"The Natural Philosopher" wrote ...
Broadback wrote:

This reminded me that my Father used the (now old fashion) slotted
blades that fitted into the razor. He kept a jam jar and when the blade
became blunt he would wet the inside of the jar the place the blade
inside then work it round and round to sharpen it for reuse. Can't do
that with the modern ones! :-)

Can you still get these blades? frankly that sort of razor is what I
started with, and they still turn up now and a again in car boot
sales..and frankly, I'd go back like a shot if I could..

I still have and use a couple of Rolls razors - single-blade safety razor in
a case with a stone one one lid, a strop on the other and a clever
rack/pinion/friction clutch so that one can waggle a handle and hone and
strop the blade (which produces a noise like, well, a steel blade repeatedly
whacking on a stone, only much, much louder!) - they turn up in junk^h^h^h^h
"antique" shops now and then, and give a good shave for a single blade [x].
There are a couple or more variations, my favourite is the aluminium
Viscount "travel" model, half the weight of the original nickel plated brass
ones - they're still available[y] new, should anyone have the urge, through
Caswell Massey Pharmacies, the Pharmacy at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York
City!

Mine has gone for about 10 years on two blades, and if my girlfriend borrows
it (unlikely, as it *looks* quite frightening), she can resharpen it in a
few minutes...

Dave H.
(The engineer formerly known as Homeless)

[x] The multi-blade razors do actually shave better than single - there's a
phenomenon (do doo-bie doobie) known as "beard hysteresis" such that the
first pass tugs the hair out of the follicle slightly and the hair takes
about 50 - 100 milliseconds to return to rest, allowing a second ( to n-th)
blade to remove slightly more of the hair.

[y] On ebay they seem to only reach a few quid, less than a pack of
blades... Check that they're complete and undamaged, broken hones and cut
strops can render them useless.