Why do blades go dull? Duh

[thebigspendur]

I just saw an article about a study at MIT where they are trying to find out why blades deteriorate so fast. So they did a bunch of Electron Microscope studies of used blades (DE types and cartridge types). They expected that blades would get dull by getting rounded off but like every straight user knows that doesn't happen. Blades quickly develop micro chips which rapidly get worse and worse even after one shave.

So they will be trying to come up with an alloy that will last much longer. It will cost much more per blade but you should be getting many more shave per blade. No dates for results.

[BobH]

Saw the same article and not standing around with my hand over my backside waiting for anything concrete to happen.

Bob

[bluesman7]

I was tempted to purchase the whole article to see if they got much deeper into the subject. This type of edge degradation has been studied at depth by John Verhoeven, Larrin Thomas and others. Seems like they are coming to the party a bit late.

[BobH]

I think I'd note what they say about the cutting angle and the hair bending wrt damage to the blade.

Bob