Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Help bluing razor blade

dietermoreno

Dec 30, 2012
238
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
238
When I held my razor blade with tongs in the blue flame of my kitchen gas range, all it did was the plastic lighted on fire and my kitchen now smells bad.

I didn't know plastic was that flamable! I guess since plastic is made out of petroleum, it burns as good as gasoline!

Is it okay if the razor blade has plastic around it, or this no good?

My razor blade was not intended to be removed from the razor. The razor is disposable and I got it in the mail for my 18th birthday from Gillete for free and that's the only razor that I have been using every day for the past 3 years until 9 months ago the razor stopped working (the blade was dull) so I gave up and now I have a 3 inch long beard from not shaving in 9 months.

To remove the razor blade from the razor, I simply snapped it off with plyers. Unfortunately, the razor blade was still surrounded by plastic.

I think that back in WWII this was not a problem because plastic hadn't been commercially developed yet.

but today in 2013 when plastic is cheaper than metal, there is a problem of plastic disposable razors and reusable razors are more expensive than the plastic disposable razors.

but the whole purpose of the fox hole radio is to build a radio with what ever I can find in my house, just like the GIs did.

Any advice? Maybe I should instead blue several steel nails and then duck tape them together after they have cooled?

Right now the burnt plastic razor blade is on a ceramic plate in my kitchen cooling. I read articles on the internet that said you have to let it air cool and you should not put it in cold water.
 
Last edited:

davenn

Moderator
Sep 5, 2009
14,254
Joined
Sep 5, 2009
Messages
14,254
GI's didnt have plastic disposable razors in WWII times
they use the old style double edged razor blade

you cannot use the tiny bit of blade from a disposable razor

Dave
 

dietermoreno

Dec 30, 2012
238
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
238
Okay, so I guess it is acceptable to buy the razor blade specifically for the radio instead of using a used razor blade, because GIs didn't have disposable plastic razors in WWII.

So it is still historically accurate, even though your not likely to find a razor blade that will work for this in your house today, the same that you have to buy the hi-Z headphones because GIs didn't have lo-Z headphones in WWII.
 

CocaCola

Apr 7, 2012
3,635
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
3,635
So it is still historically accurate, even though your not likely to find a razor blade that will work for this in your house today.

Well that is debatable, you can still purchase the double edged razors, many people still use them... And if your house was built prior to the 1980 (when disposable razors took off) and the bathrooms have not been extensively remodeled you can almost always find a pile of them in the wall if you remove the medicine cabinet that has a 'disposable' slit in the back for these razors that simply dumped them into the wall cavity...

BTW based on your postings I STRONGLY recommend you DON'T remove your medicine cabinet...

It was always a JOY to be remodeling older houses and finding a pile of razor blades inside the wall that had to be dealt with...
 

dietermoreno

Dec 30, 2012
238
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
238
So when it comes down to it, its cheaper to buy a diode for 10 cents than to buy a good razor with a double edged razor blade for $15, compared to back in WWII you had to pay an arm and leg for a valve diode.

but you know what, I'm in need of a new razor and i don't like just throwing things out, so I think I'll ask my dad to buy me a new razor that isn't disposable and buy some extra blades for it for when the blade becomes dull, and one of the extra blades I can blue.

Then time for beard to go bye-bye. I need beard to go bye-bye for applying to summer jobs if I even want to have a chance.
 

duke37

Jan 9, 2011
5,364
Joined
Jan 9, 2011
Messages
5,364
WWII razor blades were made from carbon steel and rusted very quickly.
Present day blades are made from stainless steel and rust very slowly so will last longer if not used for chopping wood.

The oxidation at high temperatures will be very different with different surface oxides.

A blade out of a disposable knife would be nearer the mark.
 

CDRIVE

Hauling 10' pipe on a Trek Shift3
May 8, 2012
4,960
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
4,960
As Duke said those blades were made from carbon steel and if Gillette still makes them I suspect they still are because they make and hold an edge better and much longer than any SS alloy. They could be using HSS too. Back in the day Gillette called them their "Blue Blades" because they came out of the factory with with a blue oxide finish to make them less prone to rusting. It's the oxide that's needed to make the semiconductor junction.

Now let's talk about your stove and tongs incident... You are DANGEROUS!! :eek:

The laws of physics that exist on the planet 'Dietermoreno' are quite different than those here on earth, ,,,or any other planet for that matter.. :rolleyes:

Chris
 

dietermoreno

Dec 30, 2012
238
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
238
Well some good news, I found that when I touched a pencil graphite stick connected from guitar cable connected to guitar (antenna) to the razor blade and it was fixed on the pencil stick, and there was another guitar cable connected to the razor blade that was fixed on the razor blade and the pencil stick was what I moved around and the other guitar cable was connected to an audio interface, I started to hear some staticy noises over the mains hum, and a notch filter in Audacity at 60 Hz helped me to hear the staticy noises as staticy unintelligible voices, and a spectrum analysis in Audacity after the 60 Hz notch filter showed that around 1,000 Hz had the greatest db level when those staticy noises were analyzed, indicating that these staticy noises that sound like voices are in the human voice frequency range.

When I measured with the multimeter, I found that heating up the razor blade did increase its resistance from near zero to about 10k ohms in certain spots.

I found that the 10k ohm spots were the same spots where static was heard instead of mains hum.


I measured the resistance of one test lead on the pencil stick and one test lead in a "sensitive spot" on the razor blade and found that the resistance was about 50k ohms instead of 10k ohms.

So the razor blade and pencil lead have a reverse voltage drop, which only allows current to pass in one direction at a "sensitive spot".

If only the oxidization process could be continued further on the blade if it didn't have that plastic coating surrounding it that almost lights my kitchen on fire.

Next experiment is to find some magnet wire and repeat the experiment with magnet wire wound around a paper towel roll instead of an electric guitar and compare the results to hear if less mains hum is heard and more staticy voices are heard.


In addition to the static, I heard another wierd noise. before heating the blade this noise was not heard. I heard what sounded like a 4/4 drum beat and it was all over the razor blade where ever I put the pencil lead compared to the staticy voices were only heard at a specific sensitive spot. The "4/4 drum beat" would pause for several seconds and I heard a staticy voice instead of it and then it would continue again for a few more minutes. I think I found an FM station!





Edit 1: The reason why previously all I was hearing mostly was mains hum was because I had no ground connection so a ground loop was formed and the ground loop picked up mains hum. Now I added ground and an antenna and the unintelligible staticy voices can be heard without needing to apply a 60 Hz notch filter in Audacity. Now I also increased the selectivity of the cat's whisker (pencil) by mounting it on a home made swivel mount (washer on top of CD case) with a counter weight (duck tape roll is counter weight) so that it can swivel and have the pressure adjusted to find the best location and pressure for rectification. Now after doing all of that I was able to record the static as rectified waveforms.

The ground is the shield of an instrument cable which the instrument cable is connected to a mains powered amp that connects to the ground.

The antenna is the coils connected to the shield of a 20 foot long instrument cable which the 20 foot long cable is hung around my room up on top of a dresser and up on top of a window frame.

The connection wires are all instrument cables, connected to the appropriate tip or shield depending on if hot connection or ground connection is desired.

When ground is disconnected, my ears hurt from the mains hum, when I replace ground wire the mains hum is much quieter and the static is much louder.

before with no ground, the static is dozens of decibles quieter than mains hum, compared to now the spectrum analysis shows that the static is the same db level as mains hum at -13 db.

Yes the coils is still a single coil electric guitar. Certainly electric guitar coils are very lossy creating a high resistance from the signal carried by the antenna since they aren't designed to carry a RF signal. So certainly the static db level would be greatly increased if I use some magnet wire wound around a toliet paper roll instead.

When I stand across the room from my laptop (my laptop hard drive makes too much noise) with headphones that have a 10 foot long cable I find that when I don't find a sensitive spot on the razor blade that produces static, instead of hearing MW I can any where on the razor blade hear extremely faintly hear Chicago's classical station at the limit of my hearing which I tested the limit of my hearing to be -87 db. This classical station is FM, so this leads me to suspect that (1) my guitar pickups simply don't have enough coils turns for MW and (2) my antenna simply isn't long enough so the receiver is resonating at a frequency closer to VHF than to MW.

So I guess this is my first working radio, if -87 db audio is even defined to be working radio.

I looked around my house and realized that I don't have that much electronics junk because I pretty much use all of it at least once a month since me and my dad can't afford to have things that we don't even use.

So now its on to look through other people's electronics junk for a few dollars at the local second hand store. All I have to look for is ANYTHING WITH A MOTOR. This could be a blender, coffee grinder, remote control car, walking robot dog toy, electric train engine hobby toy, remote control air plane, or anything along those lines that only costs a few dollars.
 

Attachments

  • heated razor blade and pencil stick with 10k forward and 50 k reverse.jpg
    heated razor blade and pencil stick with 10k forward and 50 k reverse.jpg
    31.6 KB · Views: 287
  • mains hum spectrum analysis.JPG
    mains hum spectrum analysis.JPG
    102.8 KB · Views: 209
  • rectified waveform with heated razor blade and pencil lead.JPG
    rectified waveform with heated razor blade and pencil lead.JPG
    34.1 KB · Views: 187
  • rectified waveform with heated razor blade and pencil lead spectrum analysis.JPG
    rectified waveform with heated razor blade and pencil lead spectrum analysis.JPG
    98 KB · Views: 274
  • heated razor blade and pencil stick with 10k forward and 50 k reverse with ground and antenna.jpg
    heated razor blade and pencil stick with 10k forward and 50 k reverse with ground and antenna.jpg
    57.7 KB · Views: 373
Last edited:

dietermoreno

Dec 30, 2012
238
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
238
Well today when I bought a new razor blade at the super market I came to the realization that my super market doesn't even sell blades that are not encased in a plastic cartridge. The blades are sold in plastic cartridges that clip into the razor handle.

So I tried an old corroded penny instead of a razor blade and it worked much better. The penny has spots every where that produce static so I didn't even need to use the pencil cat's whisker.

Over the static, I hear what appears to be scratchy mariachi music. I Googled for Mexican stations and used an FM transmitter map and then I tuned my radio (real radio, a boombox) to 107.9 MHZ and I heard the same mariachi music. So the station appears to be WLEY (21kW) from Aurora, IL.

That's so weird that it decides to pickup that station randomly out of all of the other stations and pick up an FM station instead of AM stations.

So I suppose that I could try blueing the corroded penny instead of the razor blade.

I found that connecting to ground, while it removes the mains hum, it also grounds the radio signal in addition to the mains hum, so there is silence if I ground the cable. I presume that using a proper inductor instead of an electric guitar would fix these grounding issues.

Interestingly, it appears that rectification makes the mains hum quieter without even needing to ground the cable.

To test that I am not going insane, I touched the cable tips together on the penny and found that the mariachi music stops playing when the cable tips are together and is replaced with mains hum, and when I move the cable tips apart from each other with them both touching the penny, the music starts playing again.

If you didn't guess already, yes this is still using a single coil pickup guitar and using a 20 foot long guitar cable connected to the pickups and hung around the room as the antenna.



Edit: I realized that I had the direction of the "detector" reversed last time with the razor blade, so that's why nothing was intelligible last time with the razor blade in addition to it not being oxidized enough. The wire from the guitar must have a good connection with the penny. So only half of the penny should be stuck in the flame or it won't work. The wire form the guitar should not be touching an oxidized spot on the penny, while the wire to the amp should be touching an oxidized spot on the penny. The higher resistance of the oxidized spot doesn't allow electrons in alternating current to go back through the oxidized spot after they have passed through it so it only allows electrons to flow in ONE DIRECTION TO THE AMP.
 

Attachments

  • Guitar-Penny Radio.jpg
    Guitar-Penny Radio.jpg
    97.1 KB · Views: 258
Last edited:

CocaCola

Apr 7, 2012
3,635
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
3,635
Well today when I bought a new razor blade at the super market I came to the realization that my super market doesn't even sell blades that are not encased in a plastic cartridge.

Would that be Island Foods? A nice small town grocery store, but hardly the place to get the type of razor you need for this...

I was at the hardware store the other day, and they had high carbon 'carpet' cutting blades for a few bucks that would be ideal...
 

dietermoreno

Dec 30, 2012
238
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
238
Yes it was Island Foods!:)

Well I think I'll stick with the penny for now.

I discovered that the FM station I heard earlier today in the day time has NOTHING to do with the guitar and actually won't be heard anymore if I use a longer guitar cord (longer antenna).

When at night I combined four 20 foot long guitar cords into 2 dipole antennas going up into the attic above my upstairs bedroom, I was able to hear an unintelligible WBBM, and it was only heard when i was connected to ground compared to before if I connected to ground the FM station was no longer heard, so that means that before the penny wasn't rectifying the FM it was instead the guitar pre amp transistors that were rectifying and the FM would not be received if ground completed the connection to connect to the long wire antenna.

The penny is not blued. Next experiment will be the same setup with half of the penny blued (of course connected in the correct direction or else rectified RF will be blocked instead of allowed to pass).

The old drawing was wrong and I'm deleting the file from my computer so it doesn't confuse me. Here is new drawing of what I did tonight (attached).

Here is YouTube video I just uploaded tonight:

Or maybee I should just give up on the penny and instead buy a diode for 5 cents from Radio Shack so it doesn't take me 3 minutes of adjusting to find a station on the penny.

It seems like if I even breathe I lose the station.:(
 

Attachments

  • Guitar-Penny Radio.jpg
    Guitar-Penny Radio.jpg
    101.5 KB · Views: 215
Last edited:

CDRIVE

Hauling 10' pipe on a Trek Shift3
May 8, 2012
4,960
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
4,960
Commander dietermoreno this is ground control again. Please be advised that we're aborting your reentry into earth's atmosphere. Mission control has requested that you set course for the Sun to take temperature readings. Please bring along your guitar.

Ground Control over and out.
 

dietermoreno

Dec 30, 2012
238
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
238
Ground control this is dietermoreno, request reentry vectoring for the approach using an inductor instead of a guitar before giving up with the penny/razor blade and buying a diode.

Over and out.
 
Top