My blade split down the middle

[nelamvr6]

Something strange happened.

I will be traveling home today, so I'm packing. When I took my razor apart I discovered that the Gillette Nacet I had used for 5 shaves had broken in half down the middle.

My last shave was not negatively affected, I still got a nice DFS+ with no irritation.

I never noticed any misalignment, one side never shaved differently from the other, so I'm assuming that both halves of the blade were held in place by the razor.

BTW, the razor was a Blackland Blackbird.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?​

 

[doofus]

Blade no. Now pants

 

[BSAGuy]

Not here.

 

[muiriddin]

Wow, no that is a new one that I have not heard of.

 

[TobyC]

Was it a blade that was made to break in half?

 

[Highspeedlane]

Unusual for sure. I've snapped blades in two but the amount of bend to achieve that is normally well beyond anything a razor imparts.

 

[nelamvr6]

Was it a blade that was made to break in half?

No, it was a Gillette Nacet.

 

[fuzzball]

In Soviet Russia, alligator slices through blade.

 

[nelamvr6]

Even the very last shave was excellent though, that's what's surprising me.

 

[Moody]

Even the very last shave was excellent though, that's what's surprising me.

How well does the blade(s) re-seat into the razor? If it holds them together then maybe they have been broken longer.

 

[VerbaVolant]

...Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Never happened to me but I have read about it in a couple of occasions on separate forums.

 

[John Rose]

btw, the razor was a blackland blackbird.
​

No clue about the blade, but I just googled the Blackland Blackbird, and my goodness they're handsome-looking razors!

 

[nelamvr6]

How well does the blade(s) re-seat into the razor? If it holds them together then maybe they have been broken longer.

I couldn't tell you now, that blade has already been deposited into my blade bank.

But I can say, as I've already mentioned, there was no misalignment of the blade apparent, even to the end. It appears that the razor did hold the blade halves firmly.

 

[nelamvr6]

No clue about the blade, but I just googled the Blackland Blackbird, and my goodness they're handsome-looking razors!

Tremendous shavers also! Highly recommended!

 

[frstplce]

I've had one break in half on me before when loading into the razor. It was an old carbon steel blade, so perhaps it was a more brittle metal composition?

 

[Highspeedlane]

I've had one break in half on me before when loading into the razor. It was an old carbon steel blade, so perhaps it was a more brittle metal composition?

That's what I'm thinking. Before heat treating a DE blade can be folded over like notepaper. After heat treating they are harder and have spring-like resiliency. I would imagine if they were heat treated beyond that optimum point they would get much more brittle.

 

[SirChangalot]

In Soviet Russia, alligator slices through blade.

 

[John Rose]

Now here's a coincidence.

Less than 24 hours after reading about a split blade, I was moving a Black Feather Hi-Stainless (used four times) from a Fendrihan Scientist to a Gillette Slim (for a 5th use).
I saw something odd stuck to the blade, and discovered that it was a small piece of the blade that had cracked off the middle.
I put it to one side and put the blade in the Slim and went on with the shave. No problem, since the ends of the slot kept it aligned.
I've never seen this or any kind of blade break before, but then I've never used non-Wilkinson blades either, until this Feather. I have no idea when it broke, because I hadn't taken the head apart since I first put the blade in

We have a scan. (The sawtooth upper edge is just a scanning artifact.)



Note how nice and symmetrical it is. I could not see anything in the razor head that looked like it would stress that particular area.
Another odd thing is that when I was arranging it on the flatbed scanner I was trying to place the small piece inside the slot near to but not touching the edge it broke off from, but it kept sliding over to the edge because it was magnetized.

Anyway, it still worked fine for the 5th use. It felt about the same as 3rd time on a Wilkinson, which is the only other blade I can compare it to (until I try the rest of my sampler pack).

 

[nelamvr6]

It happened to me again!

This time the blade didn't break all the way in half, but there was a split on one end from the center channel to the end of the blade.

I knew something was wrong this time because ther was a difference in the sound of the audio feedback between blade sides.

I think the problem may be that I was cranking on the razor's handle too much when closing the razor. I replaced the blade, and this time I just snugged the handle up, didn't crank down on it. Now I wait to see if it happens again.

 

[Dalejr]

Never happened to me yet in 7+ years, sounds like a bad batch of steel.