Number of shaves on a blade... over 8...why?

[BigJ]

YMMV is certainly the rule with blades!

That said, for me it is about enjoying my shaves!

Some blades, like the Personna lab I used today, ‘need’ need several shaves before they perform best. My top tier blades routinely go 7+ enjoyable shaves, often 10 plus. The Excalibur club guys would say that these blades are just getting started when I bin them!

 

[davent]

Why? To confound/torment those for whom the only right way is their way.
dave

 

[Jim K]

I certainly got a reaction and I DO agree on each person to themselves..it was more a rhetorical question?

 

[Whilliam]

I change blades about once-a-week. Makes it a no-brainer, as I cannot feel all that much of a difference 'twixt shaves one and seven. Maybe I should try for a fortnight.

My dad, OTOH, was a blade miser. He'd shave with Marlin blues 'til there was nothing left but rusted crud--and still complain that they didn't last. But he was is hog heaven when the first Wilkinson Sword SS blades came out. I'm sure he made those first five blades last a whole year--only to complain that the damn things cost more than the Marlins.

 

[ackvil]

For me, it's because I hate waste. I am the type of guy who uses every last drop of milk, etc. I turn off lights when I leave the room. I roll up tubes of toothpaste to get the last ounce of it out. When I get down to the last bit of shaving soap or a shave stick and I can no longer load a brush with it, I put it in a jar and later grind it with the remnants of other soaps. When I shave I use a blade until it no longer works for me. With some blades such as Voskhod that happens after two shaves. With Personna Labs and Medical Prep blades that can be as much as eight or nine shaves. For me, it's not a contest - it's just because my personality is such that I hate waste.

 

[razorhead63]

I want to add something just to say why toss a blade when it’s still shaving well.
Makes no sense to me.

 

[Suhrim21]

I will also add that when I first got into shaving with a safety since I started first with a straight I was in the mindset of why use a blade more than once when they are so cheap. As I'm going and technique is improving I just feel strongly that the first shave isn't necessarily the best shave the blade will give. And I'm sure as my technique improves a blade will probably last more than 2-3 shaves. I am using blade banks and will be taking them to my girls sister since she is a Dr and owns her own practice to be disposed of. I'm not sure if medical steel is recycled or not but I am thinking it is. Steel has to be heated to a point I don't see anything surviving. After writting that I'm curious so now going to research and see.

 

[Raven Koenes]

I do it because it is incredibly easy for me to get 10 comfortable shaves on any blade. The only reason I toss them out at ten is for an ocd reason not because I've shaved the blade out. I'm not Excalibur Club but my shave on day ten, with any blade, is as good and comfortable a shave as on day one. I have tough, thick, 60 year old Dutch white guy hair, so it's not like I'm shaving peach fuzz.

 

[ghostlife]

cheap people with soft baby hair

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I throw a blade away when it's done, and not before. Some blades give me thirty shaves, others just give me three or four.

There's no pushing limits, number chasing for bravado, or enduring poor shaves, just good technique, and not automatically blaming the blade if I don't get a great shave. Even after nearly 30 years of DE shaving, sometimes a less than great shave is my fault, not the equipment's.

 

[Raven Koenes]

cheap people with soft baby hair

Ha, ha, ha cute little newbie.

 

[psfred]

I shave with a blade until it doesn't work any more, have always done so. I have no idea how often my father changed blades in his injector, but it wasn't often. And a year on a tuck of five blades is what a colleague at work reported from when he used a DE.

Technique makes a big difference in blade life, especially figuring out how to prevent the sensation of pulling when the PTFE coating wears off. Hair drags while it's being cut by bare steel, stainless or carbon, and that "there's no blade in the razor" feeling has far less to do with the acuity of the edge than it does the PTFE preventing the hair from sticking to the steel. When you find the ideal shaving angle, suddenly blades stop pulling so much and "last" much longer. They aren't staying sharp longer, they are just pulling less.

I don't expect everyone to get huge numbers of shaved, but two or three isn't using the blade to it's capacity in most cases. They just don't get dull that quickly unless you are really scraping them across un-hydrated hair -- that can chip the edge and they WILL pull horribly. In my experience, they just stop doing a good job of removing stubble, they have to be very dull to actually drag.

That happens at different numbers of shaves depending on brand -- I barely got 28 on a Lord Rainbow once using both sides, but my current blade is a 7 O'Clock Black with 108 on it. Not new, but I still get a decent shave without discomfort, should go another week or so.

 

[Jim K]

People have very strong opinions on this.. glad I bought it up. If I used blades say 4 times - this would cost me approximately $.025 per shave (at an average cost of $.10 per blade). Seems a little hypocritical to spend $80 - $100 on a razor (which works out to 4000 shaves or 11 years of shaving blades) . Reading all the responses I still don't get, even using a blade more than 3 times ...[when the same people will buy after shave for $24 that might last 4 to 6 weeks!} I love a great shave. I don't want a "used" shave.... anyway.. I am NOT right and others are not wrong... just funny!

 

[frstplce]

People have very strong opinions on this.. glad I bought it up. If I used blades say 4 times - this would cost me approximately $.025 per shave (at an average cost of $.10 per blade).

Well I mostly use vintage blades, so the cost is more like $0.50 per blade, but I get your point. I really couldn't imagine getting less than 8-10 shaves out of these blades because they just seem to wear so slowly.

Still, I have enough blades stockpiled that I could use a new blade every shave. It just seems wasteful to toss a blade based on a number.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Roedeer]

I use oil, as it reduces skin irritation. It wouldn't be surprising if it also improves blade life. Not something I was looking for, but a harmless side-effect.

 

[GaryTha]

People have very strong opinions on this.. glad I bought it up. If I used blades say 4 times - this would cost me approximately $.025 per shave (at an average cost of $.10 per blade). Seems a little hypocritical to spend $80 - $100 on a razor (which works out to 4000 shaves or 11 years of shaving blades) . Reading all the responses I still don't get, even using a blade more than 3 times ...[when the same people will buy after shave for $24 that might last 4 to 6 weeks!} I love a great shave. I don't want a "used" shave.... anyway.. I am NOT right and others are not wrong... just funny!

You are basing your opinion based on cost instead of the quality of the shave. Many people, including myself, find that a blade shaves better after a few shaves. Maybe you ought to accept it works for them.

I'm down to two razors, two blades, one brush, and one soap. Soon, I'll PIF one of my razors. I use blades for 10 to 20 shaves. A puck of Williams lasts at least 200 shaves. My variable cost/shave is around 2 cents. The quality of my shaves is high enough it's not worth chasing higher quality by testing other products.

 

[Barney14]

Got to get the most use out of things

 

[sharktown]

I just use whatever blade in my rotation for about a week, sometimes less and sometimes more. Depends on my
technique and prep.
So with that said, I usually change a blade every Saturday morning - there simple.

 

[albsat]

Blades do last easily even 20 shaves per blade for some.

 

[dfoulk]

For me, when I first started I'd get three shaves from a blade and I'd bin it. As my technique improved I noticed that I could get six shaves from a blade and the sixth one felt every bit as good as the first. So I started using six sided dice and binning blades after six shaves. I noticed that the sixth shave felt every bit as good as the first. So I decided to do an experiment and see how long I could use a blade for. I used a Feather blade for a month and every shave was exceptional. So I bought some 12 sided dice and I bin a blade after 12 shaves even though I could likely go thirty or who knows how many. I chose 12 sided dice as they were attainable and make it easy to track my shaves. I suppose I could seek out some dice that go a bit higher but this works for me for now.

What it comes down to is that it's about technique and prep. The better your technique the less you dull a blade. The better the products you use the more your stubble is softened and the less it takes for a blade to cut through it. I have a water softener and take apart and wipe down my razor after every shave which I suspect helps as well. If you scrape the thing on your face like you're scraping paint off a house of course you won't be able to get more than a few shaves from a blade.

With me it's not about being cheap at all as I have a good job and blades are dirt cheap, even the very best ones. I use the very best hardware and software that money can buy. It's more about the task of grabbing a new blade and unwrapping it then replacing the one that's in the razor. To me this task is extra work for absolutely no gain at all. If I'm still getting outstanding shaves with absolutely no degrade in quality at all, then why bother. If I felt like I was giving up something, or sacrificing in any way, then I'd likely use a new blade every shave.

Kinda like if I was using a nice kitchen knife to cut up some carrots. Would I stop after every carrot to sharpen the knife, or course not. As long as the knife is cutting perfect then why bother.