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Corking a Razor Blades

Posted on 04. Mar, 2010 by Gugel in How To

Corking a Razor Blade

I’m a big fan of Derby blades.  They’re a great value and in my review, I gave them 4.5 out of 5 stars.  But recently, a lot of people have started to complain that the quality of Derby blades has gone down hill.  KWyKJJ, that poor soul, bought 500 of ‘em before finding out they aren’t as good as they used to be! Speculation has it that Derby changed something in their manufacturing process that caused more burrs along the edge of the blade.  It seems to have affected only the blades with a vertical lettering on the packaging (see the screenshot below).  The packages with horizontal lettering are still good to go right out of the box.

Derby Horizontal vs Vertical Blades

But not everyone hates the new vertical Derby blades.  Some people still get a good shave out of them.  If you’re not satisfied with your vertical Derby, however, there’s something you can do — cork them!  Just run the edge of the blade across the cork from a wine bottle .  You can also run it across styrofoam, polystyrene, packing peanuts, or anything else of a similar texture.  Hold the blade between your index finger and thumb and cut the cork by pulling the blade towards you.  You should put minimal pressure on the blade so that only the edge goes into the cork.  You’ll need to run the blade through the cork 1 to 5 times on each side (depending on your own personal preference).

Corking can work on other blades too.  For some people, the legendary Feathers are a little too sharp on their first shave, but are excellent on the second, third, etc. shaves.  Cork a Feather and it can give you an exceptionally smooth shave the first time around.

Have you ever corked a blade?  If so, did it help give you a better shave?  Post a comment!