Thread: How many shaves on a blade?

No more than 3 shaves for me, I'll start to get cuts on a dull blade.

ok, a DE blade has two edge i could get about 5 full shaves on each side sometimes 8

Gentlemen,
Since my last posting in this thread last year, I have made some changes in my blade lineup. The blades I use are: Feather, Super Iridium and Polsiver Iridium, Astra, Gillette yellows, Personna Med Prep, and Personna red (only in my Weber). I also use a new blade for each shave.

I,m with Obie on this one , life hasn't been so tough I can't change my blade every shave, when I DE. Shave it's my Fatboy on 9 with a feather , if I change every time it always the same shave instead of degrading till its dull, as for shavette said I don't use them I have a feather RG. And feather blades, I don't get cuts and irritation because I don't use a lot of pressure and my angles must be fine,, and to tell the truth my straights are just as sharp. , i,l clip coupons so I don't have to keep a blade. Tc

To my opinion use a blade till it's getting dull, as soon it's dull change it. DE blade Life is subjective on every person. For me exemple a feather DE is good for 7 to 9 good shave a Zorrick 1 so it's variable. The best thing to do in my opinion is to change your blade as soon your shave is incorfortable, it doesn't matter if your in the midle of your shave stop and change your blade. Gino

Update on how many shaves I get. Still using the sharks and am happy with them. I have taken too only 3 shaves then I toss the blade. Now that I have a couple years of using straights, shavettes, and DE's I have found I prefer a nice sharp blade. As the blade dulls I find it takes more effort and more irritation to get a decent shave. Also abbandoned going after a BBS shave and just go for CCS.

Being that I learning with my shavette, I am only doing two 3-pass shaves per blade. I am also using the Derby SE blades. At 100/pack, I see no reason to stretch the blade life. And since I shave every other day, it's not like I go through blades like water through a sieve...

As a noob, I think this will be better for consistency while I master the technique.

Originally Posted by donaldjr1969

Being that I learning with my shavette, I am only doing two 3-pass shaves per blade. I am also using the Derby SE blades. At 100/pack, I see no reason to stretch the blade life. And since I shave every other day, it's not like I go through blades like water through a sieve...

As a noob, I think this will be better for consistency while I master the technique.

Try Astra blades they seems to be very consistent years ago.

Originally Posted by whoever

Try Astra blades they seems to be very consistent years ago.

I'll check them out if I see them locally. I'd go to SR Designs/Imperial Shaving and get some as well as a pack of Feathers to try. But if I'm going to make the 45 min drive, I'm probably going to make a bigger purchase, such as a SR and strop. After all, I expect to be shaving with a true straight by the new year. ��

Originally Posted by JReed

Interesting that most of you are only getting a couple of shaves out of your blades. For me I have found that the first shave can be a bit irritating the second is better the third being the most confortable ( the blade feels smoother more like a storped str8) the fourth is ok and the fifth is the end of the blade with some tugging and some burn. Wish I had a loupe with me so I could see what the edge is doing.

Originally Posted by Christel

I recently switched to Shark blades and am very fond of them!

Each blade gets changed after 4-5 shaves. Oddly, the second shave with a blade tends to go better than the first - although it's not a huge difference.

I was doing some thinking (before smoke poured out of my ears and set off every smoke detector in the house... ) and thought of this. Nearly every DE and SE blade have a polymer coating, usually Teflon, on them. I just wonder if, regardless of how microscopically thin the coating may be, it doesn't act to slightly "dull" the blade somewhat and/or make it more slippery across the whiskers? On the second and third shaves for those that do the multiple shaves per blade, one has worn that coating down to the point that the razor edge is uncoated? Then with the current edge on the blade, it grabs the whiskers better and still being "new," cleanly cuts said whiskers with no pulling?

It's just a random thought as I remember that no matter which cartridge razor I used (Mach 3, Fusion manual, Dorco Pace3), every one gave me the best shave on the 2nd to 3rd use.