Thread: average blade life

Originally Posted by mafuzul1

is this true? is a DE Razor sharper than a SR? I started shaving with a SR thinking this is it, this the baddest thing ever. "the whole taking a lethal weapon to my face and shaving with it thing"?

please say it ain't so!

I don't know if a DE blade is sharper than a straight but my Muhle R41 with a feather blade will give the shave I get from a straight a run for the money with a photo finish. The shave is not quite as comfortable though. If you have not shaved with a DE before try that combination for a does of lethal to your face.

I get about 4-5 shaves out of a feather blade.

Bob

I should add I do not mean lethal in a nice way. The R41 with a feather blade is not for a beginner DE shaver.

Bob

I shave with a DE almost never, but the Personnas work well in my razor. I have a box of 100 of them and have been doling them out to my neighbor who uses the same Gillette from his Army days. He says they are much better than any he has bought lately from the drug store. Swears he can shave for almost a month with one. Must have a thin beard, I thought!
A friend sent me some Feathers, so I gave my neighbor a few to try. Next day, he said the razor glided like no blade was in it. Sharpest thing ever! THEN, a day later he tried the same blade. Proclaimed it was awful! Go figure!

I use Feathers for two shaves although I am sure I could get more out of them. The Gillette
Russian made (St. Pertersburg) shave as well as the Feathers for me and maby a bit better but they are not as forgiving as the Feathers.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

I shave with a DE almost never, but the Personnas work well in my razor.

+1 on a couple of counts.
Rarely use a DE but when I do I go for a Personna (Med Prep or Blue - US Production)

The Feather is also great but I don't think I use a DE enough to get the most out of them. In a 37c Slant they well surely get your attention.

And like sharptonn I probably give away 3x more blades that I use as I try to bring the Heathens in to the world of Wet Shaving...
This practice is how I help buy better Shaving Karma and hold razordinkaphobia at bay..
You do what you have to do...

Smooth shaving....

I like Feathers but don't seem to get the mileage out of them, 2-3 comfortable shaves and then they go downhill. My G-slim doesn't pair well with Merkur blades but my Merkur razor does, 4-5 shaves. In general, I change the blades every 5 shaves unless they start to decline. I also have liked Shark brand and Personna meds, they performed well. However, as was strongly stated before..... todays worst blade may become your best next month after technique improves. I'm still messing with efficiency and technique, trying to get the best shaves in minimal passes let alone trying not to bleed too much. Back when I was using carts it was all about mowing down enough to get through the day. Now I have a new hobby that really can lower stress levels. Takes so much focus you can't be dealing with anything else which is REALLY a great break. There are a bunch of small skills that need to be mastered to put it all together to achieve the BBS we all read about here. I'm just not there yet w/consistency..... so many variables G

To Me, feathers are the gold standard,followed By Kais and Balzanos.
But have always wonderd,The sharper the blade,the fewer the shaves IME.maybe that fine precision edge degrades faster becuase it is so sharp.
Just curious.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

To Me, feathers are the gold standard,followed By Kais and Balzanos.
But have always wonderd,The sharper the blade,the fewer the shaves IME.maybe that fine precision edge degrades faster becuase it is so sharp.
Just curious.

Correct, Pixel! Just like if you get your work pocketknife super-sharp, it won't stay that way long after a bit of use. JMO

I must have the worlds wimpiest beard. For an experiment Thanksgiving day I put a new Walgreen blade in an old beat up Gillette. I don't know off hand what model razor. Now I will have to go look.... Happy so far. I will say that I only shave a little over 1/2 my face so I suppose this only counts for 3.5 days so far.

I will report when I am done.

I thought of something that really wears on my blades..... my skull. In trying to learn to use my DE on my head. I've been starting slowly and only doing part of the job BUT that really is cutting down on the number of shaves a blade can do. Even going WTG seems to dull them fast. I'm only talking about six strokes max on my head and they aren't long strokes at that! Can take a blade brand that lasted 4-5 shaves down to 2-3, so quite the change. This morning, new Merkur blade in the Merkur razor, took the time for the third pass (method style) and a pretty smooth face to start Friday! Smooth shaving boys, G

My Feather system blades don't even get "good" until at least 4-5 shaves. I've used a single blade for probably 10 shaves and only changed to get more practice using the Feather system.