Anyone use or know anything about about blade sharpener for DE razor blades

Caltech

Caltech

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Location
Edinburgh
I came across two different types of razor sharp ears on the bay . One from Bulgaria and seems to involve placing blade inside small box and pulling a string that moves series of what looks like small sharpening stones over the blade . The other is a glass block made by Lillicraps in a u shape and I can't figure out how you would use it without slicing your fingers to bits . Glass one comes in all different shades but he green one seems to be made of a toxic waste iridium ?
I don't want to buy and use them as what's the point blades are very cheap , just intrigued me and wanted to find more info on them ( I did a search to see if I could find anything that was posted before but didn't find anything )
I would have added pictures , but keeps coming up with a block when I try to do that ?
 
I had a Lillicrap hone in once ... it's from an era when DE blades were a LOT more rigid. For blades of any flexibility, the curve becomes useless. It's a nice piece of kit if you're collecting redundant shaving artefacts. Apparently, folks could also strop/hone their blades on the inside of a drinking glass, using the same sort of curve.
 
pjgh said:
I had a Lillicrap hone in once ... it's from an era when DE blades were a LOT more rigid. For blades of any flexibility, the curve becomes useless. It's a nice piece of kit if you're collecting redundant shaving artefacts. Apparently, folks could also strop/hone their blades on the inside of a drinking glass, using the same sort of curve.
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The ones from India are £50 to £100 & shipping and excessive at that price but the Bulgaria ones only £20 and very intriguing design
 
pjgh said:
I had a Lillicrap hone in once ... it's from an era when DE blades were a LOT more rigid. For blades of any flexibility, the curve becomes useless. It's a nice piece of kit if you're collecting redundant shaving artefacts. Apparently, folks could also strop/hone their blades on the inside of a drinking glass, using the same sort of curve.
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I've got one, but I think I've lost the box, which knocks a lot off the value. The glass is uranium glass, which is mildly radioactive (note to self; must remember to shave my hairy paws and clip these claws tomorrow), and, as you say, they're not much use for modern blades. I have used mine, not very successfully, for touching up old Valet and Gem-type SE blades, and with a suitable blade holder, I suppose it could do something for wedge blades. However, as you say, they're more of a collector's piece than anything else.
 
pjgh said:
... anyway, suffice to say that re-sharpening "disposable" razor blades was very much a thing folks did in the past. There are probably as many sharpening devices as there are blades and certainly some blades warranted their own sharpeners.
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Looking around, it seems that nowadays the main interest in re-sharpening blades lies among the cartridge razor user community, for whom there seem to be a number of gadgets, many apparently based on the "better mousetrap" design principle. As we are up to our ears in statistics at the moment, it would be interesting to see the relationships between blade cost and resharpening for DE blades then, and cartridges now. But I digress..
 
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An interesting concept. If you look at old mechanical engineering ideas, they were absolutely fantastic! It's not the fact that blades are cheap, but why not try to get more out of them.

If you applied the same rational to a razor, then why not replace it every six months. Divide the price by 180, not too costly, but we don't think of that because they are still usable,
 
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