Using Tandy's Safety Blades

[chainedrose]

i have an australian strander, a safety beveller and a super skiver, all from tandy's. All of them use the safety blades.

since i live in India, and dont have an easy access to the blades, i was wondering if there is any way to maximise the utility of each blade.

can i re-use the blade across the 3 tools? eg: since i need the sharpest edge in the strander, i use it there first and then on the beveller or skiver? or will a slightly dull blade not work efficiently on a beveller/skiver?

also how can i re-sharpen the blades for using again?

[mlapaglia]

Slightly dull blades wont work anywhere else.. You can strop the blades as long as you can come up with someway to hold them. You might look around for single edge injector razor blades. Thats all they are. Just bulk packed instead of in an injector.

[dirtclod]

I have got more use from them by using a buffing wheel on a grinder to slick up the edge. Their kinda tricky to hold though

[mlapaglia]

Maybe hold them in a pair of channel locks.

[bruce johnson]

I hold them with visegrips if I go to the wheel. At least here they are getting harder to find in the injector packs in the drug stores. That said, those are sharper for me than the Tandy ones. The Tandy ones seem sharper out of the pack than the CS Osborne 100 packs too.

[chainedrose]

Thank You. i will certainly try looking for the razor blades. perhaps i can find a way to cut a double edge one into two.

[dirtclod]

You can put a single edge safety razor blade in a vise and break it off. I've done that a few times after seeing where a guy did it on here. Sometimes it works better than others brakeing the blade.

[sinpac]

how can i re-sharpen the blades for using again?

I am just throwing this out there. I watch my Grandfather take his old double edge razor blade he shaved with, he put one in a old ceramic coffee mug(like the old white ones they had at diners) take his index finger and position the razor blade on the inside wall of the mug. He would slide the blade with his index finger back and forth inside the mug(half circle) and hold the mug with his other hand. Now I was pretty young when I watch him do it and I asked him why he was doing that for, his response this was how you stretched a dollar back in the great depression. I can tell you those blade were sharp enough to shave with again and again and again.

Chris

Edited January 4, 2013 by sinpac

[dirtclod]

You can use a cup, plate or anything else that has been fired to sharpen a knife. Use the part that has no glaze on the bottom it works. I tried it after i seen a movie on you tube where they did that. It does leave a black mark on what ever your using. I think you can do the same thing with the back of a ceramic tile.

Edited January 4, 2013 by dirtclod

[sinpac]

You can use a cup, plate or anything else that has been fired to sharpen a knife. Use the part that has no glaze on the bottom it works. I tried it after i seen a movie on you tube where they did that. It does leave a black mark on what ever your using. I think you can do the same thing with the back of a ceramic tile.

I think he used the mug because of the shape of the mug and the angle on the blade it some how works. It's all about taming the bur on the edge

[hidenorhair]

Sorry for the thread resurrection but thought I'd share a simple way to keep the edge on these blades a bit longer. I know they're not massively expensive, but every little helps. I was using 2, sometimes 3 blades for every watch strap I was making, now I can get through a strap without changing the blade at all.

Upon reading about stropping one day (straight razors) I came across a few people who have had success using newspaper. And believe it or not it actually works. I keep a couple of sheets on my desk when I'm working and every now and then just run the safety beveller the opposite direction up the newsprint a dozen or so times, turn the blade in the beveller to get the other side, then do the same thing. They keep their edge much longer.