Excalibur Club - Blade Longevity DE, SE and Injector

[bosseb]

Wilkinson Super Sword-Edge report starting week 8, currently on shave 53.

Weleda cream, Aristocrat #16 with Wilkinson blade, Castle Forbes Lavender ASB and Rudy Vey LE 2014 Holiday brush
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First apologies for the gloomy light in pic above! We don't have much daylight in Stockholm now.

Some new stuff in the picture; Weleda cream and the Holiday brush are Christmas gifts. The cream you won't be seeing ever again in my pictures but the brush is a keeper, as expected. The combination of Rudy Vey handle and a Shavemac knot ( 2 band silvertip, the new one!) cannot be wrong.

I ran out of the Mystic Water soap during the week due to son visiting. After trying my (almost in the rotation) Cade soap I came to realize how very important every aspect of the shave is under these extreme conditions. The Cade won't make it to the rotation in spite of high hopes built while using it as a stick during summer. It lacks the glide I have come to expect and enjoy from the Mystic Water line of soaps. I will be opening my Martin de Candre Fougére tomorrow.

I am glad to report that the Wilkie is performing very well. The first shave for the week with my favorite razor , the #16, revealed that the blade is as sharp as a new lesser blade. At this point I must admit that I'm not surprised. The run so far, compared to the Polsilver SI and the black Indian 7 O'clock, reveals that this blade is in a totally different league when it comes to longevity. My 2 pass shaves do not need any extra clean up pass until the end of the week in every razor I use. That is the beauty of switching to ever more aggressive razors every week.

This is going to be a long run considering that Mick did 100+ 4 pass shaves on one of these blades. I am only on 50+ 2 pass shaves...

 

[DonMac]

Bosseb,
That's impressive stuff, and the lighting is just right! Looks like a professional photo!

 

[Guru17]

Fir the 13th shave with my 7 O'Clock Permasharp, I stepped up the razor to New Improved, and voila......it worked, and like a charm too.

Was a very quick shave, two passes giving me a smooth DFS all over. There was one small weeper, but that's it. The shave itself felt as if I'm using a new blade.

 

[DonMac]

Just finished shave #23 on the Wilkinson blade. This time I used it in a EJ DE89. I can't tell any difference in the last few shaves, the blade seems to simply be cruising along cutting well.
One of the main things I notice about extending the blade life, is paying particular attention to the angle of the razor to my whiskers. I can immediately tell if I have too much angle, as I get a loud audio feedback with poor cutting. A shallow angle of around 20 degrees seems to provide a very smooth shave with efficient cutting.
I am beginning to wonder if this blade is going to last forever.

 

[mswofford]

Just finished shave #23 on the Wilkinson blade. This time I used it in a EJ DE89. I can't tell any difference in the last few shaves, the blade seems to simply be cruising along cutting well.
One of the main things I notice about extending the blade life, is paying particular attention to the angle of the razor to my whiskers. I can immediately tell if I have too much angle, as I get a loud audio feedback with poor cutting. A shallow angle of around 20 degrees seems to provide a very smooth shave with efficient cutting.
I am beginning to wonder if this blade is going to last forever.

Understood, Don; It's easy to get bored. I have several razors going right now so posting results at my self-imposed 30 shaves is going to take time.

 

[DonMac]

Understood, Don; It's easy to get bored. I have several razors going right now so posting results at my self-imposed 30 shaves is going to take time.

I think you nailed it, I am getting a little bored with this blade. I actually find myself hoping it will stop shaving well, it just doesn't agree. I have started several other blades going now at the same time, and I think I'll just post their progress at twenty or so shaves instead of boring everyone with a shave by shave report. I have an Astra, Feather, Supermax and Personna, with varying shaves on them.
I am most interested to see how the Feather does, considering it's currently one of the most popular blades.

 

[bosseb]

Understood, Don; It's easy to get bored. I have several razors going right now so posting results at my self-imposed 30 shaves is going to take time.

This blade longevity stretching is to a large degree a question about mindfulness. Try to focus on the shave, not the equipment!

If needed you can repeat my signature line while shaving...

Enjoy your shaves.

 

[mswofford]

Try to focus on the shave, not the equipment!

Absolutely true; Being the curious type, I'm looking forward to trying other blades in the mix. BTW, the Wilkinson Super Sword Edge Made in England blades that you favor arrived.

 

[TheVez2]

Not sure what type of longevity most folks get, but I'm on shave 29 with my Mongoose loaded with a Feather Pro.

 

[bosseb]

Not sure what type of longevity most folks get, but I'm on shave 29 with my Mongoose loaded with a Feather Pro.

I think that is quite a respectable number - but I haven't tried a Feather Pro myself.

I sometimes practice the art of 'no pressure' with a KAI blade in a Kamisori style CJB clone. Dang, that blade is sharp and I believe the Feather is even sharper. No human hand can hone an edge like that...

 

[DonMac]

Now this is really getting stupid! I just finished shave #24 on my Wilkinson using a Lord L6. Basically two passes and a touch up. Taking your advice Bosseb, I focused purely on the shave, not evening thinking about the equipment.
I'd swear, the blade was brand new out of the box. The shave was smooth, no pulling, no roughness, just a blade cutting well. As goofy as it sounds, the blade is cutting better now than when it was new! The results, are a shave so close it's basically an almost BBS. With a little more touch up it would definitely be a BBS. About 95% of my face is so smooth, I can't tell I ever had whiskers.
How can this be? Does anyone have some scientific theory as to how this is possible?

 

[coolcanuc]

As goofy as it sounds, the blade is cutting better now than when it was new!

That is exactly what I have found with all of the blades that I have used. The first 2 to 4 shaves seem a little rough and tend to give a few nicks. It could be burring left on the edge after the final step in the manufacturing process. Today I finished shave 36 on a Feather using a ball-tech and I would say that the last 30 shaves have been very smooth.

 

[jamesspo]

Now this is really getting stupid! I just finished shave #24 on my Wilkinson using a Lord L6. Basically two passes and a touch up. Taking your advice Bosseb, I focused purely on the shave, not evening thinking about the equipment.
I'd swear, the blade was brand new out of the box. The shave was smooth, no pulling, no roughness, just a blade cutting well. As goofy as it sounds, the blade is cutting better now than when it was new! The results, are a shave so close it's basically an almost BBS. With a little more touch up it would definitely be a BBS. About 95% of my face is so smooth, I can't tell I ever had whiskers.
How can this be? Does anyone have some scientific theory as to how this is possible?

Really, there doesn't need to be any special theory about this. Blades just flat out last longer than most given them credit for, and that's due mostly to just arbitrarily throwing away blades at a fixed (usually small) number. I don't think everyone will be able to get 27 shaves on a blade, but I think it's clear that most can get 10-12 easily. I go 40+ on most blades. Most just never try going beyond a few shaves because they don't see any benefit to doing see vs the perceived risk of a bad shave. The problem is that most are forming their opinion about blade life when they're in the learning stages of DE shaving, and blame the blade for every little incident (nick, weeper, irritation, etc), instead of their technique which is vastly more likely to be the problem. The result, lots of folks throwing away blades at 3-5 shaves because they've never tried going beyond there.

I do think that prep and technique play a big part in getting to the higher numbers (20+). It sounds like you're doing a great job on all fronts.

 

[mswofford]

That is exactly what I have found with all of the blades that I have used. The first 2 to 4 shaves seem a little rough and tend to give a few nicks. It could be burring left on the edge after the final step in the manufacturing process. Today I finished shave 36 on a Feather using a ball-tech and I would say that the last 30 shaves have been very smooth.

Welcome Doug! I've read about, then observed it myself; Blades not being as smooth for first couple of shaves. I've recently run into an exception with Gillette 7 O'clock blacks; The first 3 shaves so far have been absolutely smooth in a 1956 SuperSpeed. Statistically insignificant but interesting. I wonder if anyone else has had this experience with this or any other blade.

 

[Guru17]

I tend to agree with Don here. On 14th shave today with the 7 O'clock Indian green, it felt as if the blade was not used before. No resistance whatsoever, except for one part of my face (which is always tough to shave, no matter what I use).

 

[DonMac]

Well, based on the number of blades I currently have, and the estimated number of shaves I am going to getting from most of them, it appears my grandchildren will still be enjoying my stash of blades many years from now, unless I live to be 346.

I do find it difficult to not chime in on so many of the posts where someone is discussing how they discard a blade after one shave, or on their second shave they got a weeper, so they discarded the blade, or they just can't tolerate the horribly dull blade after 3 shaves.

Now, I feel a little silly, as for so many years I was part of that mentality, usually discarding a blade after about 7 shaves, and believing I was being fugal in using the blades to their full potential.

The advice from Bosseb, and James is invaluable; pay attention to the shave, not the equipment, and do the right prep, ignore the limitations others give, and use the blade as long as it's working well.

 

[bosseb]

Well, based on the number of blades I currently have, and the estimated number of shaves I am going to getting from most of them, it appears my grandchildren will still be enjoying my stash of blades many years from now, unless I live to be 346...

I have this same "problem".

A few years ago I built a sizeable stash of blades based on the false fact that I was going to need a new blade each week and that there might be a shortage of the Egyptian made Shark SS blades. I ended up getting 3500+ blades.

There is a grain of useful info in this story however.

The reason I set out to get new blades was that I had detected that my then go to blade, the Yellow Russian 7 O'Clock Gillette, was not as comfortable as it had used to be. I drew the false conclusion that my old fogey skin had changed and that it didn't tolerate the blade any more. I thought this was obvious since I had changed nothing in my shaving. I even used the very same razor (the Feather AS-D1) for a period of 18 months for my daily shaves.

About half way into 2012 I completed the razor with some baseplates from a banned vendor here. By that time the Yellow Gillette was decidedly uncomfortable on my skin. Almost immediately I realized that my technique had failed me with the lone Feather razor. The original Feather head is probably milder than a post war US Tech and my technique had gotten sloppy and I falsely blamed the blade.

Please note that during all this I did enjoy daily BBS shaves. The post shave feeling was not what it had used to be though and the comfort during the shave was not there.

Since this incident I have made it a point to use different razors, blades, soaps and brushes. It is without a doubt a fact that the equipment does not make the shave - but sticking to the same equipment for a longer period might ruin your technique.

I am the first person to admit that I might have gone a bit overboard on the razor and brush acquisitions but it's all a part of maintaining a good shaving technique.

 

[Guru17]

I am the first person to admit that I might have gone a bit overboard on the razor and brush acquisitions but it's all a part of maintaining a good shaving technique.

Hohohoho.......Careful - somebody might actually believe you.

 

[bosseb]

Hohohoho.......Careful - somebody might actually believe you.

...

 

[coolcanuc]

Welcome Doug!

Thank you Mike, happy to be here. It is nice to know that there are others who routinely use blades for as long as they wish, see fit or for as long as it is cutting well.

On that note, today was the 37th shave for the Feather in the '53 Tech. It I still going well, I did do some extra cleanup this morning, but I feel that it is time to change the blade. This, by the way, has more to do with today being the 31st of December and tomorrow being the 1st of the New Year.

So, in honor of New Years day I will be loading a made in England Wilkinson into the Tech, I haven't used this razor/blade combination yet, and look forward to seeing how long it lasts.

Happy New Year!!