Don’t Throw Old Razors Away
These days I have been doing a lot of thinking about my daily hygiene and beauty routine as it relates to a long term survival situation. I don’t want to appear frivolous but for me, feeling clean and looking nice are an important part of feeling good about myself in general. I do not think that my thoughts in this regard are limited to women and in fact, the Survival Husband feels much the same way, albeit without the need for a touch of lipstick and blush.
While an article on survival hygiene is long overdue, today I want to share with you a great tip for increasing the longevity of razor blades. Anyone who shaves – and this includes men and their beards and ladies and their legs – knows two things. One, razor blades are darn expensive and two, a dull razor blade will cut you up and result in a big bloody mess.
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For the past few months I have been doing some research, trying to learn how to increase the longevity of the common razor blade. One strategy that worked well was drying the blade with a hair dryer after each use. Good to know, of course, but highly impractical in a survival situation.
I recently learned of a new technique and after testing with three separate razors, I can attest to its efficacy.
Sharpening a Razor Blade Using Blue Jeans
This method of sharpening a dull razor blade is so very simple that I am surprised more people don’t know about it.
1. Clean your razor in a little cup of soapy water.
Let it sit for awhile so that all of the old goo and gunk float away.
What I did was spray some of my Tea Tree Wonderful in a glass and let the razor soak for about an hour. I could not believe the crud that came loose!
2. Dry your razor by shaking away then excess moisture the wiping it off with a towel (or in my case, a microfiber cloth).
This is called stropping. Remember, you want to run the shaver backwards!
That’s it – easy peasy.
The Testimonial
When I was done sharpening the razor blades, I handed the Survival Husband his razor and told him to give it a try. Now let me say this: he was doubtful to say the least.
The first words out of his mouth were “Wow, this is really sharp”. I asked him how old the blade was and he said about a month. It was ready for the trash any day now.
Need convincing?
As part of my research, I came across the following YouTube video. It demonstrates the process for you and although the author refers to sharpening a disposable razor, in my tests a standard razor (not the disposable type) worked equally well.
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