Are Kai blades actually expensive?
I'm brand new to this hobby and definitely feel the attraction all you guys already know about. It's delightful to "solve" a lifelong shaving problem after 52 years (first shave 1971, with the then-new Trac II). Especially since I didn't even know it could be "solved." I've been a little obsessed, which seems a bit strange—although maybe you can relate.
So I've really only just gotten "the lay of the land." But I've tried enough razors to settle on one (although I will keep maybe five); settled quickly on oil rather than lather; and am pretty sure I'm close to being settled on Kai blades, which go together with a wartime Tech like cheese with crackers or peanut butter with jelly.
But here's a thing that kinda makes me smile: the people who say Kai blades are "too expensive" to be their regular blade...
...When they probably have 30 soaps, 10 aftershaves, multiple hundred packs along with dozens of partially used tucks in their drawer, and twenty razors!! ...And at least a few of those are small-run bespoke models CNC'd from high-spec metals!
Yet they can't afford 30¢ for a blade?
...That will last for ten shaves or maybe even more?
My time is valuable (well, to me), but I'm sorely tempted to go through the KAI Participation PIF thread back-to-front and log all the shaves people report getting out of one single Kai blade. One B&B'er, Demolition, got 63(!). The outlier on the low side gave up at about shave seven, I think, which is still pretty good. One guy, B_R_A_D, said he reached double digits on one blade for the first time ever. Another, Chaucer, got 20 shaves from one Kai before moving on. In another thread, one person said he routinely goes 10, and another 12, and a third 15. Another said only six.
A 30¢ blade that lasts for one week—seven shaves—amounts to 4.3¢ per shave. And thus gets very close to a Silver Star that provides two shaves @ 4¢ per shave (@ $7.99 per 100, cheapest blade I've found. I tried a Silver Star three times and really liked the first shave each time, but felt a drop-off in quality on the second shave all three times. Could be that that's just me. I suspect Silver Stars used "one-and-done" into perpetuity would be a sensible and defensible strategy, at 8¢ per shave). That person who said he routinely goes six shaves with his go-to Kais still is paying only 5¢ per shave. How does that stack up to a Nacet or a Feather used three times and binned?
Reach 10 shaves with each Kai and you've achieved 3¢ per shave. The way I survey the landscape, that's cheaper than any blade used one-and-done, which several B&B'ers I've encountered here and there say is their method.
I'm still torn. Silver Stars used one-and-done, or one new Kai every Sunday whether I need it or not? Research is ongoing!
But I think one might even say Kai blades are cheap, rather than dear. Seems to me it depends on how far you're willing to go with each one. If you hang in with them, they'll hang in with you. That's the conclusion the anecdotal evidence seems to point to.
Cordially,
MtB
(All opinions expressed or debated might be wrong, because...well, like my handle says.)
I'm brand new to this hobby and definitely feel the attraction all you guys already know about. It's delightful to "solve" a lifelong shaving problem after 52 years (first shave 1971, with the then-new Trac II). Especially since I didn't even know it could be "solved." I've been a little obsessed, which seems a bit strange—although maybe you can relate.
So I've really only just gotten "the lay of the land." But I've tried enough razors to settle on one (although I will keep maybe five); settled quickly on oil rather than lather; and am pretty sure I'm close to being settled on Kai blades, which go together with a wartime Tech like cheese with crackers or peanut butter with jelly.
But here's a thing that kinda makes me smile: the people who say Kai blades are "too expensive" to be their regular blade...
...When they probably have 30 soaps, 10 aftershaves, multiple hundred packs along with dozens of partially used tucks in their drawer, and twenty razors!! ...And at least a few of those are small-run bespoke models CNC'd from high-spec metals!
Yet they can't afford 30¢ for a blade?
...That will last for ten shaves or maybe even more?
The blade that need not speak its name. (Shhh.)
My time is valuable (well, to me), but I'm sorely tempted to go through the KAI Participation PIF thread back-to-front and log all the shaves people report getting out of one single Kai blade. One B&B'er, Demolition, got 63(!). The outlier on the low side gave up at about shave seven, I think, which is still pretty good. One guy, B_R_A_D, said he reached double digits on one blade for the first time ever. Another, Chaucer, got 20 shaves from one Kai before moving on. In another thread, one person said he routinely goes 10, and another 12, and a third 15. Another said only six.
A 30¢ blade that lasts for one week—seven shaves—amounts to 4.3¢ per shave. And thus gets very close to a Silver Star that provides two shaves @ 4¢ per shave (@ $7.99 per 100, cheapest blade I've found. I tried a Silver Star three times and really liked the first shave each time, but felt a drop-off in quality on the second shave all three times. Could be that that's just me. I suspect Silver Stars used "one-and-done" into perpetuity would be a sensible and defensible strategy, at 8¢ per shave). That person who said he routinely goes six shaves with his go-to Kais still is paying only 5¢ per shave. How does that stack up to a Nacet or a Feather used three times and binned?
Reach 10 shaves with each Kai and you've achieved 3¢ per shave. The way I survey the landscape, that's cheaper than any blade used one-and-done, which several B&B'ers I've encountered here and there say is their method.
I'm still torn. Silver Stars used one-and-done, or one new Kai every Sunday whether I need it or not? Research is ongoing!
But I think one might even say Kai blades are cheap, rather than dear. Seems to me it depends on how far you're willing to go with each one. If you hang in with them, they'll hang in with you. That's the conclusion the anecdotal evidence seems to point to.
Cordially,
MtB
(All opinions expressed or debated might be wrong, because...well, like my handle says.)
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. They excel on certain razors like techs, gamechangers, etc. 
