Hit 45 on my Polsilver SI today. Fifty is assured. Beyond that???
Excalibur Club - Blade Longevity DE, SE and Injector
- Thread starter jamesspo
- Start date
This is exactly my experience with face lathering.
Rest assured that the Polsilver SI is capable of a lot more shaves. Listen to the blade...
The biggest obstacle in reaching your true potential is the mental cage that we humans are so good at building around us . The developed shaving technique, including prep and skin care, is not hard to reach compared to the task of breaking thru the mental barriers we surround us with.
You are on the right path!
Feather #21 shaves on this blade with the Merkur HD and the blade is still performing well. This blade has better longevity than many people give it credit for. I will easily complete February with this blade.
Started the One-Blade-in-February Challenge with a Brazilian-mfg'd Gillette Platinum-Plus. Hit shave number 21 today, the same number I hit in January when I used the Plat-Plus for the first time. Should make it all the way to the end of the month, which says a lot about a blade that gained notoriety for it's limited availability and high retail cost and not its shave quality.
A good blade, just cost prohibitive for the 3-or-4-shaves-then-toss crowd.
A good blade, just cost prohibitive for the 3-or-4-shaves-then-toss crowd.
Hit 51 on a Polsilver SI today. This is only the second time I've passed 50 shaves on a blade. My personal best is 60 on a Feather. I believe that record will fall.
It may have been mentioned somewhere in the first 97 pages, but I will say that other than while testing blades (recently), I've never used a 'no more than X number of shaves' to determine when to toss a blade.
Caveat. Until very recently, the blades I used were the standard 10, then 5 pack Personna's sold at regular stores, then the dollar stores, and before that the Shick and Gillette blades in the plastic dispensers. Even with irregular shaving habits, and sometimes taking off days worth of beard, I would get at least five shaves out of a blade, and I think up to 10+ a few times, using shaving gel, then standard soap. I'm pretty sure that most of the time my blades were tossed because of abuse and soap buildup that I didn't want to clean off for fear of losing the skin on my fingers
.
So, I don't have any problem with people getting a lot of shaves out of the blade. I don't know that I'd EVER trust a blade to go 48 shaves, as some people here have managed. That just makes me feel for my face.
Oh yeah - and a few times I changed the blade because after two months or so in the razor, it was starting to feel a bit rough. Not 60 shaves, just a lot of time sitting there, hanging in the shower at the shaving mirror.
Once I've finished determining my best 'go to' razor, and the best blade(s) to use for it, I'll go back to shaving until the blade is exhausted, and I expect that using better soap (and brush) will extend the lifespan significantly.
Caveat. Until very recently, the blades I used were the standard 10, then 5 pack Personna's sold at regular stores, then the dollar stores, and before that the Shick and Gillette blades in the plastic dispensers. Even with irregular shaving habits, and sometimes taking off days worth of beard, I would get at least five shaves out of a blade, and I think up to 10+ a few times, using shaving gel, then standard soap. I'm pretty sure that most of the time my blades were tossed because of abuse and soap buildup that I didn't want to clean off for fear of losing the skin on my fingers
. So, I don't have any problem with people getting a lot of shaves out of the blade. I don't know that I'd EVER trust a blade to go 48 shaves, as some people here have managed. That just makes me feel for my face.
Oh yeah - and a few times I changed the blade because after two months or so in the razor, it was starting to feel a bit rough. Not 60 shaves, just a lot of time sitting there, hanging in the shower at the shaving mirror.
Once I've finished determining my best 'go to' razor, and the best blade(s) to use for it, I'll go back to shaving until the blade is exhausted, and I expect that using better soap (and brush) will extend the lifespan significantly.
For a while I was doing 1 week of daily 3-pass shaves with Feathers but I began to notice that every time I popped a fresh blade in, the feel of the blade was different. The more practice I got the more I was able to detect this difference.
I like to have consistent results from my blades. The blades I've tried all stay unchanged for two or three shaves. After that they all seem to gradually decline. The thinner blades seem to decline faster. Yes I could get several more shaves out of the blades but I just like having consistency.
I applaud everyone on this thread for their efforts. For me, 2-3 shaves with Personna Labs is my limit, but I may revisit this after being inspired by y'all.
I like to have consistent results from my blades. The blades I've tried all stay unchanged for two or three shaves. After that they all seem to gradually decline. The thinner blades seem to decline faster. Yes I could get several more shaves out of the blades but I just like having consistency.
I applaud everyone on this thread for their efforts. For me, 2-3 shaves with Personna Labs is my limit, but I may revisit this after being inspired by y'all.
After the first two or three shaves on an edge, I find most of the blades I've tried don't change much for the next dozen shaves or so, after that I have to do more passes and I get palpable stubble earlier in the evening. I consider them to be too dull to keep using when I have to do three full passes to get a good shave -- all ATG by the way. I usually get 20-30 shaves out of a blade so far, will probably get more as I get better at shaving with a DE.
Peter
Peter
Which blades are you referring to please? Most DE blades are the standard 0.004" thick.
Hello gentlemen,
It's been a long time since I visited the forum, work got in the way.
I still use the Polsiver SI blade I started on January 1st. Usually I don't shave on weekends, so now the blade have 43 shaves on it.
Until shave 30 I used the 1-3 edge on the Rockwell 6s with plate 1. Then I started to get sub par results, so I switched to the other edge. It looks like drying the blade after each shave was good for it, because the second edge was like new.
Today was shave 13 on the second edge and is very smooth and efficient, so I think there is some life left in it.
When the performance will degrade I'll try it with a more aggressive razor, to see how it goes.
It's been a long time since I visited the forum, work got in the way.
I still use the Polsiver SI blade I started on January 1st. Usually I don't shave on weekends, so now the blade have 43 shaves on it.
Until shave 30 I used the 1-3 edge on the Rockwell 6s with plate 1. Then I started to get sub par results, so I switched to the other edge. It looks like drying the blade after each shave was good for it, because the second edge was like new.
Today was shave 13 on the second edge and is very smooth and efficient, so I think there is some life left in it.
When the performance will degrade I'll try it with a more aggressive razor, to see how it goes.
Completed February with the Feather #28 + Merkur HD and was pleasantly surprised the blade made it to the month end. I will continue with this blade for a few more days to see how long this blade remains effective. This blade is much maligned for longevity. No stropping to help it along, just a standard routine of a daily flip over.
I think I can answer this question now after going through the February Challenge...
When your blade "all of a sudden" is virtually blunt, that's the "buttery smooth" stage... if you can continue shaving and continue getting a comfortable BBS shave no matter how much more work is needed, then I believe that's the buttery smooth stage.
When blades would diminish suddenly for me, I would bin them. My Polsilver SI diminished suddenly around shave 9 or 10 this month, which was sooner than usual do to changing to face and head lathering instead of bowl lathering for the month. I pulled out my play book and continued using the blade when I normally would have binned it. The blade stayed in the buttery smooth(blunt) stage until today. The blade is done, the feedback was a totally different sound that I've never heard before and efficiency was almost nonexistent.
I hit 60 face shaves on an Astra SS and when it had that initial fall off, I binned it, but I believe that was the buttery smooth stage at that point.
So if you are willing to put in the work and the blade can still provide a BBS shave, shave with it until you can't get a comfortable BBS shave at all.
The only reason I shaved pass 9 was because of the February Challenge. I used more aggressive razors at that point and it took a little more work and touch up, which varied depending on the razor, but was consistent for the rest of the month.
My next blade should confirm this for me.
Shave 29; Feather #29 + Merkur HD was a reasonable shave in terms of results. I just found I was having to push this blade as the edges were fading and that was going to result in a bad habit. So I have pensioned off this blade which has a fair amount of shaves on it. I am impressed with the longevity on this blade. Pity I only have 5 of them. Still I have plenty of Astra SP & SS and loads of Rapira SSs' for me to keep going with.
Tomorrow back on the Astra SP #22 shaves on it. This club has lead me on an interesting journey.
Tomorrow back on the Astra SP #22 shaves on it. This club has lead me on an interesting journey.
Astra SP #23 + Merkur HD; Put the Astra SP, I had set aside, back in and immediately realised the blade is an improvement on the previous shave with the Feather blade which had 28 shaves on it.
The shave was smooth and blade was gliding through the stubble with less effort than yesterday's shave. It will be interesting to evaluate the Astra SP after 28 shaves on the blade. It is hard to be fully objective but I do note that I was having to push the Feather to achieve a good shave but had still not resorted to a lot of blade buffing to get there. I think when you resort to a lot of blade buffing to get there, the blade is past its best performance.
I have to say it will be like the difference between chalk and cheese when I start a new blade; which is probably going to be the Rapira SS.
The shave was smooth and blade was gliding through the stubble with less effort than yesterday's shave. It will be interesting to evaluate the Astra SP after 28 shaves on the blade. It is hard to be fully objective but I do note that I was having to push the Feather to achieve a good shave but had still not resorted to a lot of blade buffing to get there. I think when you resort to a lot of blade buffing to get there, the blade is past its best performance.
I have to say it will be like the difference between chalk and cheese when I start a new blade; which is probably going to be the Rapira SS.
Finished the One-Blade-in-February challenge, and have started March off with a NOS Wilkinson Super Sword Edge blade. I've been looking forward to trying them, as well as the Chrome Edge Wilkinsons I managed to find. I don't think I will be shaving with it exclusively, but I hope to ride it to at least 30 shaves.
I was referring to Feathers. I don't have any data to back it up, but they feel like they are thinner than Astra SP and Personna Labs for example.
All of those are the standard 0.004" (or 0.10mm) thick. Obviously each manufacturer's process will be slightly different, resulting in a different blade "feel."
This video may be of interest if you haven't seen it before:
Whoops!
Please accept my apologies. The Personna Lab Blue is 0.006" (or 0.15mm) thick.Thank you for pointing that out rabidus. I'd seen that thread of @Highspeedlane Lane's before too.
