this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 100 points 8 months ago (5 children)

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)

[–] [email protected] 68 points 8 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago

It's an exaggeration to show how long it would take to fill a wall

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The acceptable signal to replace the razor is when the pain from the dull blade pulling your hairs makes your eye watery

Sounds like a blade a day to me.

Ook

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Orangutans aren't supposed to shave.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Those old school blades are cheap as chips though.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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).

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago

Same. I've gone 6 weeks on one blade if I was working from home a lot and didn't have to shave often.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Yep, just trying to show how there's no way someone fills that wall in their lifetime

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

While true, 1 blade a day for 120 years is also off by a factor of 20 in the other direction.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Number came from Feather

I already covered the "don't stack perfectly" thing, but the vast majority would still fall flat.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Assuming they would use the volume perfectly is a pretty big assumption, it's likely you wouldn't even get a tenth of that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

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.