Not just hotels but houses too. There would be a slot inside the medicine cabinet for disposing razors into the wall. Dude who came up with the idea was probably like, "we'll all be dead from nuclear bombs before any of these fill up or needs to be renovated".
They predate nukes, bro.
Replace "nuclear bombs" with whatever relevant worldwide threat you'd like and the joke should still land for you 👍🏼
Dude who came up with the blades in the wall thing was also clairvoyant. He was just mostly wrong in his clairvoyance, a few details would prove to be true.
The future was repealed in the 1920's I think.
Someone is more likely to get cut from handling those open blades in the trash than a trained construction worker demolishing the wall.
Came to say that. Was very common for a long time.
A small blade safe can hold hundreds of blades and it's like 4"x3"x3". Makes sense they thought the inside of drywall 5'x3'x1' would be fine. It can probably hold tens of thousands. Even with a new blade daily that's decades. And when you tear down the wall you're dealing with Sheetrock, nails and screws already. All that time would have dulled the incredibly thin blades.
This is all to say: it seems wild but was a decent idea.
https://sh.itjust.works/comment/7775973
Hundreds of thousands
yeah I have one that's a few inches cubed for 6 years now and it's nowhere near full.
Safety razors with disposable blades were introduced about 120 years ago, at one blade a day that's a bit less than 45000 blades
Double edged blades dimensions are: 0.1mm x 42.7mm x 22mm for 98.21mm³
45 000 blades would take a volume of 4 419 450mm³ or about 270in³
A regular indoor wall is made of 2x4 and each stud is 14.5 inches apart (16 inches on center). A 2x4 is in truth 1.5" x 3.5" so each inch of height inside the wall is 3.5 x 14.5 x 1 which is 50.75in³
45 000 blades stacked perfectly would therefore use 270 / 50.75 = 5.32 inches of the wall's height... So even if they didn't stack perfectly, it's pretty safe to assume that there's enough space inside the wall for hundreds of years at one blade a day (especially since old houses usually used true 2x4 and had their studs at 24" on center)
One blade a day?!! Are you a billionaire or something? The acceptable signal to replace the razor is when the pain from the dull blade pulling your hairs makes your eye watery, and then you try to man up for a couple more shaves before accepting defeat and put in a fresh blade.
Also, most people use blades for more than one day's shave. I think more like 3 - 7, depending on the blade and how picky the shaver (I get more than seven shaves per blade).
Same. I've gone 6 weeks on one blade if I was working from home a lot and didn't have to shave often.
Yep, just trying to show how there's no way someone fills that wall in their lifetime
0.1mm seems awfully thin for a double edged blade.
It's also unreasonable to assume they will stack anywhere close to perfectly.
My guess is you're off by at least a factor of 20.
While true, 1 blade a day for 120 years is also off by a factor of 20 in the other direction.
Number came from Feather
I already covered the "don't stack perfectly" thing, but the vast majority would still fall flat.
Assuming they would use the volume perfectly is a pretty big assumption, it's likely you wouldn't even get a tenth of that.
They would fall flat for the most part and I already addressed that in my message but thanks for telling me, you're just the third one I think.
A hole in a steamy bathrooms wall where you dispose wet things full of human skin cells sounds like a mold-hotel.
And if there are kids around, they put everything small enough inside.Bathroom medicine cabinets are generally out of reach of children
Wall full of tetanus.
Meh. Everyone in the first world should have a vax, lasts 10-years. Non-issue.
Every time I jack myself up, "When was your last tetanus shot?" "Uh..." "OK, here's another."
Lockjaw is pretty much gone. Not 50 cases out of 330,000,000 people in the US.
LOL, thanks for the post. Got me thinking and looking.
I think this is the first real TIL for me in ages.
Congrats ☺️
Remodeling contractors hate this one trick..
How bad could it be? They’d all be piled up at the bottom of one stud cavity and you know they’re there. If you’re demoing the wall you’re gonna have gloves and a shop vac and a bigass broom and shovel anyway.
Still I got a little blade bank (about the size of those mini soda cans) on Amazon for $7 for my double-edge blades. Last year. And it still has plenty of room in it. Supposedly it holds 300 blades. That’s two blades a week for nearly 3 years. An absurd frequency…I replace my blade every week and I shave my head and they could totally go longer, they’re just so damn cheap.
I think these plastic boxes the blades come in often have a slot for used blades on the bottom. They take up so little space without the paper around them that an entire pack fits into a 1mm slot maybe.
We used to have a Victorian era house with one of these. We had to replace that wall in the bathroom and there was this huge pile of rusty razor blades in the wall. Had to use tongs to pick them up for disposal.
LOL, just use "cut proof" gloves. Nice to have around the house in any case. They're not fancy or expensive or armor plated, nothing crazy. I bust 'em out when a project goes away and I have to grab up a bunch of glass shards.
Mine are something like this, had 'em for years.
Eh. The tongs worked perfectly and we had them lying around.
Cut proof gloves are a great touch. Are you using slices of bread? Dab the broken glass with the bread, ALL the shards will eventually stick in the bread, throw the bread away. Cleans it up quicker & better than a broom.
Multiple homes I've lived in have had these slots in the medicine cabinets lol.
Did they anticipate people not living long enough to care? Or that some biome would form to use the blades as food?
Interesting decisions all around.
I use these blades to shave almost daily. I use approximately 40 each year. I would never be able to fill up a wall with these, not even during 10 lifetimes
It's not so much about filling it up, but when someone goes to eventually renovate the place lol. Open the drywall and just have a bunch of blades to clean up... Or if you get a leak and have to now deal with a puddle of rusty blades.
I want to say that possibly one of the medicine cabinets had a smaller container that collected them at some point, but again, it was still fixed behind the wall lol.
Prevents them from being mixes in with general garbage and people cutting themselves when handling such.
Makes sense!
I use those blades in present day.
When I put in a new blade, I keep the wax paper wrapper, then rewrap the discarded blade in said wax paper before discarding it.
Give or take twelve years into this endeavor, I've had zero issues with this system.
Safety razors are great! They're way cheaper than "conventional" (3, 4, 5 blade) razor blades. They shave a lot closer, and you can get a variety of different grades of blades to fit your comfort level.
The only reason the expensive multi-blade disposable razor cartridge became popular was because Gillette enshitified their razors to maximize profit.
As someone whose grandfather was a carpenter for Gillette in Massachusetts from after WWII until a few years before his death, I’ve got to say that while i use safety razors because of the price, I do get a far superior shave in less time with the “fuck everything it, we’re doing five blades” (basically the 3+ blades modern razors). I just don’t like having to take out a second mortgage for refills.
I have really enjoyed the experience and cannot imagine going back to disposables that get guarded more securely than fort Knox and require a credit application to purchase.
I do not, however, generally go about the general population proselytizing about it. Those people annoy me.
It's simply a solid shave for an affordable price.
The little plastic magazine my DE blades come in have a little slot in the back for used blades, just slide them in and then when the magazine is empty chuck the whole thing. Wrankles me a little bit that the steel is ending up in a landfill, but most things you put in the recycle bin does too because society doesn't work, so.
On the other hand, it's not 6 blades at a time, the handle, and the little slimy strip thing.
Been 'wet shaving' since I started shaving a very long time ago and never stopped. When the blade slots went away in the back of the medicine cabinets in every bathroom, I made a blade bank from a steel can with a lid that I cut a slot in. I takes me years to fill it.
***For those too young to have seen it. The medicine cabinet in every bathroom used to have a slot in the back of it to drop used razor blades into when they got dull. The would simply fall in between the studs in the wall and pretty much just rust away since the blade back then were made of plain high carbon steel. I remember helping to do several bathroom remodels and when pulling the cabinet and the plaster and lath wall, we would find a small pile of rusted to nearly dust razor blades.
why not return it to a slot on pakaging? isn't it there for that purpose?
front:
and back
Those are my favorite blades
Why not just use the new wrapper for the old blade? That way you don't need to keep the wrapper until you throw the blade away
I thought thats what's you're supposed to do. Wrap the blade in the wax wrap it came in, then break it up by bending it in the wax before throwing it away in the trash (still in the wax).
I just put mine in an empty tin. It'll take forever to fill it up, and once you do, just tape it up and put it in metal recycling.
I had an old house with one of those. I renovated the bathroom so I can confirm they all go into the wall. God what a mess. 2ft of rusty used razor blades wedged in there.
Older medicine cabinets have a slot in them for this very purpose. A lot of people living in old homes probably have a razor blade slot or two and don't even realize it.
I was one, I've also found and antique ice pick and ball peen hammer in there. One of those 'those are a problem for future gens' type solutions.
Where do they go? To the Oubliette.
What's an Oubliette?
French, oublier: "to forget" or "to loose". Also a medieval torture device. Look it up at your own risk.
Its like a solitary confinement torture dungeon, but worse. Its a narrow pit below the dungeon where they toss people who are condemned to death. Too narrow to sit or lie down, even if your legs got broken when or before you were thrown in. All sorts of shit piss gore and blood get tossed in too. Probably other harmful junk like live rats and broken glass. There is no return, and they dont clear out the previous tenant or remnants thereof before the next one is moved in.
Ask Hoggle. Labyrinth’s full of ‘em.
Yeah we had a 1920s house with a metal medicine cabinet above the sink. It had the razor blade slot and yeah they literally fell into the wall between the studs.
I've come across one or two walls full of blades doing basement renos.
Why were the walls doing renos?
What else will they do with all those blades?
Once saw a video of someone who forged a knife from old razor blades he found in a wall. There were hundreds. They shaved more often in the old days I presume...
They probably shaved about the same but mostly used double-edged (100% steel) blades that could easily fit in a slot, rather than the plastic-clad, quadruple-blade nonsense sold for $8/cartridge.
You can still buy double edged razors for about 10-15 cents apiece, by the way.
15¢ per double edge blade is high unless you're only buying 10 or 20 blades at a time. Get the 100 count pack and you're paying under 7¢ per blade... Each blade should easily last 3-7 shaves depending on your hair, more if you have tough skin ;)
not only cheaper, but better
As someone who shaves daily, this is the way to go, its so much better, not just on the wallet.
Depending on how often I shave, I use 2-6 blades per month. If I stay in a hotel, I bring a fresh pack of blades, and would probably toss the blade rather than trying to wrap it back up before leaving if there was a convenient way of doing so. It's not hygienic to keep using the same blade more than a few times anyway.
It seems like a presentable person was supposed to shave twice a day, in the morning and after work. Considering that you need to make three passes to shave well it would make 6 passes a day.
I tend to replace blades after about 5–10 shaves, so 15–30 passes, but I heard of people replacing after each pass. Some brands may also stay sharp for longer, giving even more spread to numbers.
All-in-all, it seems like one can expect to produce from 70 to more than 2000 disposed blades per year. At a thickness of about 0.1 mm it would be something between 7mm/year and more than 0.2 meters/year
Now I really think that even the most sensitive skin doesn't require you to change a blade after each pass. I also find it hard to imagine producing a pile of blades a meter high in 4.5 years
They shaved more often in the old days I presume...
People were hairier thousands of years ago.
R/definitelyputyourdickinthat
I still use safety razors. I get all excited when I'm at a bathroom that I can slip one in the wall.
Safety razors are the best! They are cheap, you can buy a bunch of quality blades for pennies compared to a "Mach 3" or whatever.
Once you learn how to shave with one, there's no going back.
Sounds dangerous!
They're not dangerous, they're safety razors after all
I've been using DEs for the last 6 years. I use a Feather blade in the shower with no mirror to fully shave and don't cut myself. Not saying when I started I was that good. Feather blades are extremely sharp. I walked out pretty bloody once or twice when I started using them. Just get really good on some 7o'clocks or Gillette blades first.
You're expecting to be in that wall?
so it's the graveyard of razorblades?
razorgraves?
Tomb razor.
Curious as to why this fell out of fashion?
Probably because the metal razor blades fell out of fashion first. This setup doesn't work with throwaway razors and mach 3 pro extra plus whatever systems.
The used razor blades were arming the rats who were also in the wall.
Yeah that’s some bad mojo
狗娘养的 - Reavers!
Haven’t seen it mentioned, maybe I didn’t look hard enough. Wouldn’t this be a huge problem for water damage and mold between the walls? All I can think about is all that shower water + steam getting in there
Our house had one of these slots. When we remodeled the bathroom there was just a huge pile of razor blades. No water damage or mold, just a pain in the ass removing those walls since it was those small slats with nails and cement (I think it was cement?). Just lucky the only asbestos was on the pipes in the basement.
Yup, among other things.
My dad's workplace had something similar in the 1960s-70s. It was a plane hangar that was used by the baggage handlers.
The walls were cinder block so hollow from top to bottom, they would open up the boxes of the mini alcohol bottles that would go on the planes and take handfuls of them out, once the bottles were empty they would dump them down the same hole until they actually filled one up then started on a new one.
That would have been a surprise when that hangar got demolished and that wall opened up.
If they aren't going to recycle which rarely happens even today that is probably just as good of a solution as landfilling them, those little bottles are littered all over the earth. When they demolish a building they would trash all that debris anyway, but yeah a hilarious find, hundreds of them lol.
Not just hotels, but regular homes too.
Yep, my house is over 100 years old and has one in the medicine cabinet.
My old apartment had one int the bathroom medicine cabinet, and that building was built in 1974.
Yep, a hole in the medicine cabinet.
Wet shaving is still very much a thing; in fact in the last decade or so, it's had a renaissance of sorts (tho it was probably re-gaining popularity already in the early 00's). I've been a wet shaver for 2.5 years but decided to buy me an electric shaver because these days I have less time for wet shaving. It can done be quickly but what's the point if you've got to rush it. Links for those who got curious:
https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/
It can done be quickly but what’s the point if you’ve got to rush it
Yep a good shave needs time and most of all four passes: first with the grain, that's for the colleagues, second two at right angles to the grain, that's for your lover, and the fourth one against the grain, for personal satisfaction.
OTOH if you know what you're doing a quick and dirty shave is just as good as an electric one and you don't have to deal with batteries. If a short buzz cut is all you want do that.
The whole setup is a bit of a bother if you're new but basic guidelines:
- Shower. Well you don't 100% need to but dry skin and shaving don't mix well so do it before.
- A whisk and bowl, a cheap synthetic whisk is just fine the natural hair ones are a bugger to deal with anyway (have to take care to dry them properly etc), 5-10 bucks for the whisk, 25ct for the bowl in the euro store they came in a 4-pack, really tiny stainless ones. The rest I use for mise en place.
- Shaving cream/soap. Don't think you'll get away with using those self-foaming gels in a can they clog the razor, don't glide well, and I've never come across one that's nice to the skin. Comes in bar or tube form, some are better at gliding some smell better if you're lucky you get both, I'd put the palmolive shaving cream on #1 as "what to get when you don't know what you want": Glides very well, dirt cheap, forgiving when whisking, like a bit over a buck a tube.
- The actual foam: This is going to take some trial+error, you want extra water in it but don't make it a soup, you want fine bubbles and proper shaving cream/soap will make them have standing power (though if you're in a pinch you can use regular soap, no biggie). It should be nice and sloppy, with two 'c's. If in doubt, whisk more. Apply, then let soak, make coffee or something. Oh, some people don't use a bowl to whisk but do it directly on the skin. IMO they're madmen, it's like brewing tea in your mouth, but you do you.
- The razor. Lots could be said about geometry, about different comb sizes, ultra-fancy blade change mechanisms, long story short buy a Merkur 23C, 30-40 bucks, chrome-plated zinc and brass. Good weight, excellent general-purpose geometry, inexpensive, literally unchanged for a hundred years. You might be tempted to cheap out and get a Wilkinson they sell cheap plastic holders that take standard razor blades but trust me the only reason why they're selling them is to make people believe standard razor blades suck.
- The blades. Feather is the creme de la creme and might be just a bit too sharp for some, and also comparatively pricey. Russian manufacturers generally are good but given the situation let's boycott them, many western producers have spotty quality, that leaves BIC. Yes, the guys who also make lighters, ballpoint pens and surfboards. Bonus: Carton/wax paper packaging, if you re-wrap used blades and put them back in the carton you can toss them in the bin, no worries. How long a blade lasts depends on many factors, the biggest of which is your personal preference. But even if you buy feather blades and use a new one every day you'll still end up spending less money than using a cartridge system.
- Shaving: See the very top. Be aware of the grain, flip the razor over to wear the blades evenly, occasionally rinse it in the sink, you'll figure it out. Avoid being silly: Don't move the thing sideways over the skin that's how you cut yourself. The geometry of the razor will tell you the right angle, just let it lead. Always make sure there's good gliding going on, never tolerate resistance. Make funny faces to get skin into places where it's easier to shave, make it taught, etc. It's an ancient, secret art, traditionally transmitted from father to son, with a break in tradition you'll have to rediscover it for yourself.
- Cold (not ice cold) rinse. A very good way to wake up.
- Aftershave, a deeply personal matter. Generally speaking you want an astringent to stop any bleeding (also micro bleeds you can't see) and a disinfectant and something nice for the skin, my personal recipe is first alumina alum, rinse, then a bog-standard random face wash from the discounter, says aloe vera. The alum will burn worse than an aftershave with alcohol could ever burn but once you rinse it's over and I don't want to sit there with a slightly burning face for half the morning. As said: Deeply personal matter. Use whisky if you want I don't care.
Thanks for sharing the instructions with folks here. As I said above, I've been a traditional wet shaver for two and a half years, so I pretty much know all this. However, wet shaving takes a lot of time for me and for various physical reasons and limitations, I cannot spend a long time shaving. I've learned how to speed up the process, but this means sloppier technique and it shows on my skin. At this point I want to give my skin a break by having a short stubble rather than going for BBS (that stands for BaBy Smooth) every single time. 😄 I don't mean to scare people away from traditional wet shaving, I'm just speaking for myself, who happens to have some motor function problems etc. If you're fairly "normal", there should be no reason not to try traditional wet shaving. It's a treat and something to look forward to every single time.
How do you know someone is wet shaving? They will tell you about it. Like eating vegan, doing crossFit and barefoot running.
Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: [email protected]
Fuckin razor blades. Where do they go?
Wall filled razor blade FAQ
I am living in your walls. You may be concerned about this. In case you are, please read the below: FAQ: Why are you living in my walls? I'm not going to tell you. Are you only in my walls? You could say I am living in everybody's walls, but in the case I am telling you that I am living in your walls, I am living in your walls. How are you surviving in my walls? In my non-physical form, I am crawling around listening for you. That is all I need to survive in that form. In my physical form, I survive by eating rat corpses that I cook using the wall behind your oven, and I drink the vapour in the extraction fan duct above your shower. What are you planning to do in my walls? Live in them, listening to you. What do I do about you living in my walls? Listen for the scraping. Dont touch the walls. Protect yourself. Avoid lighting candles. When are you going to stop living in my walls? You cannot escape me. Do I call the police? The authorities will not help you. What are the consequences of you living in my walls? Be aware. What if I am ok with you living in my walls? I will make sure you’re not. Are you imaginary? I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS If there are any more questions then please consult your walls by directly speaking to them. Summary: I am living in your walls.
For some reason I read th his in the vouce od Dara Ó Brian. "It goes into the waaal."
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://m.piped.video/watch?v=BVxOb8-d7Ic
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
how is this a "meme"?
I’ve totally been throwing ancient screenshots at almost-matching communities lately, including here, because I am trying get Lemmy some momentum – Lemmentum if you will – and be the change I want to see.
But yeah no meme here.
Everything is a meme, to the technical meaning of the word. Democracy is a meme.
I thought people use those plastic blade disposal container that has a slot on top that you throw away once it gets full nowadays.
It's not built into the wall, but the base principle still hasn't changed even after all these times.
I got a can of chicken broth, knocked a slot into the top with a flathead screwdriver and a hammer, poured out the stock and rinsed and dried the can. It lives in the cabinet beneath my sink and I drop my blades in it when I'm done with them. That was about 10 years ago. The thing is maybe a third full.
Don’t stick your dick in it
R/dontputyourdickinthat
Ngl, this sounds like the premise to a GREAT horror show, like American Horror Story. :-P
Surely better than in your foot?
