Just because a razor blade is disposable doesn’t mean it can’t deliver many close and painless shaves. A sharp razor is usually a cleaner, more effective razor… and there’s a very simple way to ensure your blades are always sharp. If you’ve ever had a ‘cutthroat razor’ shave at a barber’s shop, you will probably have seen the blade being sharpened on something that closely resembles a small belt. You can recreate this simple maintenance task at home.  In this post, we’re going to discuss a few different tips and tricks about sharpening disposable razors so that you can get more life out of them and, of course, save yourself some money!

Sharpening Shaving Blades: It’s Nothing New

Before disposable razors were a thing, men used to regularly get their straight-edge razor sharpened, much in the same way they would get their knives sharpened. Back then, all it took was a sturdy piece of leather to sharpen a razor blade.

Denim: A Quick and Easy Sharpening Hack

This method of sharpening your disposable razor is a nod to the “old fashioned” way of sharpening a straight edge. One of the easiest ways to sharpen your disposable razor is by using denim. Because the metal in a disposable razor isn’t as sturdy as the metal in the straight-edge razor, you don’t need a fabric stronger than denim to sharpen it. You can either get yourself a piece of denim from a fabric or crafts store or tear up an old pair of jeans that you don’t wear anymore. Either way, put the denim piece on a flat surface (like an ironing board) and, pointing the razor away from you, run the razor down the denim about 15 times. Then, do the same thing on a different part of the denim. This process will remove the excess hair from the blades, keep them clean and sharpen them.

Stropping: Not Just for Hipsters

“Stropping” sounds like the name of a beer that a hipster would put out from his microbrewery; however, it’s actually a method for sharpening your razor blades. The process is said to be just as effective as sharpening the straight edge of the razor blade on leather or denim. In this case, the material used to sharpen the blades is suede If you’re not sure if you’re dealing with actual suede, get a leather belt, and turn it over so that the “soft” side of the belt is facing you (you can also do this with a purse strap). That soft side is the suede. Then, hang the belt (or purse strap) up and run the razor up and down the suede several times, until all of the hair and debris is off.

The Razor Pit

This is the most expensive option for sharpening your disposable razors — at ?20, it does require a bit of an investment on your part. However, it’s well worth it; even
Esquire Magazine gave it rave reviews. Using a material called a thermo-plastic elastomer (which is a type of silicon), the Razor Pit cleans and restores the blades after every use.