Making a Razor Blade, the Old Way!

Before disposable blades, razors were precision instruments shaped entirely by hand. In this AgedSkills history episode, filmed in 1966, we travel to Solingen, Germany—the historic center of European blade making. Inside a small grinding workshop, master grinder Werner Breidenbach demonstrates how a straight razor is finished using traditional methods that demand control, experience, and an exceptional feel for steel.

The film follows the razor through its critical grinding stages after forging and hardening. Using belt-driven glazing jacks and hollow-grinding machines that have changed little since the early 20th century, the craftsman shapes the spine, tang, and cutting edge with millimeter accuracy. Particular attention is given to hollow grinding—the defining feature of straight razors—which gives the blade its elasticity and shaving performance but leaves no room for error.

Glazing, polishing, honing, and stropping gradually transform the steel blank into a shave-ready tool. Alongside the work itself, the film traces the long history of shaving, from early blades to the rise of safety razors and electric shavers, and the decline of small razor workshops. Preserved here is a rare look at a disappearing trade once central to Solingen’s identity, where sound, touch, and muscle memory mattered as much as machinery.

Original source material:
Mit scharfer Klinge. Rasiermesser aus Solingen
Published by Alltagskulturen im Rheinland
© LVR-Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte
CC BY 4.0