Sharpen razor blades on arm hair

[snopes]

Comment: By rubbing your razor blade backwards up your arm hair keeps your
razor sharp. Just wondering how this could be true - and why I have
bumped into the rumor so many places.

[Gutter Monkey]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: By rubbing your razor blade backwards up your arm hair keeps your
razor sharp. Just wondering how this could be true - and why I have
bumped into the rumor so many places.

Here's an eHow article that describes the arm hair technique for resharpening razor blades:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6138208_shar...ety-razor.html

Here's a video on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ADaRIqy0Dc

The guy in the video makes an interesting point: we used to sharpen straight razors on leather strops and the skin on your arm is leathery so it probably works the same way. Whether your arm is hairy or not probably doesn't make a difference.

[jimmy101_again]

Usually a strop is used with an abrasive. The common method for carving tools (which are best if they are razor sharp) is to use a piece of leather with automotive rubbing compound worked into it. Leather all by itself is not a great strop.

[Casey]

Originally Posted by jimmy101_again

Usually a strop is used with an abrasive. The common method for carving tools (which are best if they are razor sharp) is to use a piece of leather with automotive rubbing compound worked into it. Leather all by itself is not a great strop.

For a straight razor, though, stropping without an abrasive is a common finishing technique. It's not supposed to be an abrasive in this case, but just a way of lining the burr back up to allow smoother shaving. How well it actually works is debatable- I've only ever seen marginal gains.

[Gutter Monkey]

The blades in disposable razors are even thinner than straight razor blades so running them backwards over your skin might well reline the burr.

I use disposable razors so I'm giving it a shot, but I only shave once or twice a week so my razors usually last a while anyway.

[Gutter Monkey]

Update: it's working extremely well, I'm still using that same disposable razor that I started using in December.

[Floater]

How often do you shave?

[Dara bhur gCara]

From his photo, I'd say he'd have to shave fairly often.

[Gutter Monkey]

I just did my sums and so far it's lasted 3 times as long as it usually would and still feels as sharp as when I started using it.

[SatansHobbit]

I just tried to sharpen one using my pubes, but I think I've dislocated my wrist.

[Gutter Monkey]

I noticed my razor was 'pulling' a little today so I might start a new one. For the record, I've been sharpening the same disposable razor on my arm before using it for 5.5 months and it's only now starting to give a slightly worse shave than when it was brand new.

[Moku]

Blimey, when I still used a razor, in the dark days before epilators I never used a disposable razor more than half a dozen times, absolute max before I binned it. No matter how hard I rinsed them they always had old hairs stuck in, which I didn't much like.

[Gutter Monkey]

I found that stropping the razor on my arm also dragged out most of the hairs stuck between the blades.

[Richard W]

I think it's the hairs between the blades that make a lot of difference, as GutterMonkey said.

At the moment I shave about once a week, or possibly once every week-and-a-half, and by that time my stubble's tough enough that I can only use disposable razors about twice each. Although I do buy pretty cheap ones... supermarket brand with two blades and a "strip", that's it. I don't really see how rubbing them on my arm would help. I rub them against my thumb while I shave, but that's mostly to remove the hairs rather than sharpen them - presumably it would have a similar effect, though. I don't see why the pad of my thumb would be fundamentally different from my arm.

[Alarm]

It's definately the hair between the blades, and for those single bladed disposable (if you can find them) the thickness and coarseness of the hair to be shaved.

I shave every two days and should shave every day and I haven't found any reliable way to get a razor 1, 2, 3 or more blades to shave me right more than once or twice...

(and no, i'm not as hairy as a monkey, i just have a really thick beard, when i let it grow)