Excalibur Club - Blade Longevity DE, SE and Injector

[LJBraaten]

And do you guys strop between uses ...and if so, with what? A regular leather strop for a straight type of razor or one of those vintage curved glass straps?

Welcome! Some have reported doing nothing but carefully cleaning their blades. I strop mine daily with a Twinplex. About every ten shaves I use the more aggressive Allegro Sharpener.

On the number of shaves per blade, it does depend on the blade and a bit of adjustment in skill, patience, and most of all, expectations. (What you expect on the the first pass.) When I returned to traditional wet shaving a few years ago, I had to really push it to get 4 shaves on my blade. Now I can get at least 10 on any blade, at least the one’s I’ve tried so far.

 

[LJBraaten]

I don’t actually count it accurately as I use this for my head shaves, but binned a GEM blade today with 30-40 shaves on it. Excellent blade!

Woah! I average 10 - 17 on a Gem, and I don’t shave my head!

 

[Guido75]

Nice to read health is orbiting you to get back in the saddle again @Texchappy. Some great blades there!

 

[Guido75]

Woah! I average 10 - 17 on a Gem, and I don’t shave my head!

And no stropping or honing either! well I towel dry blade that might induce some form of stropping.

 

[cranewarrior]

I'm about to finish the One Blade in February Challenge with 17 shaves on a single Treet Dura Sharp. I'm going to move onto another blade, but I will keep this one and shave occasionally with it just to see how long it lasts me.

I don't feel like I do anything special technique-wise, but reading this thread has been very entertaining, and trying to use the techniques mentioned with intentionality has perhaps saved me from a few extra nicks. Thanks to everyone here.

 

[LJBraaten]

I just finished shave 480 on my Feather Hi Stainless. My usual razor is still my early Post War Tech.

 

[LJBraaten]

Shave 495, . . . 4

 

[TheVez2]

384 on my Personna PC.

 

[LJBraaten]

I just made 500 on my Feather!!! I don’t know how much longer I’ll continue this experiment.

 

[coolcanuc]

I just made 500 on my Feather!!! I don’t know how much longer I’ll continue this experiment.

Wow. that is a lot of use out of one blade. I applaud you and anyone wishing to use a blade for this long.

A few questions for you...
How does the blade feel?
Is your shave taking longer than with a new blade?
Has your technique/routine changed at all?

 

[LJBraaten]

Wow. that is a lot of use out of one blade. I applaud you and anyone wishing to use a blade for this long.

A few questions for you...
How does the blade feel?
Is your shave taking longer than with a new blade?
Has your technique/routine changed at all?

The blade still feels fine, but it takes a little longer to get a good shave (4 passes, usually with buffing, and light touch up). My main change in technique is a very light touch. I use a mild razor and a shallow angle (an aggressive razor has too much drag and pull unless it has a new blade). The blade wouldn’t have lasted 15 shaves without regular sharpening: I use the Allegro hone and strop every 5-8 shaves, and the Twinplex strop every day.

 

[Texchappy]

Minor victories— all three of the blades I’m using are in double digits now

 

[LJBraaten]

Minor victories— all three of the blades I’m using are in double digits now

Congratulations! That’s a huge hurdle!

 

[Texchappy]

Third less than ideal shave on a Nacet with 15 shaves on it. after it, I moved it from the Mercury slant into a Phoenix fakelite slant. If that doesn’t work it’s into ATT aggressive open comb and then gone if none of those work (at least that’s the plan).

 

[Halfbeard]

Third less than ideal shave on a Nacet with 15 shaves on it. after it, I moved it from the Mercury slant into a Phoenix fakelite slant. If that doesn’t work it’s into ATT aggressive open comb and then gone if none of those work (at least that’s the plan).

Slant should help for blade longevity. I slant my razor move (Gillete slide ?) always - with DE, SE, shavette. Slant move even slant razor. Slant move helps in my hollows on neck.

Isn't the excalibur challenge interesting !?

 

[cranewarrior]

All other things being equal, do blades last longer in mild or aggressive razors? Or does it matter at all? What is the consensus?

 

[Halfbeard]

I don't know. I rotate my blades between many razors. To answer your question one should use one blade one razor from start to end. And then start with new razor. I get bored to shave with same razor a month !

 

[LJBraaten]

All other things being equal, do blades last longer in mild or aggressive razors? Or does it matter at all? What is the consensus?

The razors that work best for me I’m extending blade life are mild ones. I’ve found I can only use an aggressive razor for the first few shaves on a blade. After that they pull, grab, and skip.

 

[Texchappy]

The Nacet worked much better in a more aggressive slant.

 

[Texchappy]

Got my Personna red to 20 this morning. Was ok but shave should have been better. Probably need to move it out of the mild feather popular.