Century Club with Carbon Steel

[Dovo1695]

Who's done it? Who's even attempted it? I remember seeing a 1904 ad for the Gillette double ring that said "20-40 shaves per blade". If normal people could get 40 shaves per blade with 1904 steel, it stands to reason that some Excaliber club savant has made it to the century club with modern carbon steel. Anybody? If not, what's the most shaves you've gotten from a carbon steel blade, and which blade did you use?

I get 60+ shaves out of Perma-Sharp Supers in my RR TeckII, but I'm on shave number 3 with a Treet Black Beauty, and I think it's getting to the end of the road...

 

[Swedish Steel]

My hunch is that "a shave" back then was one pass with the grain giving you a SAS, and if you can get a week's worth of 3-pass shaves of one blade you should easily get 20 one-pass shaves with it.

I remember seeing other Gillette ads in wich the technique of shaving diagonally at 45 degrees, cutting through the whiskers, is demonstrated. I do not remember seeing anything about WTH, XTG and ATG in that ad. So I think that the 3-pass shave is a later invention to sell more blades.

 

[Dovo1695]

I think 2+ pass shaves were pretty common even back in the day. In 1925 Gillette produced a pamphlet entitled "3 Reasons Why" that explained the proper procedure for using a Gillette New. On page 3 (upper right hand corner) it recommends a 2 pass shave with some "lateral strokes" where necessary. I guess you'd call that a 2.5 pass shave. You're probably right about them recommending it to increase blade sales though!

I had to chuckle when I saw that the author mentions that the with the grain pass should take 1 minute. I wonder what he'd think about the 20 minutes shaves folks sometimes describe...

 

[Highspeedlane]

I don't see how it's possible to get that many shaves with the original carbon steel blades without some stropping along the way. And there certainly would be no 3 and 4 pass shaving involved, it would all be one-and-done

 

[Dovo1695]

I don't see how it's possible to get that many shaves with the original carbon steel blades without some stropping along the way. And there certainly would be no 3 and 4 pass shaving involved, it would all be one-and-done

That's certainly been my experience with Treet Black Beauties as well. I just wondered if there are folks out there who can really stretch out carbon steel blades, and if so, how the heck they do it!

 

[BigJ]

This would take a much tougher man than me!

 

[rudyt]

I've hit the Century Club twice with most of my shaves being 3 or 4 pass (never less), but have never even tried a carbon steel blade. Might be an interesting investigation.

 

[Swedish Steel]

I think 2+ pass shaves were pretty common even back in the day. In 1925 Gillette produced a pamphlet entitled "3 Reasons Why" that explained the proper procedure for using a Gillette New. On page 3 (upper right hand corner) it recommends a 2 pass shave with some "lateral strokes" where necessary. I guess you'd call that a 2.5 pass shave. You're probably right about them recommending it to increase blade sales though!

In 1925, yes. I can imagine that Gillette grew its business by getting people to use more blades. They also ran ads, in the30s (or thereabout), in which women told men to shave in the evening if they were going on a date. But in 1905? As I understand, most went to the barbershop and paid to have one pass once or twice a week. We also have to ask what level of comfort a man would have expected, or tolerated, during a shave in the early 1900s. My guess, given what things cost relative to income back then, he would have tolearated a good bit more tugging than we would find acceptable.

A shave in the US seems to have cost about USD 0.10 back then, and in current prices that is the equivalent of about USD 20 correcting for income. 20 Gillette blades originally cost USD 1, i.e. USD 10 per blade today (again, correcting for income value and not only CPI). Two or three carts worth today... If I paid ten dollars for a blade, I too would like to get twenty shaves from it. During the period, real wages in the US rose dramatically while the price of razor blades remained constant; in 1930 Gillette charged ten cents per blade, now corresponding to six dollars per blade (adjusting for income) in today's value. Incidentally, ten cents is still what we pay for the less pricy blades.

At that time, the only way in which Gillette could really grow revenues with the expanding economy (i.e. investors' demands) was to make people use more blades. Thus, ads talking about more passes per shave and more shaves per day. This is the problem of Gillette: a finite demand for a product that just keeps getting cheaper; the solution was the cartridge.

https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/relativevalue.php

 

[ajkel64]

I am always reluctant to use vintage blades and I have never used a carbon steel blade.

 

[bluewing]

Hi,

I've never gotten more than 6 shaves out of ANY blade. And most only last 3 to 4 shaves. So I got no clue how people can get so many shaves. Even carts really didn't do me much better.

That said, there is very little difference between plain high carbon steel made back then and what we make now. If there is any difference it will be in the heat treatment. We have far greater control than what "fly by eye" methods they used. Not to mention what we can do with sharpening and honing machines these days.

So one would think we could easily get long lasting blades these days. But the longer they last, the fewer will be sold and the fewer the manufacturers to make them.

Much like the expensive carts of today, back in those days blades were expensive and not always easy to come by. You just couldn't pop over to the store to buy more. Maybe you went to town once a week. When that blade started to get a bit dull, you would just keep using it, even as many cart users do today.

 

[ackvil]

I don't know if you would call them vintage, but when I first started shaving in the 1950s I used Gillette blues which were not stainless steel. They were not very sharp and did not last very long. I was happy when the stainless steel blades came out.

 

[Junker Jörg]

Lots of variables here: portion of face to be shaved, toughness of beard, pre-shave prep, other shave products used, technique, number of passes, care and storage of blade between shaves, stropping or no...

I just received a couple varieties of Treet carbon blades arrived from Razor Blades Club -- Black Beauties and Falcons. I'll see how far I can push each blade. I have medium-light facial hair, a partial beard, and being blond (okay, white) I can get by with a single pass with touch-ups without looking like a slacker. If anyone can can get a bunch of shaves out of these things, it should be me.

I guess I should try stropping at some point to leverage one advantage these blades theoretically have, and maybe coat the dried blade in mineral oil. Any other ideas?

I'll start with the Black Beauty tomorrow. I'll stick with an era-appropriate razor: '49 Rocket and LC New. If all goes far better than anyone could reasonably expect, I'll give a report around... Labor Day? If not... catch you next week.

 

[Highspeedlane]

Lots of variables here: portion of face to be shaved, toughness of beard, pre-shave prep, other shave products used, technique, number of passes, care and storage of blade between shaves, stropping or no...

I just received a couple varieties of Treet carbon blades arrived from Razor Blades Club -- Black Beauties and Falcons. I'll see how far I can push each blade. I have medium-light facial hair, a partial beard, and being blond (okay, white) I can get by with a single pass with touch-ups without looking like a slacker. If anyone can can get a bunch of shaves out of these things, it should be me.

I guess I should try stropping at some point to leverage one advantage these blades theoretically have, and maybe coat the dried blade in mineral oil. Any other ideas?

I'll start with the Black Beauty tomorrow. I'll stick with an era-appropriate razor: '49 Rocket and LC New. If all goes far better than anyone could reasonably expect, I'll give a report around... Labor Day? If not... catch you next week.

Looking forward to your results. I have stropped oxidized 80 year old blades and made them functional but they were barely short of torture to use to complete a shave with (especially on the neck). I would expect newer production blades to provide a better result

 

[Junker Jörg]

Looking forward to your results. I have stropped oxidized 80 year old blades and made them functional but they were barely short of torture to use to complete a shave with (especially on the neck). I would expect newer production blades to provide a better result

I expect so too, or it will be a short experiment. How do you strop blades -- machine, leather, denim, forearm?

 

[Highspeedlane]

I expect so too, or it will be a short experiment. How do you strop blades -- machine, leather, denim, forearm?

For my shaving experiment with a 1920's era 3 hole carbon steel blade I used a Twinplex strop. Some people use denim, and I've heard but never attempted, the inside of a drinking glass.

Strops proliferated during the era of the carbon steel blade particularly in the Great Depression, when goods such as razor blades were very expensive for the average person and longevity was paramount. My grandfather who lived from 1887 to 1965 owned the Moredge strop pictured below, which he used to keep his razor blades as long as possible:

Good luck and looking forward to your results.

 

[Junker Jörg]

Cool! I checked out your Twinplex thread. Is the stropping surface inside the Twinplex also leather? Was is in good, usable condition when you received it or dd you need to refurbish it in some way?

 

[Highspeedlane]

Cool! I checked out your Twinplex thread. Is the stropping surface inside the Twinplex also leather? Was is in good, usable condition when you received it or dd you need to refurbish it in some way?

Yes, the Twinplex is a leather stropping surface. I found one on the bay in great shape with seemingly little prior use. There doesn't seem to be a high demand for these in today's market so they often sell at very reasonable prices

 

[Dave in KY]

Something to consider in this discussion is how thick the blades were back then that they stropped to get all they could out of them. Doubt todays blades could stand up to that for as long.

 

[Junker Jörg]

Something to consider in this discussion is how thick the blades were back then that they stropped to get all they could out of them. Doubt todays blades could stand up to that for as long.

Good point. "That's why they play the game."

 

[Dovo1695]

Feather makes carbon steel blades that I'm interested to try. The Japanese (Hitachi in particular) have elevated modern carbon steel an art-form. My handmade Japanese kitchen knives run circles around anything else. If there's a excaliber carbon steel contender out there, I'm betting on the Feather. Unfortunately, I can't find the blades anywhere in CONUS, so it'll be a long wait for them to shipped.