Thread: Razor sharpness life

Ive read tons of posts and information about how long a blade will last before being needed to hone.

My question is a little more personal though.

When using a Gillette new shaving system like the fusion or mach 3, I get maybe 2 good shaves out of each cartridge, by the 4th or 5th the blades get pretty damn dull for my taste. Making it very very hard to shave.

Anyone else like this? I know all of my buddies can last alot longer on one cartridge than I can.
This is one reason I want to go straight, so I can stop wasting a ton of money on refills for these systems.

Just curious on how much someone like me will need to re hone their blades. Hope some of you here have as tough a beard as me!

Even when thoroughly drying the blade after each use? I found that extended the life of my cartridges by 4 times. If it's your hair type that's the problem, I would guess the problem would translate to straight razors in a similar fashion, although you still would not need to hone nearly as often as you would replace a cartridge.

I'm one of those gents who gets about 3 or 4 shaves max out of a Mach 3 blade before I want to chuck it. I also don't get months of shaves out of a straight..... What I do get is a great shave for about a week if my stropping is up to snuff and then I'll need to visit my finishing hone or a Swaty hone for a few light laps to bring the edge back to where I like it. I'm still testing a variety of linen strops in hopes of finding a combo that works for me but until then I'll settle for a week on the leather strop (Illinois 827 has become my default standard) and normally either my Coticule or my Swaty, with the Spyderco UF tossed in the mix on occasion to see if I can improve the shave with it. I don't have a coarse or heavy beard but rather very thin and wire like... it's hard to cut comfortable and discomfort soon rears it's ugly head if the edge is anything but perfect. For that reason, I never go shaving with less that 2 known sharp razors... the one I plan to shave with and the backup in case my last honing wasn't as good as I thought.

Regards

Christian

yup. I got a couple or three shaves out of the M3, and only two out of the Fusion.

Straights will last me a couple of months before needing honing again, if I do your stropping right. And a pasted paddle strop will do a good job of keeping your razors sharp even if you're fairly hamfisted on the hanging strop.

This is a great opportunity to test the "resting the razor" theory. Simply have a set of seven cartridges and rotate them so each one gets a chance to recover between shaves. If the theory is sound then each cartridge should serve you for more shaves than when you use it on consecutive days.

I get zero good shaves from a Mach 3. If you do very rudimentary maintenance of your blade it should last atleast a week between honings. That would include poor stropping before each shave alone.

After a short period it should last about 2 weeks.

When you get really good; the blade is well honed, lightly stropped without cupping, stropped a little after the shave to dry it, etc. You should get 2 months between honings, easy.

Stropping changes the dynamics of blade life dramatically.

i started at 12 years old with a de bic shavers werent hear yet i have hair from my toes to head and it is thick and very corse.i could get two maby three shaves with the de . went to st8 about 7 months ago have been happy since. i will get about three weeks out of a good honing with proper stroping.

I was lucky enough to get free cartridges till about 5 months ago. Then I just used the last one I had in my mach 3 for 2 months till I bought a Braun machine. Decided I didn't like using an electric and went back to the mach with that same cartridge in it still, ran out of canned foam and just did it with hot water till sometime in February where I went straight.

So I guess I used the same one for about 4 months.

Edit: I actually still have it in my cupboard under my sink, completely clogged up with hair and some skin probably too.

Well I never used those cartridges. I went from an electric to a DE to a straight. I can get 3 shaves or so from a good DE blade. With a straight depending on the razor, with most after about 10 shaves the comfort level start to deteriorate a tad though it will give good close shaves for about a month.

Cool, thanks for all the great replies. Exactly what I was looking for.
I know I will have a different experience then everyone else, but it sounds like I wont have to hone after every shave =P.

I have no experience at all yet, but Im sure I would prefer to do some honing of my blade instead of buying more and more cartridges.

I cant wait for my razor to get here! My other stuff from classic shaving.com came extremely fast, took 1 day to get here. Now Im just waiting on the blade which Im having pre honed so that I can go ahead and start with a nice edge.