Blade life observation

[whistleman123]

I've often seen the question "How many shaves per blade?" asked in this forum, but have never read any posts about the old safety blade hones for sale on the auction sites. Doesn't anybody use them?
I know blades are inexpensive, but it seems wasteful to through out a good piece of steel before you have to. So out out curiosity I bought a Goodrich Safety Blade Hone and tried it out.
My daily set up is a Tech with a Super Iridium Blade. Without using the hone I usually get 5-6 shaves out of a blade. After I started using the hone I found I got around 10 shaves before I had to toss the blade out. It actually doubled the blade life.
I will usually shave 3 times on a blade before I use the hone. Then just a couple of passes on each side right before I shave after that.
Does anyone else use them and have a different routine?
Dan

 

[sandmountainslim]

I dunno.......Mr. Gillette issued a decree in the earliest dawn of civilized shaving that read "No Honing, No Stropping." I have seen it reprinted most everywhere so I would be afraid to blatantly break the order.
Unsure what the penalty is though
Wp

 

[minstrel]

I believe those hones are for use with carbon steel blades, not the stainless ones we have nowadays. Those earlier blades were a bit thicker too, IIRC, which is why it sometimes can be a little iffy to try to fit a modern DE blade in the earliest DE razors. Correct me if I am wrong, but that is what I recall reading on the forums at least.