i was talking to someone via PM last night mainly about feather SE blades for use in an autostrop razor, and we somehow came on the topic of using NOS valet blades to shave with. having tried in the past and failed horribly, i dismissed it as a waste of time. however, my curiosity began to spark after about 15 minutes and i decided to try again with a tweaked approach. all i used in the process was a DE hone (stone) and the rubbery valet strop (model C). i was using the entire curvature of the hone during the process, pressing down with significant pressure back and forth, and then repeating for the other side of the blade. i did this for about 5 minutes. i would then strop the blade for a good 3 or so minutes and then do a face test. i had to go back and do the process a few more times, but the shave i got this morning was on par with those that i get many morning with modern blades. i got a nice, clean 2 pass shave that im really happy about.
That is really cool, but I don't think I could put the time in to it now that there is a blade available for them that is shave ready. Pretty cool though. Do you think that as the old blades were honed and stropped over time they got shorter? I wonder what kind of effect that had on shaves.
it really dosent take that long. truthfully, the day after i had to do some touch up honing for about 5 minutes, so if you did the honing in one day it would take you no more than about a half hour. i doubt the old blades were honed in this way by a lot of people as they were made in the multi millions. tomorrow will be shave #5 on the blade, and im using a really crappy rubber valet strop that i have to put under a window, close and lock to hold flat to use, so it can be done.
