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Comment by jasonlotito | Hacker News Reader

I learned a while back about the idea of sharpening your blades. I know, it's obvious. The idea is that these disposable blades that you buy in packs of 4 can actually last quite a while if you 'sharpen' them. Basically, wet the razers, and then run it up your arm. Make sure you drag it across so you aren't shaving your arm, but rather, running the blades face across your arm, sharpening it.

Wow. That's a really bad description. Hopefully you understand. You have my apologies for forcing you through that mess.

Anyways, it's really helped with the life span of my blades. Before I shave, I run them across my arm 10 times, real quick. Takes all of 5 seconds, and then I commence with the shaving.

It's like running a knife of a leather strap to help keep it sharp. Look! A concise description. >_< Need more coffee to get back to default awareness.

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You should get a strop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_strop

You aren't actually sharpening the blades, just honing them. This is essentially the same process you perform on a honing steel for your kitchen knives. The leather is used instead of a steel due to how thin the blades of your razor are. If you don't have a strop you could also use an old pair of jeans. Either way I wouldn't use your arm as if something did go wrong with the cartridge you could end up with severe cuts. I've had plenty of those cheap cartridges gillette mounts their blades in break and expose their innards.

By using a strop I typically get a cartridge to last for a couple of months before I toss it. They could probably last longer, but that's enough for me. I buy blades maybe once every couple of years due to a combination of stropping and growing a full beard each winter.

I've also tried moving to a safety razor but I dislike shaving enough that I'm not willing to spend that much time on the process each morning so stropping the modern blades is a happy middle ground of savings and convenience.

Here's the Consumerist article and video that popped up on this a few months ago. It's been working pretty well for me so far: http://consumerist.com/2010/03/make-your-disposable-razor-bl...

Yes, that's it! Thank you! That's where I learned it.

This was on Reddit a few months ago. I started running the blade against my arm before and after a shave and not only have I prolonged the life of the blade, but it's actually sharper than a new blade. It really has saved me a ton of money on razor purchases and I feel like I'm sticking it to the man a little also. I'm still using the same blade for over 3 months now.

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