Sharpening strop for cartridge type razors

Abstract

An appliance for sharpening razor blades of the type held in a blade cartridge comprises a leather strop bonded onto a magnetic substrate that is in turn bonded onto a support. The width of the strop does not exceed the width of the blades in typical cartridges, so that the blades may rest on the strop when the cartridge is stroked over the strop to hone the blade edges. The surface of the strop is proud of the support surface adjacent the strop, to ensure that edges of the cartridge that are typically proud of the blades do not prevent contact of the blades with the strop. The ends of the strop are secured in undercut formations in the holder.

1 . An appliance for sharpening cartridge type razor blades, which appliance comprises a leather strop that is mounted on a magnetic substrate that is in turn mounted on a support, the strop having a length and a breadth, the length for a stroking action of the blades along the surface of the strop, the breadth matching the exposed width of the blades in the cartridge and the strop surface being proud of the support surface adjacent the sides of the strop.  
     
     
         2 . An appliance as claimed in  claim 1 , in which the magnetic substrate has a plurality of magnetic pole pairs oriented transversely across the magnetic substrate, the pole pairs alternately arranged so that on each edge of the substrate the north and south poles of the magnets alternate along the length of the substrate.  
     
     
         3 . An appliance as claimed in  claim 1 , in which there is a recess in the support surface and longitudinally extending ridges on both sides of the recess, in which the magnetic substrate and the strop are partially recessed in the recess with the ridges adjacent edges of the magnetic substrate and strop, while the surface of the strop is proud of the ridges of the support adjacent the strop edges by a distance such that edges of the cartridge that are proud of the blades do not run on the ridges of the support surface and so prevent the blades from touching the strop.  
     
     
         4 . An appliance as claimed in  claim 3 , in which the magnetic substrate and the leather strop are glued/ bonded by suitable adhesive/bonding agent and the support has a transverse undercut where the ends of the substrate and strop are located, so that the ends of these may be snugly located in the undercuts.  
     
     
         3 . An appliance as claimed in  claim 4 , in which the strop is made of a leather that has been selected to be vegetable tanned.