SIXTH ANNUAL "One Blade in February" Challenge

[TexLaw]

Alright, gents! After a week's delay, we are underway! I just took that P74 for its maiden voyage in my bottom dial Fatboy, lathering up some MWF with the Duke 3 best, and finishing off with DRH Arlington. Luxurious. A dream shave.

I'm gonna reset the clock and call this Day 1 / Shave 1. Yee-haw!

Thanks, Toothpick!

 

[slant81]

Well, today was shave 7 the feather blade. The last few shaves have gotten worse and worse. I couldn't take the pulling anymore. I threw in a new blade half way through shaving my chin. Hge difference no pulling smooth as silk. I always thought that it was a waste if time trying to use a blade more than once or maybe twice. They are so cheap and they definitely aren't the same after the first shave. Especially a feather. I have proved my point by trying to go further. I don't believe with how cheap blades are that there is any need to try to shave with a 10 cent blade past it's prime. I think a feather is good for one shave. Anyways good luck people. I am officially outski!

 

[Gig103]

Shave 4 on my Gillette Platinum. Today was a rushed 2-pass shave, with Razorock XXX - which smells amazing, but I was rushed so it was a little thin. Still slick and protective enough though. Paired with the XXX aftershave splash.

 

[johnd111]

Any hand stroppers in this thread?

Those who have now experienced how long their blade of choice can last, you should try one more time and strop your de blade each time you use it.

It can make a difference to smoothness on those 5th and 6 th shaves.

 

[whosaidpigeon]

Shave #8 on the Polsilver. Definitely not as close as previous shaves. I feel this blade may be heading toward the end of the road for me. Still I've covered over twice as much shave ground as I usually would.

 

[showard]

Shave #4 Saturday afternoon:
Polsilver SI/Aristocrat /Cella
Great shave after a hot shower...left conditioner on my beard for about 10 minutes.
My most comfortable shave of the month so far.
Followed with Brut Splash-on.

 

[slant81]

Shave #8 on the Polsilver. Definitely not as close as previous shaves. I feel this blade may be heading toward the end of the road for me. Still I've covered over twice as much shave ground as I usually would.

Right there with you bud. 7 was my last one. I hand stropped. Didn't help. I don't see any need on using a blade that wasn't sharp. I'd mu rather just open a brand new blade after every shave. That only costs less than 1$ a week. If I shave 7 days a week. I think I can handle that.

 

[whosaidpigeon]

I wanted to add to my above comment that it is most likely my prep, or lack thereof, that has lead to only getting 8 shaves from the blade. My current prep is just a face wash with cold water and leave the water on there while I soak my brush. Once the brush has soaked for about 1 - 1.5 minutes (if I'm patient enough) I go straight to face lathering.

If this cuts down on blade longevity, so be it. I'd rather just pop another blade in after 3, 4 , 5, however many shaves than go crazy with prep.

 

[Galaktus]

02-08-2015
Gillette NDC Tech, Parker 26C handle
Personna Med Prep (8)
Palmolive cream
Century badger brush
Florida Water

I had one small red dot, not even a weeper, on my upper lip. Still a smooth shave though.

 

[kevdogg329]

I have used 3 blades this month so far, but going to try to use the voskhod as far as possible. Had shave 2 on it today until my mission. Not smooth but left me with almost a BBS shave. Will move to slim soon.

 

[Jut]

Ever Ready 1912 w/Treet 009 RD (10)

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

And we have Day 8, Shave 8 in the books. I had one tiny weeper today. I think it was more my own fault than a sign of the blade wearing.

Stan

 

[Atos]

Hi everybody,
this was 5th shave, 4 of them done with my new Merkur slant razor. It is suprisingly smooth shaver to the point that I won´t be using my EJ DE89 for a while. Wilkinson blade is still performing well.
Speick was used both as a soap and AS. And because every thread is better with picture...

 

[Steve in Shalimar]

Derby (8)

Eight great one-pass shaves with the Derby. The first 2-3 were a little harsh, but now the blade has settled in. This is the "sweet spot" for the next few shaves.

 

[DrColossus11]

Went against my better judgment and continued to shave despite saying I was going to be taking a break.

Had shaves 6 and 7 on the Lab and it's still holding on strong.

 

[SanKaloon]

Blade: Treet Black Beauty
# of Shaves: 8
Razor: Gillette Tech head on Maggard MR5 handle
Brush: Semogue 1460 Boar
Lather: Proraso Cream
Result: Single pass. I was getting bored of the Slim, so I went with my favorite today. The extra weight of the MR5 on the Tech head really works well for me. Blade is still going along fine - hasn't changed much.

 

[yakster]

Shave four and out the door... yesterday. Same software and prep as last time, blade still very comfortable, no trouble expected until I hit the double digits.

Shave three with a Polsilver SI and my 1960 F1 Fatboy and this blade is settling in. No signs of loss of sharpness yet, but these are just two pass shaves so I expect to get maybe eight or ten great shaves out of this blade without breaking a sweat. We'll see. Broke into a new tub of ToBS rose shave cream, very nice lather (this is the 'after' picture) and scent.

 

[TexLaw]

Day 2 / Shave 2 with the P74, and all is well! Today featured the same setup as yesterday, except that I added a tiny bit of Palmolive menthol to the MWF and splashed on Lucky Tiger instead of the Arlington. Nice shave!

 

[DrAwkward]

I forgot to post yesterday, but I did shave. And I learned that the Barbasol seems to prefer a somewhat shallower angle than I have been using. I tend to start with a pretty steep angle, which worked fairly well. But then I noticed that if I used a medium angle, it worked even better. I guess this is why I'm sticking to one razor, so that I can learn a thing or two.
Wilkinson Light Brigade (7) & (8)
Barbasol FH

 

[Al_S]

I forgot to post yesterday, but had shave #6 on the Feather Saturday morning, followed by #7 this morning. Both shaves had some nicks in unusual places (as did shave #5). On Saturday I'd probably chalk it up to technique as I was rushing, but this morning i was more careful, but had more nicks , also in places typically easy to shave. The blade still gave a close shave & I didn't feel any pulling. I'll give the blade a couple more shaves and pay close attention to technique, but may scrap it iff I continue to have problems. I've been shaving DE for less than a month, but typically get through a shave without any nicks, or maybe some minor ones in areas on the neck where hair growth is sporadic & more difficult to get to BBS.

As a side note, in my shave today I used new soap & aftershave balm (both HTGAM cavendish). My verdict is still out on the products. I also used an alum block for the first time and absolutely loved it.