100 shaves?

[sharpstar90]

I have heard a lot of talk about people getting 10 shaves, 50, 100 shaves from a blade. I can't fathom this! I can get TWO good shaves and the third is dicey. How are you guys getting 20 plus?

A little about me. I shave nearly every day and mostly use vintage Gillettes. I switched to DE because my carts got dull so fast and I got so much razor burn. DE gives me a sharp tool every time and I can shave short stubble so I always look clean.

So how is this double digit shave possible? Is it the fineness of your beard hair? Are you guys getting irritation and just powering through it? Do you have kevlar skin? I would call BS if I didn't see it reported on so often. Is there a secret to doing it?

 

[Midoio]

You are not alone. I get 2, max 3 shaves out of any good blade no matter what I do. I do not think there is a secret to it, it just some people have really coarse hair that wears the edge of the blade a lot faster.

 

[fast shaver]

My son can get 30 shaves with Dorco St-300 with his peach fuzz beard. I have a medium beard type & can get 6-7 shaves from any decent blade & X12 shaves from GSB blades thats Gillette Silver Blue blades. I usually stop at 7 shaves though. You don't really need a BBS shave unless your in the Queens Honor Guard IMO.

 

[Roy]

I am puzzled too when someone says 100. Even a dozen.

I usually get 4. I could get more, but when I have done so, my face suffers. I think that even although you feel there is still life left in the blade, your skin says otherwise.

I cannot imagine 100 shaves, but maybe those who do so have really tough skin.

 

[OldSkoolMillennial]

I have very coarse hair. Can get 5 excellent shaves out of good blades like GSBs. Could I possibly push it further? Maybe but why when blades aren't too pricey.

 

[fast shaver]

If you have a tough coarse beard, I can understand only 3-4 shaves from a blade.

 

[sharpstar90]

You are not alone. I get 2, max 3 shaves out of any good blade no matter what I do. I do not think there is a secret to it, it just some people have really coarse hair that wears the edge of the blade a lot faster.

That's what common sense was telling me. But I have just never seen a post that said "I just got 35 shaves from a Personna Lab Blue. By the way, I have a beard like soft Cashmere. YMMV"! [emoji6]

 

[Grundi]

So how is this double digit shave possible? Is it the fineness of your beard hair? Are you guys getting irritation and just powering through it? Do you have kevlar skin? I would call BS if I didn't see it reported on so often. Is there a secret to doing it?

I normally get 4 - 6 shaves, but with amazing blades can eek out 8 - 10 shaves...HOWEVER...I shave all of my beard, mustache, and cheeks area, and the back of my neck (every 3rd shave).

Frequency of shaving and coarseness of hair are only part of the equation, with the size of the area being shaved being the important X factor. If you shaved only a small amount of peach fuzz around a full beard, then you might be able to notch some legendary shave counts, too. If you full-face shave (compared to limited area shaving), then your shave would be equivalent to 4 or 5 of theirs (and vice-versa).

 

[GaryTha]

I full face shave every day with three passes.

For me, the first three shaves on a blade are most likely to result in minor nicks. After that, the blade gets smooth and it's difficult to nick myself. It suddenly gets dull on about the 14th shave.

I have hope for my first Astra SP blade. After 12 shaves, it looks like it has been stropped although it hasn't. Maybe there is some magical combination that sharpens the blade as some people shave.

 

[YKMV]

Proper Prep is a big part of blade longevity, IMHO.
Letting the soap or cream soak in will help the shave go smoother and, in theory, help the blade last longer.
I confess I'm not one of those guys who let the soap soak in for two or three minutes... maybe 30 seconds at most....still, i get 7-10 shaves from Lord blades and I'm well past 20 on my twinjector blade.
Your Kilometrage May Vary, however.

 

[andromeda673]

I'm in the 5 shaves per blade camp then I pitch it. However since joining the sabbatical I realized I don't have enough blades to make it......so I decided to try stretching a blade longer, I'm on my 9th shave right now with a Wilkinson Sword and everything so far is really good. I'm going to try and stretch this one as far as I can, and or as far as I'm comfortable with, then pitch it. However since I have my old blades sitting in a bank, I may go back in re-use some of them and see how they shave.

I know some guys that are in the push it to the max camp and they will use a blade for 6 months or more. Litterally getting a year of shaves out of a 5 blade box, to me that's true efficiency,

 

[davent]

Today was day #59, three pass, full face and neck shave with a Polsilver in a RazoRock SLAB, my only razor. The blades i've settled on all produce shave numbers in the double digits but none have ever come anywhere close to this particular blade.

The only 100 i ever bought was Voskhod's and today's #59 is still far far superior in comfort and closeness than any single shave i got out of the batch of Voskhods. Voskhods were usually a stretch at four shaves at which point they were used up.

No idea why this one blade just keeps going and don't expect to match those numbers on a regular basis.
dave

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I don't push blades beyond their cut off point. Once they stop cutting properly, or stop being comfortable (which is usually sooner than cutting problems), that's the end of the blade for me. Blades seem to get tiny chips out on the edge with my beard, rather than just dull through wear, giving blades a "broken hacksaw" feel. I do keep shaving with it till that happens though, rather than throw a blade away just because it reached a certain shave count.

Now, admittedly I only shave around 70% of my face, but I do normally take multiple passes, and most blades give me 10 shaves with no problem. The lowest blade life I've had (not counting blades that felt defective from the start) is 6 shaves (Zaza blades), and the most is 34 (with a Feather. Gillette SharpEdge went to 32).

The only fine hair I have is right on the bottom fringe of my beard, and sometimes that plucks a little, but the rest of my beard is regular full strength beard hair. I don't consider my skin particularly leathery, and it can be easily irritated if my prep or technique is off, though will be a little more robust that it was in my teens when I first started DE shaving.

 

[sharpstar90]

Those are some nice numbers. So I guess blade choice has a lot to do with it. Part of my problem may be a combination of coarse hair and sensitive skin. Maybe I could push my blades' cutting power further but then my skin suffers that much more easily.

When I first started I was pushing the uses out of my blades and got bad results. I've been doing 2 and chuck it ever since then. I feel like I'm wasting good product, but I also work in healthcare and can't walk around the hospital with pink marks all over my face!

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Those are some nice numbers. So I guess blade choice has a lot to do with it. Part of my problem may be a combination of coarse hair and sensitive skin. Maybe I could push my blades' cutting power further but then my skin suffers that much more easily.

When I first started I was pushing the uses out of my blades and got bad results. I've been doing 2 and chuck it ever since then. I feel like I'm wasting good product, but I also work in healthcare and can't walk around the hospital with pink marks all over my face!

No, no, no.

Don't make it happen, let it happen. If a blade conks out at three, so be it. If it keeps working till ten, even better, but don't "push" blades beyond what's right for your face. Maybe a technique change would help, or a change in prep, but if you're not looking to reduce your consumption of blades, or increase your shave count for other reasons, don't worry about it. There's no universal right or wrong shave count.

 

[dmshaver]

No, no, no.

Don't make it happen, let it happen. If a blade conks out at three, so be it. If it keeps working till ten, even better, but don't "push" blades beyond what's right for your face. Maybe a technique change would help, or a change in prep, but if you're not looking to reduce your consumption of blades, or increase your shave count for other reasons, don't worry about it. There's no universal right or wrong shave count.

Quite right, don't worry about it.

I agree, prep & technique are big factors. I frequently get 12+ shaves from each blade. I primarily use GSB & Nacet. But if you need to toss after 2 shaves, then do it. If your blade is still cutting, keep shaving.

 

[sharpstar90]

Thanks guys. If you're on B&B long enough, you start wondering whether you've missed something along the way! You wouldn't look at my beard and think it chews through blades, but I guess it does. My dad and uncles look burly AF so I must have gotten some of those genes mixed in.

Oh well! Part of the joy is in the experience, right? Some people like fishing for the fight of it. I'll think of that when I'm shaving!

 

[Ukrainian]

It all has to do with blades coating, similar to cars spark plugs, copper one you gotta replace every 60 thousand kilometres but iridium spark plugs will last you 192 thousand kilometres (Toyota maintenance manual).
Iridium coating of polsilver blades provides unmatched longevity.

 

[dfoulk]

For me when my technique improved my shaves per blade did as well. Other factors include the hardness of your water (I have a water softener), what you're doing as a pre shave (for me it's a warm shower), what shape your skin is in, what soap you're using, what razor you're using as well as what blade you're using.

I'm generally binning a Feather blade at a dozen shaves as I track shaves with 12 sided dice. I've taken these blades into the high 20's with no degrade in shave quality.

 

[Mick]

I have heard a lot of talk about people getting 10 shaves, 50, 100 shaves from a blade. I can't fathom this! I can get TWO good shaves and the third is dicey. How are you guys getting 20 plus?

A little about me. I shave nearly every day and mostly use vintage Gillettes. I switched to DE because my carts got dull so fast and I got so much razor burn. DE gives me a sharp tool every time and I can shave short stubble so I always look clean.

So how is this double digit shave possible? Is it the fineness of your beard hair? Are you guys getting irritation and just powering through it? Do you have kevlar skin? I would call BS if I didn't see it reported on so often. Is there a secret to doing it?

Went 1xx (120 or so) a few years ago. Even did some microscopic pics of the blade along the way.

You can read it here: So. How far would YOU go?