For many years, books and websites have written about the incredible properties of pyramids. Among these properties is the miraculous effect that the pyramids have on the sharpness of thin metal blades. We decided to check whether such an effect actually exists.
According to the authors of books and articles, if you place a razor blade inside a pyramid-shaped structure, after some time the cutting edge of the metal object miraculously sharpens itself. Some publications note that to achieve this, the blades must be oriented north-south. Others talk about energy pyramids that have other special properties. Successful experiments and even patents for such pyramids are often mentioned.
The concept of self-sharpening razors in pyramids is widespread in journalistic And fiction, videos on YouTube and articles on popular sites.
There is a widespread myth about the so-called energy pyramids. It is believed that pyramid-shaped structures have healing, preservative, stimulating properties; corpses are allegedly mummified in them and other amazing transformations occur. People share with each other drawings of “true” pyramids, which can be easily built at home and then use their power. The Frenchman is considered to be the pioneer of the movement Antoine Bovy (which also left its mark on dowsing). He hypothesized that food could be stored for a long time in small models of pyramids, and then witnessed the mummification of a cat's corpse in a homemade pyramid. A whole pseudoscientific theory grew out of Bovey's experiments. In the post-Soviet space, the so-called pyramids of hunger - “bioenergy” structures, built according to the drawings of the Russian engineer Alexander Golod and supposedly harmonizing the structure of the surrounding space, bringing it into line with the ideal proportion of the golden section. None of the properties declared by Hunger (among them there is even a cure for diseases) is confirmed by official science, and the engineer himself more than once was subjected to criticism from the Commission against Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Research.
Now about razors. Many publications refer to invention Czechoslovakian radio engineer Karel Drbal. He came up with the idea of placing a razor blade for one to two weeks under a hollow pyramid made of dielectric material (hard paper, paraffin paper, hard cardboard or some kind of plastic) and oriented to the cardinal points. According to Drbal, as a result of his experiments, 16 blades were enough for 1778 shaving sessions (an average of one blade per 111 sessions), whereas usually razors lost their sharpness much earlier. In 1949, Drbal applied for a patent “Method for preserving the cutting edge of a sharp razor” and three years later received Czechoslovak Republic Patent No. 91304, which was published on August 15, 1959.
Drbal explains the self-sharpening effect without any details or diagrams by the influence of the Earth’s magnetic field (contrary to esoteric articles in which the action of Drbal’s pyramid is associated with biofields), but even from his theory it does not follow that the pyramidal shape is fundamental for the success of the experiment. The text of Drbal's patent states: “In this invention only the pyramid shape was used, but [this property] ... can extend to other geometric shapes made of dielectric material. <…> This form also causes the sharp edges of razor blades to regenerate by reducing stress and defects in the networks of crystalline units, in other words, restoring and renewing the mechanical and physical properties of the blade.”
Thus, even the author of the patent on which the statement about the unusual property of the pyramids is based did not limit this property to one figure. Moreover, by modern standards, his experiment is not valid and does not meet scientific criteria. The problem is not only with Karel Drbal's patent - today there is a complete lack of reliable information about serious scientific research to confirm or refute the effect of self-sharpening blades in pyramids or outside of these structures.
Nowadays, indirect confirmation of the effect could be micrographs of the cutting edge, x-rays of its structure and other similar images. It is also unclear to what extent Drbal's experiment may have been influenced by a psychological effect - the engineer could have convinced himself that the razor still shave clean. In other words, his experiments lack strictly controlled parameters. They weren’t in the episode of the show either.MythBusters", the creators of which in 2005 could not see the difference between the sharpness of the two halves of the razor, stored in the pyramid and outside it.
It should be noted that arguments in favor of the existence of the phenomenon of self-sharpening have been repeatedly published in popular science magazines. Thus, in a 1982 article in the journal “Chemistry and Life” A. B. Gerchikov wrote: “If you examine the blade using a scanning electron microscope, which allows you to examine an object with a complex microrelief, it turns out that the cutting edge consists of two parallel rows of sawtooth teeth with a cavity between them. <…> Some steels change their phase composition over time and age. This can also cause the denticles to straighten and return to their original position. Mysterious cases of self-sharpening razors, which they try to associate with some kind of fantastic forces, may well be explained by well-known processes like metal aging. Of course, self-sharpening is only possible in micro volumes, and if a piece of the razor’s blade crumbles, then all is lost.”
In 2004, already in the magazine “Science and life“, answering a question from one of the readers, they noted: “The phenomenon of self-sharpening really exists and has long been used in everyday life. One of our editorial staff recalled that his father shaved all his life with two straight Solingen razors. He used them alternately every other day and never sharpened them - only occasionally making slight adjustments on the belt. However, the pyramids have absolutely nothing to do with it. You can put the blade in a glass glass or an enamel teapot, you can orient it from west to east or from top to bottom - it makes no difference. This is what happens with the razor. During the shaving process, the crystalline structure of the metal at the very tip is, as it were, “ruffled” - the atoms change their position. However, the forces of interatomic interaction tend to return them to their original place and do return them after some time. This process is quite slow: if you use the blade every day or even every other day, it will inevitably become dull - the atoms will take stable positions within the newly formed shape of the blade. However, the phenomenon becomes quite obvious if the blade is allowed to rest for a week.”
However, Andrei Rostovtsev, the scientific consultant of Verified, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and co-founder of the Dissernet community, criticized these arguments. “In my opinion, the explanation in Science and Life is complete nonsense. The process of returning atoms to their original place is fast, not slow. These are nanoseconds, not days. In addition, the sizes of the sharpest blades are tens of thousands of times larger than typical sizes on the atomic scale. Thus, the movements of individual atoms cannot have a noticeable effect on the mechanical properties of such a macro-object as a steel blade,” Rostovtsev said. He also noted that the explanation from the journal “Chemistry and Life” has still not found scientific confirmation, although more than 40 years have passed.
Thus, today there is no serious evidence in favor of the existence of the phenomenon of self-sharpening razors as such, and the theory that it is the pyramids that contribute to this effect is completely unscientific.
Cover photo: screenshot from YouTube.
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