# Trade Secrets: News You Can Use **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 29, 2021, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143 "2021-11-29T16:26:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143/1 "2021-11-29T16:26:16Z")
I picked up a used book called _Trade Secrets_. It’s a British show featuring people in various jobs giving helpful advice. It’s unusual, because the advice is actually helpful. I shave daily using five blade razor cartridges which work well but sometimes seem pricey. Did you know you could resharpen them just by rubbing the blade back and forth a few times over a flat glass surface? It works remarkably well, is easy to do, and so far has increased the lifetime of the blade by several times. **Any tricks of the trade or practical advice you want to share? Something you use at home or at work?** ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143/2 "2021-11-29T16:39:36Z")
Another one for razor blades-After you rinse them clean, dry them off as soon as possible using a towel and/or a hair dryer. It isn’t the cutting of hair that dulls them so much as it is their getting rusty. I can make a razor blade last as long as two months this way. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143/3 "2021-11-29T16:53:31Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I can make a razor blade last as long as two months this way. I heard they’d last even longer if you kept them [under a pyramid](https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/~coker2/index.files/pyracrystal.shtml). ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143/4 "2021-11-29T17:22:41Z")
Maybe rubbing the blades dries them out too. I rinse them, tap excess water away and store them blade side up. That’s enough for me, methinks. Rubbing is easy and takes seconds to do. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143/5 "2021-11-29T17:22:48Z")
Tip from a professor in a college life drawing class: if you’re trying to draw someone’s portrait, and it’s looking like a perfectly fine drawing of a face, it just doesn’t look much like the portrait subject, pay particular attention to getting the shape of the person’s eyes right. That’s where a lot of the resemblance comes from. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2021, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143/6 "2021-12-01T16:04:07Z")
I’m not entirely sure this belongs here, but what the heck. The razor thing made me think of it. I keep a pump bottle of facial wash in the shower. It takes a long time to use it up, and it used to be that the pump mechanism malfunctioned before I used up the soap. Now, I keep a little plastic cup over the pump. If it never gets wet, it never breaks. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143/7 "2021-12-01T17:42:27Z")
I’ve shared this on these boards before, but it is a good one for travelers. Temporarily make your phone’s lock screen be your boarding pass. Then , there is no need to unlock your phone to look for it during security or boarding, just make the screen turn on. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143/8 "2022-04-24T00:06:30Z")
Apropos of nothing. One of my razor blades, used daily on my hairy face^ and occasionally elsewhere, celebrated its fourth month of consecutive use. It is sharpened on a flat glass surface before and after use. ^ I came across a study showing male medical students tend to be hairier than average. Are hairy men smarter? Don’t ask me! ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-secrets-news-you-can-use/955143/9 "2022-04-25T21:29:08Z")
Why the hell couldn’t you have shared that back when my job was 75% travel? 😉