sharpening qualities.

[Oblique Human]

His attempt to offer up some sort of rebuttal against those who correctly lump his claim in with pyramid power(for example), is offensive. I find those who speak to others, as if they know, when they know squat, insulting.

You do realize that its not the kid that looks dumb when an adult mocks his imaginary friend?