Why does a DE blade have 2 edges?

[dpm802]

We all know the business model of Gillette and other blade manufacturers ... the whole idea is to get us hooked on them to continue buying blades.

But ... why do they make a blade with 2 usable edges?

If they only made blades with ONE edge ...

a) Their manufacturing and overhead costs would be lower.
b) We'd have to buy blades twice as often.

So why was a DE blade introduced in the first place?

 

[AdrianR]

Hmmm...my takes would be that it's just as cheap to mechanically produce a DE blade as it is a SE blade.
Marketing can up the final price (NEW! IMPROVED! TWO EDGES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!) and thus increase the profit.

 

[luvmysuper]

The early advertisements touted it as twice the shaving power, as there were two useable shaving edges. Advertising ploy. (which King Gillette was genius at by the way)

 

[82R100]

There are some clear advantages to a symmetrical double edge design:

- You don't have to incorporate a feature to prevent its being inserted in the wrong orientation (Poka Yoke in Japanese manufacturing practice).
- While there are two edges to hone and strop, you don't have to work as hard in handling and orienting the parts in production machinery (just have the long dimension "this way" and the short dimension the other)
- No need or temptation to incorporate a spine, representing an additional piece part and multiple operations to fabricate and assemble.
- And, as mentioned above, the concept of provide two edges for the price of one. As has been mentioned elsewhere, Gem offered double edge blades for their single edge Micromatic to try to match this appeal.

- Chris

 

[rainman]

The blade angle of a DE cannot be achieved with an SE or Injector. Also, 2 sides, double the blades, half the amount of time rinsing or shaking the razor out during the shave. Why or how did they think of it and have it last over 100 years as a great idea, that I don't know.

 

[mdunn]

King needed/wanted to differentiate from the existing shaving options out there. SE blades and straights.

The DE is different enough that people will pay attention, and its probably cheaper to sharpen two ends on a bit of steel, than to sharpen one end and attach a spine to the other.

If people got half the ammount of shaves from the blade at pretty much the same cost (because economies of scale would quickly make the cost of dual sharpening negligible - most of the costs are in transportation and marketing anyway) then it probably wouldnt have been such a success.

(excuse the long post - business analysis is one of the things I do)

 

[dpm802]

(excuse the long post - business analysis is one of the things I do)

Being a skeptical cynic is one of the things I do ... that's why I posed the question in the first place.

No problem with the long post ... I think you analyzed the blade business rather well.

 

[Barbarian]

Well, Gillette is always looking for something new to patent, so they can 'give away' razors and sell blades. Maybe all the single edge options at the time were taken?

 

[mdunn]

Well, Gillette is always looking for something new to patent, so they can 'give away' razors and sell blades. Maybe all the single edge options at the time were taken?

and it had to be different enough that you couldnt use SE blades, only the new gillette blades. Thats where all the $$ is

 

[Roman414]

You are making a razor blade. You have a flat piece of steel. You sharpen one side to shave with. What do you do with the other side? Doesn't it make eminent sense to sharpen it also and double the usefulness of the product?

 

[Jwolf24601]

Didn't Gillette have to come up with a unique blade design to patent it?