Thread: average blade life

I get 3 good shaves on mine, 2 additional that are good enuff if needed..

As mentioned YMMV from brand to brand, for me 3-5 shaves per blade, I use Astra SP & Rapira's.

Personally, I drop a new blade in every Monday. I've heard tales of folks getting a month out of a blade. Not sure if they're stupid or still growing peach fuzz. Blades are cheap. A pack of 100 Astra blades cost $11 on Amazon. At $0.11/blade, if you shaved every day and changed blades for each shave, you'd spend $40/year on DE blades. Not breaking the bank on 'em... When in doubt, change blades.

Thanks for all the input guys. I received my order yesterday which included a vintage shave ready torrey straight (from one of the sites endoresed on this site as actually shave ready), pack of astra, shark, and feather DR blades. I started with the straight, and it seems roughly the same sharpness as my other straights. So that that gave me some added faith that the ones I had been using were shave ready and my lack of close shaves probably has to do with technique somehow. Instead of doing more passes with the straight, I did two light passes with the astra DE blade (first time using DE blade). Much different than I thought! I thought it would be closer to the feel of a straight, but I'd say it felt closer to a modern razor. My shave was awesome. It brought me to another question though:

Are straights supposed to be as sharp as DE blades? The astra made my pro-honed torrey seem like a butter knife by comparison.

Although they perform the same one function: to shave with, you cant compare the two. One is made by a machine to be used and thrown away and one is made by hand. Ive always felt although a DE is sharper a straight razor shave is by far more comfortable. For me closer doesn't always mean better.

Do not think a straight can ever approach the sharpness of a quality DE blade.
That being said,Sharpness and comfort level are two diff things,My straights (for me are more comfortable tham my D.Es.
Back to your orig. post,I use only feathers,I get 3 shaves per blade.

I get 2-3 shaves per DE blades on average. Feathers last a bit longer, but many other like Lord, Derby are good only for 1 decent shave for me.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Do not think a straight can ever approach the sharpness of a quality DE blade.
That being said,Sharpness and comfort level are two diff things,My straights (for me are more comfortable tham my D.Es.
Back to your orig. post,I use only feathers,I get 3 shaves per blade.

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!

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!

You have to define sharper/comfort/closeness of shave.Is no easy answere.

Gentlemen,

I use a new blade for each shave. My preferred blades are: Feather, Super Iridium, Polsilver Iridium, Gillette 7 O'Clock SharpEdge (yellow), Perma Sharp Super and Personna Red.