Razor blade sharpener?

Does anyone have any experiences with double edge razor sharpener? My friend just gave me what appears to be an unused Allegro Model L and I have no idea if I should use it or not.

Use it. They are not rare, even though they can be expensive(relative) to buy. I have used a Twinplex with success on a Feather blade that dulled. Although, it might not work well, due to the fact they were designed when blades were thicker. Try it on some old blades, that are dull.

I have one. It's a cool display item, and I really love to watch the mechanism flipping the blade. But I have never found a blade so dull that the Allegro could have made it sharper.

Thanks gents! I will give it a try with one of these Voskhods when I have gotten my normal use out of it.

These vintage blade sharpeners do not work well on today's blades. The reason is that modern blades edges are coated. Sharpening strips this coating, and although the blade may be sharper it will be lot less smooth.

I've had mixed results with them. I've never tried one on a new blade, and as muskus stated, it's likely it would strip off the coatings. That doesn't necessarily mean they'd give a bad shave... I think the coatings are probably overrated. But anyway, I have done a small bit of experimentation with blade stroppers. Unfortunately, while I have an Allegro L, I've not tried it yet. I'll get to it some day. I've tried the Twinplex and Kris Kross stoppers. The Twinplex I've had mixed results with. On a couple of occasions I've been able to take a blade that would not cut air hair, and return it to shaving arm hair. I shaved my face with one of those, and it felt pretty good. I've also had a couple of trials where a blade got worse by stropping (also starting with dull blades). The Kris Kross has been a lot more consistent. I've taken my used blades and returned them to usable status in all cases so far (but that's only 3 times). These blades all had 30+ shaves on them before the stropping.

I'm interested in trying my Allegro L as it's not just a stropper, but also a honer.

+1 for this. These sharpeners are interesting display pieces, but that's the extent of it.

muskus said:

These vintage blade sharpeners do not work well on today's blades. The reason is that modern blades edges are coated. Sharpening strips this coating, and although the blade may be sharper it will be lot less smooth.

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About to try the Twinplex on my Gillette Silver Blues. They don't seem to last as long as the feathers. Let's see how they strop.