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I've opened up a few walls in my house, and a ritual we have done with the kids is to seal up something in the wall when I close it back up. Might be a coffee can with some coins, trinkets, candy bar, etc, and then I put a cheap bottle of wine in the wall and close it up.
My sister has a long time habit of gluing a date penny on the bottom rail of any new construction.
When I removed the original inside molding on the front door of my last CA house, I found the builder's signature and date on the top piece. He was a well known and respected builder in the 1950s and 60s. It was almost... religious. I found a place to reuse that trim in the house.
There's still one of those medicine cabinets with the used razor blade slot at one of our houses. We're not planning on remodeling, so whatever dead and rusty razors are in the wall can just stay there.
What I wonder, though, is how rusty steel would interact with galvanized metal water pipes? Usually the medicine cabinet is centered over the sink and the pipes are at the back of the sink. Older houses frequently had galvanized steel water pipes. If steel razor blades are against a metal water pipe and there's a drip or condensation, etc., then there's rusty razor blades against another metal pipe. After several years, would a mass of rusty razors cause the water pipes to rust as well?
Usually, about the only thing I put in stud walls is a dusting of roach powder. Seems if you're making a space you can't get into but may have a small crack that would let in bugs, having it pre-loaded against bugs may be a good thing.
Usually, about the only thing I put in stud walls is a dusting of roach powder. Seems if you're making a space you can't get into but may have a small crack that would let in bugs, having it pre-loaded against bugs may be a good thing.
Ha. Wait'll the little bahrstads encounter the razor blades!
There's still one of those medicine cabinets with the used razor blade slot at one of our houses. We're not planning on remodeling, so whatever dead and rusty razors are in the wall can just stay there.
What I wonder, though, is how rusty steel would interact with galvanized metal water pipes? Usually the medicine cabinet is centered over the sink and the pipes are at the back of the sink. Older houses frequently had galvanized steel water pipes. If steel razor blades are against a metal water pipe and there's a drip or condensation, etc., then there's rusty razor blades against another metal pipe. After several years, would a mass of rusty razors cause the water pipes to rust as well?
Usually, about the only thing I put in stud walls is a dusting of roach powder. Seems if you're making a space you can't get into but may have a small crack that would let in bugs, having it pre-loaded against bugs may be a good thing.
More than likely a builder is not going to run pipes in the wall and then place a medicine cabinet in front. It has to be a very thick wall for one to have room for pipes and a medicine cabinet in the same hole. The average in-wall medicine cabinet is nearly 4" deep.
I live in an apartment building that was built in 1939. My bathroom has the original medicine cabinet imbedded in the wall and it has the slot for razor blades. I can only wonder how many are in the wall. I've had this discussion with many younger people here (including management) who had never seen or heard of this before.
Something else from the past: In the back hallway, there is a small drop-down door that is only about 10 inches wide. Residents (who generated much less trash in those days) would put their little bag of garbage in there to drop down to the basement into the incinerator. The incinerator is still there, too, but long unused.
One day, I saw a young guy come into the back hall, open the door, and put something in. After he left, I checked it out. It was mail from a bank addressed to my neighbor across the hall. The young guy mistook the incinerator door for a mail slot. I check it every now and then in case it happens again.
I am laughing so hard. I can't imagine, lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wharton
My dad pulled the old medicine cabinet from my parents 1915 house. We are both electricians. He tells me to grab a flashlight and take a look down the wall cavity. I see a significant pile of old blades. Crossing the stud bay above that is an old, cloth covered Romex cable with a seriously sketchy looking splice, covered by a big ball of friction tape. This was the cloth version on electrical tape, from WAY back in the day. Apparently a century spent dropping a few hundred blades on top of a nasty, half-azed, illegal splice covered by bone dry old fabric isn't nearly as dangerous as it sounds, LOL.
Or... it's time to buy a lottery ticket!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by emm74
You CANNOT put razor blades in curbside recycling. it's a biohazard and major safety concern for the people who sort through recycling.
Some areas do provide for scrap metal recycling, where you can put something like a razor blade directly into a scrap metal container but that is going to be a special visit to the facility where that is allowed, and not something you can just stick in your recycling bin and put out by the curb.
This. You probably "can" recycle syringes, too... but... please don't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yuptag
Thanks!
I used to think the razor blades in the wall thing was just plain odd and a bit stupid, but your explanation puts it in a rational light.
It is kind of odd and stupid (or maybe just a bit silly), really, because I think they were kind of thinking the walls would stand forever, never considered that someday a house might be torn down or renovated?
Quote:
Originally Posted by parentologist
Carpenters and roofers leave all sorts of things walled up in the houses they work on. We've found empty liquor bottles, notes, poems. But the most amazing thing we ever found was a ninety year old homemade legal document, sealed into a metal container, walled up behind a ceiling over the basement workbench, stating that the (long-since dead) owner of the house was NOT the father of a certain woman's child, signed by the woman! We looked up who had lived right near there at that time, and found that there had been an African American domestic worker living around the corner, by the same name as the woman who signed it. The man was White.
We figured he must have given her money in exchange for her signing that note, then he sent her on her way. A few years later, he married and had two sons. We tracked down one of the sons, from whom we had bought the house, and gave him the note in its case. That son was in his 80s at the time. Weird to think that he had an older sibling out there, probably mixed race, that he'd never known about.
That's super-interesting! The kinds of things you all have been posting here would be cool to find. We pulled up old ugly linoleum in the upstairs bedrooms of my mom's former house, and underneath in her room were newspapers from the 40s. I still have them (mostly because I can't bear to toss them but I also am not sure of a place I could donate them that would be interested in having them; might try the local historical society though most aren't local to here)-- they're super-cool.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming
There's more. Those razor blades undoubtedly have whiskers as well as specks of blood and tiny pieces of human flesh. Voodoo practitioners routinely use these items in their diabolical rites. Further, the spirits of the dead will use these items as guideposts when they return to the land of the living to work their mischief. Do you have beacons for evil spirits behind your walls?
Or maybe just clean-shaven spirits!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Weaubleau
Looking at those treacherous double edged blades in those pictures it is no wonder people did not want them in the trash stream, those things can literally open up an artery by accident. I cannot beleive that hipsters are wanting to go back to using those things. Sometimes there was a good reason old things fell by the wayside, and no longer should be used.
Plenty of people use them who aren't hipsters. I've had some nasty cuts from disposable razors. And scissors. And pretty sure I've had some paper cuts way worse than anything I've ever gotten from a razor blade.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quietude
Ha. Wait'll the little bahrstads encounter the razor blades!
"OMG, honey! There are roaches in the kitchen! AND THEY'RE ARMED!!!"
Looking at those treacherous double edged blades in those pictures it is no wonder people did not want them in the trash stream, those things can literally open up an artery by accident. I cannot beleive that hipsters are wanting to go back to using those things. Sometimes there was a good reason old things fell by the wayside, and no longer should be used.
I'm hardly a hipster, but the cost of the cartridges they sell for modern razors is just way to expensive. That is one reason I use the old style. I also just like them...
Like I stated above, it's great that many people can use razors for long periods of time, but I've got a beard (when I don't shave it) that will make a barber curse as they try to trim it and it keeps fouling up their razor. I eat through blades and having to replace them after a few uses (I'm just pulling the hair out of my face after a week) gets very expensive. I'll use the blades that I can buy 100 of for $15 from my barber. I have no problem just using a blade once or twice and tossing it for that cost.
Looking at those treacherous double edged blades in those pictures it is no wonder people did not want them in the trash stream, those things can literally open up an artery by accident. I cannot beleive that hipsters are wanting to go back to using those things. Sometimes there was a good reason old things fell by the wayside, and no longer should be used.
Yes, Gillette et al. have saved us all by only selling blades encased in miracle plastic at 50x the price. Good thing single-edge blades, sharp knives and broken glass have all disappeared from the world as well...
There is help for those of us who hate the plastic garbage posing as great shaving equipment. There's even help for those who never wish to dispose of a blade again. Listen to the man whose life is shaving. Begin with his first podcast; join him n his journey.
I live in an apartment building that was built in 1939. My bathroom has the original medicine cabinet imbedded in the wall and it has the slot for razor blades. I can only wonder how many are in the wall. I've had this discussion with many younger people here (including management) who had never seen or heard of this before.
Something else from the past: In the back hallway, there is a small drop-down door that is only about 10 inches wide. Residents (who generated much less trash in those days) would put their little bag of garbage in there to drop down to the basement into the incinerator. The incinerator is still there, too, but long unused.
One day, I saw a young guy come into the back hall, open the door, and put something in. After he left, I checked it out. It was mail from a bank addressed to my neighbor across the hall. The young guy mistook the incinerator door for a mail slot. I check it every now and then in case it happens again.
I remember my grandmother lived in an apartment that had a little door like that in her kitchen that went down to the incinerator. I don't know how old her apartment building was but this was late '60s-early '70s.
Cat
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