Straight Razors

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Straight razor use, honing and restoration

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The hard life of a razor grinder (self.straight_razors)

submitted 1 month ago by HomeAwayFromHone to c/straight_razors

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I was researching some razors to put up for sale and was reminded of a sad story I saw on James Bingham's Hawley entry:

He was interviewed by a government commission on child labour, when he stated that when he was ‘first in the trade the average age of razor grinders at death was 34’. He said that exhaust fans had improved matters, so that ‘we have some men of good age. The effect of the work depends very much on the temperance of the workers’

...we really don't fully appreciate the labour standards we have, wow.

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[–] djundjila 2 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Wow. I wonder what made it so unhealthy. This is brutal 😞

[–] HomeAwayFromHone 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@walden@sub.wetshaving.social had a good guess with the metal dust. Maybe lead if they're making wedges there as well or who knows what randomly toxic stuff they were using at that point to dress the leather in stropping wheels and whatever other process they had. Seems lung related somehow though since fans made the difference. I did actually try searching archive.org for that "Fourth Report of the Children’s Employment Commission" back before it got hacked but wasn't able to find anything.

[–] djundjila 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Seems lung related somehow though since fans made the difference.

That was my thought as well. Metal dust doesn't get into the lungs easily since it's heavy. I wonder if they were actually running combustion engines (presumably steam engines given the time) indoors?

[–] gcgallant 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I agree about the combustion engines. Could have been coal-fired steam also.

Metal dust doesn’t get into the lungs easily since it’s heavy

When I first started using belt sanders and sharpening wheels to sharpen knives, I noticed metal dust everywhere. Because I like to clean up at the end of the day, I found films of it that I could not see. Since it was obviously airborne, I chose to assume that it could be a problem. A water mist helped with the belt sanders and abrasive wheels, but was a disaster for a paper sharpening wheel. The easy solution was strategically located magnetic metal plates since most knife steels are martensitic.

@HomeAwayFromHone@sub.wetshaving.social

[–] HomeAwayFromHone 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That certainly doesn't sound super healthy! And I remembered another one: I think at one point molten lead was used for hardening steel? Bet that has some lovely fumes too.

[–] gcgallant 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

And, lead was used as material for bushings in rotating machinery in those days too.

But … the work those guys did was amazing. So much style and attention to detail was put into those razors. Far too few people get to appreciate them.

[–] HomeAwayFromHone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oof ya I bet there was a lot of CO poisoning before we understood that. Maybe from forges for hardening?

[–] djundjila 2 points 1 month ago

Probably that too 😬

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