Defective blades, common?

[Rothman]

Been using Bluebirds for quite a while now, they are my go to blades. I opened a new one on Friday and it was bad from the start. It felt jagged, not sharp or smooth. Completely different from what I am used to with Bluebirds. I tried it for a second shave today after two days of growth (usually my shaves are better after the weekend growth) it was even worse. It shredded my face. It was immediately binned.

What struck me as strange was the fact that both sides felt equally as crappy. I figured if a blade was defective it would be just on one side.

How common are defective blades?

 

[mmack66]

I can't recall ever finding any, from the same general group of blades, that were what I would call defective.

 

[mblakele]

It could have been defective. There are several steps in the blade-making process - so several places for things to go wrong.




What you describe might make sense if there was a brittle patch in the steel and QC does not catch it. Or the edge hardening went wrong, making the steel too brittle. The edge would be sharp, but it would break very easily.

 

[Rothman]

I'm starting to wonder now... the very next blade in the pack was horrible so I opened a different pack (still from the same brick) and the first blade out of that was horrible as well. 3 bad blades right in a row. I have plowed through at least 20 from the same brick without issue.

Either something went awry in the manufacturing process resulting in a lot of bad blades or my face changed drastically overnight and now suddenly disagrees with bluebirds. I didn't even try any other blades in between, bluebird out; bluebird in.
I think Mblakele was onto something with the bad steel thing.

I'm going to keep trying blades until I get a good one or I'm empty.