Thread: strange story

I posted this in the workshop but though you guys might like it to.

I was talking to an 85 year old barber today at the barbershop and he told me something interesting. He may have been pulling my leg but thought you guys might like to hear it. He said that when he started out is the business sometimes they would get a razor that was to hard and was difficult to sharpen, so he said that when that happened they would get thier wife to make a pan of cornbread and when she pulled it out of the oven they would break off a section of the hard crust a dipose of it and then push the razors blade inside the hot loaf of cornbread and leave it there till the loaf cooled and when they would remove the blade the heat from the loaf would have softend the blade just enough that it would be easier to sharpen.
Now was this a tall tale? well I don't know but you make what you want of it.

I really doubt that there would be enough heat inside a loaf of bread to significantly soften steel....But a good story none-the-less

good one could be does work?

I dont6 know the edge on a razor is pretty thin and a loaf of corn bread in a cast iron skillets pretty warm.

Things that make you wonder!!!! I guess this one falls in that category.

Yes it's possible. See other thread.

I think that it might be possible. At least enough to soften slightly....

Originally Posted by mparker762

Yes it's possible. See other thread.

Just read the other thread. Very interesting!! My initial reaction was that it couldn't be possible, but it seems that I was wrong.

So I guess that when you do that procedure to a razor, it is called "Poning" instead of honing? I doubt this story very much, having eaten cornbread right out of the oven with only minor burns, when very hungry!

When you consider that the edge of a razor is very, very thin...a pan of cornbread is about 300*, and a cast-iron pan holds a lot of heat....

Tempering is about low and slow, or rather, controlled....I think this could probably re-temper the very edge of a razor. Not the whole thing, mind you, but it might soften just about the amount of metal you needed to get off to hone it up.

Call the Mythbusters!