How to purposely dull a blade?

[kripav]

How to purposely dull a sharp/unforgiving blade to say it's 2nd or 3rd number of use stage?

I have done a good amount of DE shaving and am now practicing (and enjoying it) single edge blade straight razor shaving. Yesterday I used a half blade (dorco) which had been used once or twice in my DE razor prior to that and it was a blast with my slowly advancing skill level. Did a full shave neck including with zero cuts. Was very happy and thought of going single edge blade straight razor for a while. Today with a new Derby premium (the other diff being no pre shower), it was treading on quite dangerous territory and made a couple of nicks even though I was very careful and slow. The blades' sharpness/'newness' definitely seem to matter a lot.

So my question is how can I bring a new half blade to a slightly used condition without actually shaving with it?

Thanks

 

[Beefdrippings]

Run it through a cork.

 

[JPO]

Some of the Platinum coated blades start off quite dull, and as the coating wears off they get sharper.
The Gillette Yellow and the Persona Platinum is two examples. So a different blade might also be worth considering. None of these blades are usable for me because of this. A blade needs to start out shave ready.

 

[Legion]

As said above, it is called corking a blade, and it can be used to calm down an overly aggressive blade for a razor that might be a bit bitey.

Lightly run the edge over a cork two or three times (trial and error will tell you how many.)I used to do it with my blades for some SE razors, which would have a tendency to leave weepers on the first couple of shaves.

 

[JPO]

Palm stropping de blades is also a easy way to make the blade less grabby. I skipped this step today when I put a new blade in my Blackbird. Now I regret not doing it.
When you do it with a straight razor you can see the affect under magnification quite well.
It does make a difference..

 

[Big_T]

If you don't have a cork, a styrofoam cup will work.

 

[geneaut]

Corking is the method I used in the past to do that. I finally just switched to a slightly milder razor. You can also look up palm stropping which is what I did before I put a cork in my shave kit. That has the benefit of not needing any additional supplies.

 

[LJBraaten]

From what is said above about corking and stropping it sounds like new blades need de-burring. The sharpeness in itself might not be the problem (just an observation).

 

[drb1956]

Using a Wilkinson Sword from Germany. Very good blade. My regular everyday blade. Tried other blades, some are good, some not so much. With Vokshods I had to "cork" them. Run each edge over a cork twice, nice and smooth for shaving. Once doing this, you may not get the mileage on that blade that you would hope. Smooth shave, just not worth it to do this every time I change blades. I have tried numerous other blades, but have settled on German Wilkies. From my source, $1.20 a tuck...

 

[Lane101]

You may also want to try generating wetter lather to make it more slick. Helps with my Dorco Prime blades where the extra coating makes the first shave a little rougher.

 

[Ron R]

Cork or Styrofoam works, I use a cork on only one blade (Polsilver SI) seems to help make the first use a little smoother, it's the hard coating that is sputtered on seems a little rough on 1st use so I cork once with this blade and blade works well afterwards. I have lots of blades that are sharper than the Polsilver blade but I do not cork them. Iridium is a very hard metal element that is used to strengthen the blade edge.
(old archived photo.)

Have some great shaves!