Blade Life Extension

[schraut5]

Hi guys!

I was wondering if there were any tricks out there to extend blade life? Back when I was using a cartridge razor I would dip the head of the razor in rubbing alcohol after shaving to get rid of the water off of the cutting edge to help prevent oxidation. I still do this with my DE blades, do you think its making a difference?

Also, how about "honing" the blades after shaving by pushing the blade (in the razor) against your skin a few times? Does that make any difference? I saw it once in a video and have been doing it ever since, though I am not sure if it does anything - Nick

 

[bosseb]

Mantic59 has researched this topic and reports about it in a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyxBfGcHDbM# .

I personally use stropping on my towel and enjoy 10 - 15 nice shaves from my Shark SS and red IPs and even more from my Gillette black Indians. The reason I do this is that I use a razor system with a Weber handle, Feather head and all three Ikon baseplates. By using my blade 3-4 times on every baseplate I never have to use pressure and always have a good blade feeling on the skin.

 

[Toothpick]

I've tried the palm stropping and corking of the blade.

neither had any effect I could distinguish from a shave where I didn't do such things. I believe the point of the video is just to keep the blade clean. Keep it clean and it will extend the life.

Personally speaking I don't try to extend the life of the blades myself. 95% of the time I use the blade once and pitch it.

 

[Deano]

I do the alcohol dip thing after each shave. I don't know if it helps or not but its a habit ive gotten into and do not see how it could hurt. At least I know the blade dries quickly that way.

 

[Eeyore]

Not worth it, IMHO.

 

[tomcj2]

I have tried almost everything. If I take the time and effort to strop, dip in alcohol, and soak in oil I get 3 good shaves. If I do nothing but rinse the razor with the blade in it and hang it to dry I only get 1/4 dozen shaves before I retire it.

 

[schraut5]

Fair enough! Thanks for all of the replies. With the low cost of DE razor blades, I guess its not nearly as big of an issue as it was with cartridges. I think that I will keep dipping my blades in alcohol for now - as I know that it gets them dry very quickly. Even a few shaves per blades is incredibly cheap as is

 

[BlackBard]

Hi guys!

I was wondering if there were any tricks out there to extend blade life? Back when I was using a cartridge razor I would dip the head of the razor in rubbing alcohol after shaving to get rid of the water off of the cutting edge to help prevent oxidation. I still do this with my DE blades, do you think its making a difference?

Also, how about "honing" the blades after shaving by pushing the blade (in the razor) against your skin a few times? Does that make any difference? I saw it once in a video and have been doing it ever since, though I am not sure if it does anything - Nick

Yes, but only if you flip the blade after every shave.

 

[Haegar]

I think a dirty blade makes a dull blade, even if its edges beneath the soap, skin, grease and stubble layer still is perfectly intact. So I try to always leave the edges of the blade clean after shaving (of course before the blade dries).

As a "bad habit" from my cartridge days (uhmmm, years I mean...) I use sometimes a 20ml disposable plastic syringe (without needle) to clean the blade edges with a sharp blow of water from the "underside". Actually I hold the razor upside down and blow the water jet downwards onto the blade edge - it takes a little practice to not cover the surroundings in a very special morning dew. I never bother disassembling the razor. Once the blade is in the razor it stays there until it starts to show unacceptable behaviour and gets dumped, which is typically the case after 10-14 shaves, about twice as much as when I just rinse the razor (disassembled or not).

 

[Jeff_H]

I have tried almost everything. If I take the time and effort to strop, dip in alcohol, and soak in oil I get 3 good shaves. If I do nothing but rinse the razor with the blade in it and hang it to dry I only get 1/4 dozen shaves before I retire it.

I see what you did there.

 

[Haegar]

I think a dirty blade makes a dull blade, even if its edges beneath the soap, skin, grease and stubble layer still is perfectly intact. So I try to always leave the edges of the blade clean after shaving (of course before the blade dries).

As a "bad habit" from my cartridge days (uhmmm, years I mean...) I use sometimes a 20ml disposable plastic syringe (without needle) to clean the blade edges with a sharp blow of water from the "underside". Actually I hold the razor upside down and blow the water jet downwards onto the blade edge - it takes a little practice to not cover the surroundings in a very special morning dew. I never bother disassembling the razor. Once the blade is in the razor it stays there until it starts to show unacceptable behaviour and gets dumped, which is typically the case after 10-14 shaves, about twice as much as when I just rinse the razor (disassembled or not).

I forgot to say that using the syringe costs me 10 seconds - which is why I don't use it always.

 

[rxonmymind]

Here we go...
Buy a rare earth magnet, put it on the window sill within a homemade 6" pyramid(NOT 4"!!) during a full moon preferably a red moon and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over it. That will undoubtedly keep the razor blade going for a 1000 shaves.






Did I miss anything?

 

[Haegar]

Did I miss anything?

Yes. Don't remove the blade from the window sill until the 1000 shaves are done.

 

[Ashley Rosser]

Here we go...
Buy a rare earth magnet, put it on the window sill within a homemade 6" pyramid(NOT 4"!!) during a full moon preferably a red moon and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over it. That will undoubtedly keep the razor blade going for a 1000 shaves.
Did I miss anything?

Yes, sacrificial goats or Virgins on the Shaving altar is why most Newbs fail.
Could also get some unobtanium pre shave oil that'll do the same thing as the sacrificing of goats etc as the FDA has deemed sacrificing Virgins a no no.

 

[jwilock]

I think a dirty blade makes a dull blade, even if its edges beneath the soap, skin, grease and stubble layer still is perfectly intact. So I try to always leave the edges of the blade clean after shaving (of course before the blade dries).

As a "bad habit" from my cartridge days (uhmmm, years I mean...) I use sometimes a 20ml disposable plastic syringe (without needle) to clean the blade edges with a sharp blow of water from the "underside". Actually I hold the razor upside down and blow the water jet downwards onto the blade edge - it takes a little practice to not cover the surroundings in a very special morning dew. I never bother disassembling the razor. Once the blade is in the razor it stays there until it starts to show unacceptable behaviour and gets dumped, which is typically the case after 10-14 shaves, about twice as much as when I just rinse the razor (disassembled or not).

I always stick my thumb over the spout and cover half the flow. The rest comes out in a blast and I hold both edges of the razor under it for a bit to make I get it nice and clean for the next shave.

 

[Mick]

I do nothing special and get an "average" number of shaves with a blade

I store by blades out of the razor and dry them by putting them on a towel, folding the corner over and patting the blade dry.

 

[mblakele]

Jeans-stropping roughly doubles the life of many of my blades. The way I do it is not complicated: I leave the blade in the razor, and strop it three to five times on each edge.

 

[Haegar]

I do nothing special and get an "average" number of shaves with a blade

[1], [2]

 

[bosseb]

I do nothing special and get an "average" number of shaves with a blade

I store by blades out of the razor and dry them by putting them on a towel, folding the corner over and patting the blade dry.

I jeans strop them (on my towel) in the razor and only get 10 - 15 shaves. I would like to get your 'average'.

The whole point for me is to have a life time supply of my favorite blades in spite of the coming shave apocalypse. According to the missing piece of the Mayan calender a friend has this will occur on the 15th day of May 2014. Be prepared, I am.

 

[chrisf8657]

I think it's a kind of attitude of frugal going uber-frugal, or super penny-pinching.

Our blades cost so little money, why even try? For what you get in a 100 pack of Astra, ditching the blade after 1 shave, you still get at LEAST 2x more shaves than a cartridge refill pack will provide - and for TON less money..

With that said, what's the point?