Leon wrote:
"Hoyt Weathers" wrote in message
...

and I nicked myself, again, a question of the obvious struck me. How do
they sharpen
razor blades? The thingies stay sharp for a month or more. [I do not shave
each day.]
Those thingies must be made and sharpened in the millions every shift. Are
there any
clues in their secret methods which would be helpful to woodworkers? I am
just
guessing now, but I think the makers use a procedure with a narrow steel
alloy ribbon
about a mile or more long, then sharpen one edge of that ribbon on one or
both sides,
then blank out the individual blades. Assembly would then be a piece of
cake. How do
they sharpen that edge?



And why do they not use the same materials after the product has been on the
market for a year or so. 4 or 5 years ago I got a sample razor with 2
refills IIRC. It was a double blade coated with near microscopic diamonds.
No kidding, I used the first razor for 1 year, but not shaving every day,
before changing to one of the refills. The refills lasted quite long also.
When I bought replacements, I was less than impressed. 1 month was about
it.


That's why they do the durability testing mentioned above. That way
they can find out if there products are lasting too long and develop
ways to shorten their life. Only selling one set of replacement blades
a year isn't profitable business.

It's like the old story where the happy customer wrote the company
bragging that the great toaster he bought from them lasted 40 years.
The company bought the toaster from him for a lot more than he paid for
it. They wanted to ensure that that mistake never happened again...