The Stanford 5 Second Sharpener

Discussion in 'Safety Razors' started by PLANofMAN, Jul 26, 2012.

  1. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    I can't fault your logic. It's impeccable.
    I totally agree with that. That is why I decided to give this a try originally. This machine is designed to actually hone as well as strop. Which meant that potentially, it might work on stainless blades, since everyone knows that stropping is useless when used on stainless blades.

    According to the instruction sheet that came with this device, It both hones and strops. If it does either, it does it in a way that I've never seen any other DE stropping tool do. I've inspected the edges of stainless and carbon blades that I've honed or stropped (however you choose to interpret the machine's instructions) to destruction (in one sitting, 50-100 strokes) and it does remove metal over time. It regrinds the bevel, or rather, shaves the metal down until a new bevel is formed. Whether or not I can get a month's worth of shaves or a year's worth as the manufacturer's claimed...I don't know yet. Does it work on stainless blades? According to my friend, it does. He has no reason to lie to me. I've gotten at least 6 days of good shaves from a carbon blade out of this thing, when before I couldn't get one pass from a carbon blade. This is an ongoing experiment for my own curiosity that I thought would be fun to share with the forum, it is also a record that others can look at and read before deciding for themselves whether or not they want to try it for themselves. I've got another one of these coming in the mail in the next week or so. If you want, Greg, I'll send it on to you to try for a while. When you've finished with it, mail it back to me. Just PM me your address.
     
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  2. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    I do.
     
  3. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    Now I'm going to have DOPE's version of "The roof is on fire" song stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Thanks for reminding me, Gorgo.

    Shave 7 with the Gillette thin carbon.

    Last night's shave. Stropped/sharpened the blade with 7 swipes. Nice three pass shave. No initial roughness at all. I'm very happy because I got an almost BBS shave this time around. This marks the first time I've ever gotten 7 good shaves from one blade.

    My backup sharpener arrived in the mail yesterday. The sharpener was in poor shape and a misalignment in the innards causes the blade to catch.:( I completely disassembled it and gave it a good cleaning. It works better but is by no means smooth. I think I'll take it apart again and take some pictures so you guys can see exactly how the action of this machine works. Stay tuned for more details.
     
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  4. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    Another assimilant into the Carbonite Collective!
     
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  5. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    I'm old, I do not know the reference.

    My lawn, etc.
     
  6. gregindallas

    gregindallas Rolls Razor Revivalist

    Waaaay back in the day……….we used to have real magnesium wheels on our aircraft. I’ve had exactly one flash on me and it was exciting (5000f + 4000 gal GP ). Ground crew had responsibility for the fire, flight crew’s job was to run and syncopate the Lord’s Prayer with our foot falls. :D
     
  7. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    Were you in the plane or on the flight crew?

    At my dad's machine shop, there was a new guy turning a piece of magnesium on his lathe. He let it get a little too hot. It melted his lathe into a pile of slag and burned a twenty foot hole in the roof- which had a forty foot ceiling. Fun time was had by all.
     
  8. gregindallas

    gregindallas Rolls Razor Revivalist

    Flight crew. I was suprised how fast I could move in a poopy suit.
    10.jpg
     
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  9. richgem

    richgem suffering from chronic clicker hand cramps

    It wasn't all that bad... the Limecat let me swing by for a visit. :)
     
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  10. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    Quick update, I got shave number 8 with the carbon out of the way a day or two ago, but have been playing with a new toy, so it might be a few days before I get back to the carbon in my fatboy. My new shake sharp razor might inadvertently skew the test, so I have been using stainless blades with it. I'll post a link when I get done reviewing it.
     
  11. richgem

    richgem suffering from chronic clicker hand cramps

    Sweet!
     
  12. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    Okay, I got my back up sharpener disassembled, took pictures and fixed it before I put it all back together.:D
    [​IMG]
    First picture. This is one side of the sharpening mechanism. The little thing in the center is what the blade mounts onto.
    [​IMG]
    Here you can see how the teeth mesh together to form a surface that the edge of the blade will rub against.
    [​IMG]
    Blade mounted on prongs.
    [​IMG]
    Blade as it appears inside the machine.

    Sorry about the crappy pictures, it's harder than I thought to take close ups of something the size of a matchbox.
     
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  13. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    Shave 9 complete, with a twist. Pat (5Savages) sent me a 1925 three hole Gillette blade, (Thank you Pat!) to try in this machine. I inspected the blade and came to the conclusion that it had previously been honed and stropped. There were no grind marks on the blade edge at all, just the high reflective polish of a honed edge. I threw it in the sharpener anyway and used it for the first pass in an old Merkur 4 piece travel razor from the 40's. It shaved smoothly, and I will use it again for vintage week, but it was disconcerting at the same time because of the thickness of the blade. There was no flex and no feedback at all. Second pass and touch ups were done with the Gillette thin. 5 swipes in the sharpener and another smooth predictable, boring shave. This will be the last shave with this blade for a while. I may never get back to it. I will be moving on to some of Gorgo's PIF blades, more to review than test them. I will test them here and review them in Gorgo's PIF thread. Then I'll try to get back to what I was originally trying to do- see if this machine works on stainless blades.:D
     
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  14. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    My super blues came in today. Not only were they the later fluorocarbon coated blades, they were also all coated in oil. naturally, I choose to try one of those in my latest razor, the shake sharp. I really love the way that razor shaves, and I now see why the super blues are considered one of the finest carbon blades ever made. I have nothing further to say. I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
     
  15. macaronus

    macaronus Sir Nice-a-Lot

    Ryan kindly sent his spare sharpener over the globe so us'n can try it out!

    I opted for a Punktal blade and loaded it in a Gillette Old Style OC.

    I've got a few of these blades. They are paper thin (0.06 mm in stead of the more usual 0.08 mm, so 25% thinner!) The blade actually flaps when you wave it around! I've no idea as to age, but they are Dutch (at least the print on the blades is). They are made of Swedish steel (or so the printing states).

    punktal.jpg

    I've got two razors to which these blades fit. This one and the Ugly Duckling. I just felt like using an OC. So the Gillette it was! I really love this razor, though it could use a replating. But it is a comfortable shaver.

    Thursday & friday I used it thus far. Before the first shave I sharpened the blade (5 x in the sharpener) and I'll do that after each shave, so the next day it should be as new. These first two shaves were excellent! Twice DFS++. See what happens the next few days! If the sharpener is as good is it states, I guess I might sharpen all my vintage blades before I send the sharpener to the next in line!
     
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  16. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    If any of those blades have rust on the edge, you might as well toss those now. The sharpener won't get all the rust off, and it's not worth getting a Tetanus booster shot for a shave.:p
     
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  17. IAmTheJody

    IAmTheJody Gillette-i Master Staff Member

    Well. I used mine on a rust-free vintage 1920s Gillette blade and rust-free vintage 1930s Palmolive blade. I tossed them and the sharpener in the trash. Need I say more? :kar: :happy097:
     
  18. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

  19. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    It didn't work for me either the first time I had one. It took experimentation and time for me to figure out the best way to use it. I ruined about six blades before giving it to my friend. This time around, I've had better luck, but it was still trial and error for the first week and a half.;) If I hadn't been convinced that it really did work, I would have given up on it too.:)
     
  20. macaronus

    macaronus Sir Nice-a-Lot

    Today (sunday) was the third shave. Because of a bit wet lather (I'll have to get used to the new badger brush), the shave was a bit rough, but a DFS++ was the result. Again I gave the blade 5 sequences in the sharpener after the shave, so it will be ready tomorrow's shave.
     

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