I might be wrong but I thought that the first blade hooks the hair and pulls it up and the second and subsequent blades actually cut it. This being one of the reason why carts lead to ingrowns.
I have a theory on why multi-blade cartridges last longer.
- Thread starter Quasimodo
- Start date
I doubt it...
For many years I do not use carts since they give me irritation so I use de, se and pivot head se. Where the pivot se resembles a cart for a large part. Now I have pivots using half a de blade.
and when I use most de blades in a de I get approx a week of use
If I use the same blade in broman with pivot head I easily get over two weeks. On some blades I can get 6 weeks.
what is different? By design the pivot head has a build in angle and prevents pressure to some extend. Whereas with a fixed head I try to keep the angle constant but I am pretty sure it varies. Pressure mistakes will be punished so that is self learning.
However there are also de users getting over several months out of a single blade which for me means my technique is not there yet.
And there is some difference in prep and soap.
shavers with fixed head se seem to outlast de based blades also. The blades are thicker and they are used in a shallower angle more akin a straight and considered to be more efficient for tough beards.
And last but not least there are people out there with kevlar or tungsten beards since they wreck any blade quick and dirty....
Still I think the angle of attack is most important to efficiently cut a beard.
Lol these are of course my 15 cents the price of a single de blade
For many years I do not use carts since they give me irritation so I use de, se and pivot head se. Where the pivot se resembles a cart for a large part. Now I have pivots using half a de blade.
and when I use most de blades in a de I get approx a week of use
If I use the same blade in broman with pivot head I easily get over two weeks. On some blades I can get 6 weeks.
what is different? By design the pivot head has a build in angle and prevents pressure to some extend. Whereas with a fixed head I try to keep the angle constant but I am pretty sure it varies. Pressure mistakes will be punished so that is self learning.
However there are also de users getting over several months out of a single blade which for me means my technique is not there yet.
And there is some difference in prep and soap.
shavers with fixed head se seem to outlast de based blades also. The blades are thicker and they are used in a shallower angle more akin a straight and considered to be more efficient for tough beards.
And last but not least there are people out there with kevlar or tungsten beards since they wreck any blade quick and dirty....
Still I think the angle of attack is most important to efficiently cut a beard.
Lol these are of course my 15 cents the price of a single de blade
That would be an interesting study. If it would be easy to swap positions I guess someone could try moving the rear blade up front and every other blade back one I guess a good study could be developed. Since isn't practical without destroying the cartridge I guess we may never know.
Gillette could do the study, they make enough profit, lol
Now if they could only invent a cartridge that cuts WTG, XTG, and ATG simultaniously with each stroke I would be impressed.
I think the hysterisis hypothesis is histerical.
I believe the theory of the hysteresis hypothesis is valid, but I'm not sure it make the lead blade do more work and wear faster.
If'n you ain't careful, Gillette will be suing you for something, because that makes more sense than anything I've ever heard on the subjeck, and I am so bright my Dad used to call me son!
'cause mere mortals like you and me just ain't as bright as we think we are.
Now you've gone and done it! Gettin' all "Scientifical" on us! Why ain't you werkin' with NASA, or the Covid Task Force!
Could be, but then why dont we get a BBS in one pass then? And why do you need more than 2 blades? (Rhetorical question).
The commercials in the seventies always showed a north to south pass. It seems like a south to north would be better for hysterisis to work, but then again we all know direction is different based on beard mapping.
When I first started shaving, and for many many years I used nothing but the Atra. I always did just one south to north pass on my entire face. I didnt know any better. Dont know what acronym shave I got I really cannot recall.
Sorry. If I worked with NASA, the rockets wouldn't get from the Cape to the Georgia border
. As for the Covid Task Force, I'll plead the Fifth.
Mike M
...but this one IS cracked.
It might make it if the explosion was big enoughSorry. If I worked with NASA, the rockets wouldn't get from the Cape to the Georgia border
I found that the small space between the blades loaded up so quickly, that I never felt that the additional blades did nothing for me, but enhanced the pockets of the advertising agencies.
This was my experience if I ever shaved less than daily. Even then, sometimes, I still had to bang the razor on the sink to dislodge hair, skin, and soap. The Mach 3 was a little more friendly to rinse the gunk out. I've no problems with that on a straight razor
I’ve never found a Cart that gave me more than one week of shaves. I’ve found numerous DE and SE blades that last longer than a week. But then I am a bit of a dinosaur. 
Unless I use a Razorpit, the blades just don't last on a cart. I can get maybe 4-5 shaves. Maybe if you have soft water and not much of a beard you could get away with more. I don't tolerate dull blades at all, it leads to skin irritation.
I believe that they last longer because they are thin at one end, much, much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end.
The most shaves for me was a schick xtreme 3, I think about 20 to 30 one cartridge, trac ii 6 or 7 never tried to push it
I believe the thicker the blade, the longer it can hold an edge with in reason
Sorry, my post wasn't serious, it was a whimsical reply to @Quasimodo regarding his reference to a very funny Monty Python sketch.
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