Blade disposal

I tend to use my blades maybe four to six times before they get too dull for an effective shave.  At this point they tug rather than cut the hairs and are uncomfortable.

Generally I remove the blade from my razor and drop it in the trash.  Recently I was out in the sticks, and didn't want to leave the blade lying around, so I put it in the front pocket of my Dopp kit to dispose of later.

Then I completely forgot about it.

A few weeks later, I was emptying out my Dopp kit and felt something in the front pocket (it turned out to be a pair of tweezers).  I reached in to pull them out and my finger nail caught the fabric, tearing it a little.  I jerked my hand out with a mental "WHAT THE HELL?!?" and stared dumbly at my split nail.  Being more careful this time, I reached in again, and cut nearly half of my finger nail off.  It was as painful as it sounds.

It wasn't the fabric catching my nial (duh); it was the used blade I had forgotten about.  It decided to remind me.

So I carefully removed it, tossed it, and examined my injuries.  My middle finger nail was cut about halfway across and halfway down.  It sucked.

So, I began looking into ways of safely getting rid of blades, when I found these:

I found a few on Amazon for three to six bucks.  There are vintage ones too, that look like lighthouses, barber poles, UPS trucks, snowmen, and who knows how many other things.  But you could always make one like the tin can example above.  The idea is to have a place to store them that they won't spill out of and won't cut through.

There are plenty of good reasons to do this; I will cover two. 

One, you can be sure what happened to my finger won't happen to yours, or anyone else's in your family - this is especially important if you have small children in the household.

Two, the blades are made of high quality steel.  Keeping them together like this makes it easy to recycle them.  You won't likely get any money out of it, but it's thre right thing to do.

Plus, if you get one of the vintage banks, think of the style and character you can add to your shave den!