this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2024
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Straight Razors
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@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.
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?
I agree about the combustion engines. Could have been coal-fired steam also.
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
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.
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.