Blade life

I throw my blades after 3 shaves anyway as what's the point of risking a bad shave for something that costs pennies.
If it was a Gillette cart then I would understand getting every last shave out of it.
I wouldn't stress too much over blade life and definitely grab yourself a Blade sample pack and enjoy the rabbit hole it will throw you down ;)
 
I've never found the Gamechanger .84 SB to be particularly blade sensitive, however there is a quite a number of blades that don't work particularly well for me in any razor

I have found both of these to be sharp and smooth in the GC:

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Gillette Minora Stainless Double Edge Razor Shaving Blades

High Quality blades - Very sharp and smooth. Blades made by Gillette PPI in Russia. Each Pack contains 5 individually wrapped blades. Please select from dropdown for no. of packs / blades. Order of 100 blades or less will be sent without the outer cardboard due to postage wt. limits. Age...
bigdealsmart.com
bigdealsmart.com

Kai Stainless Double Edge Razor Shaving Blades | Made in JAPAN

Highest Quality blades - Sharpest and smooth. Made in Japan. Each Pack contains 5 individually wrapped blades. Please select from dropdown for no. of packs / blades. Age declaration: By ordering and confirming payment, you are confirming you are over 18 yrs age.
bigdealsmart.com

As for longevity, for me it's not a priority as DE blades are generally speaking inexpensive. 3 or 4 shaves per blade is typical as comfort and performance is more important than saving a few pence
 
Danielsan87 said:
Wipe the blade on a dry cotton cloth without surface imperfection, or on an old pair of denim, in the opposite direction of shaving. That should clean the edge. Tbh, I do this with my cartridges, however I don't tend to do for my DE blades as they're quite cheap, but try and see if it works for you.
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You can do this process of effectively "stropping" a used DE blade by dragging it backwards across a piece of denim or even your skin and it will certainly clean the edge and it might feel a little better, but my understanding is that doing so can damage or remove the very thin edge coatings that manufacturers put on , i.e the "Chrome" or "Platinum"

I believe its a process which really harks back to the days of uncoated steel blades, same as the WW1 practice of running a used blade around the inside of a drinking glass to clean / improve it.

It certainly can improve cartridges a little and you might get a few more shaves out of them.
 
Zorro said:
You can do this process of effectively "stropping" a used DE blade by dragging it backwards across a piece of denim or even your skin and it will certainly clean the edge and it might feel a little better, but my understanding is that doing so can damage or remove the very thin edge coatings that manufacturers put on , i.e the "Chrome" or "Platinum"

I believe its a process which really harks back to the days of uncoated steel blades, same as the WW1 practice of running a used blade around the inside of a drinking glass to clean / improve it.

It certainly can improve cartridges a little and you might get a few more shaves out of them.
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yep, I'm trying with my carts and it definitely make them last longer. I didn't think about losing the coating, but perhaps with such small edges on the carts, it doesn't make much of a difference (?). As I said, for DE blades, I wouldn't bother. I have so many, and they're so cheap.
 
donnie_arko said:
Unless you are already doing it I'd say try shaving with a shallow angle, ride the top cap until it starts cutting and use that angle.

It might improve blade life, or it could be your stubble are blade destroyers.

Or it could be Nacet blades do not work for you. Some blades do not work for some people.
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Yea put the cap on your face then adjust angle untill the blade starts cutting. I can see that the soap scum on my razors has been polished off about 3-7 mm due to narrow angle. The blade is cuting not scraping
 
Bogeyman said:
"Think Tank groupspeak" is damn near next to worthless in cases such as this as most often the cause is someone new to DE shaving and not really knowing what they are doing.
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I notice that very very few people point out that problems like these are technique related most times. Most blades are pretty much the same… (I will get yelled at for that )… using them properly is the secret. Angle and pressure.
 
Its true that going in too heavy will wreck both your skin and the blade edge.

In terms of attempting to benchmark blade wear, i use Astra SP blades and do a 3 pass shave, WTG , XTG and then ATG. I would generally expect the third such shave to exhibit a slight but noticeable fall off in sharpness and it gets binned after that, although i would guess i could probably stretch another 1 or 2 acceptable if not great shaves after that (although i have never tried this). I do sometimes bin the blade after just 2 uses.

I experienced pretty much the same when i used Derby blades.
 
I used to use a tool called a "Razorpit" when I was a cartridge shaver. It worked very well for me! They called it "stropping" but I think that was just marketing bumf. The main thing is that it got the gunk out from between the blades.
 
With my Gillette Fusion 5, i just slosh it around in very hot water and give it a good shake to clean between the blades.

When it feels like the shave is properly going off (usually after 10 shaves for me) i will gently run it backwards down the leg of my jeans a couple of times and it does actually seem to slightly freshen up the feel of the blades and i can get another 2 or 3 shaves out of it.
 
That was part of the reason why I ditched cartridges, I wasn't getting any longer out of them. A blade would last me no longer than a working week (5 days), which I would stretch to a calendar week by not shaving sat/sunday, and pre-trimming with an electric trimmer on Sunday night. It reeked of effort and inefficiency for such an expensive approach. Very glad I found DE shaving.

In terms of blades and soap, it costs me pennies per shave. We will say nothing about my expensive fragrance habit.
 
Satanfriendly said:
SE razors, there's your answer

10 to 20 from an AC type blade and GEMS just seen to go on forever. Until boredom sets in or guilt says change.
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Oddly enough that was one of the types I was initially considering. I had looked at the Supply razor early on.
I'm wedded to DE and the GSBs now though, since I literally have thousands of them.

I don't mind changing the blade every three shaves, it's not the end of the world. Plus, when I take a blade out after a third shave, the razor can sit empty, proudly displayed for a day. It usually languishes ontop of the wall mirror, out of my son's reach when it is loaded with a blade.
 
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