Possum
Master Shaver
Cast Iron Marsupial
Look out you "Fuzzy" wabbit!
Posts: 1,274
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Post by Possum on Feb 11, 2012 5:11:28 GMT -6
I see in some the SOTD entries that a couple of you guys are getting some really long life out of these blades. stljeff posted yesterday that he got his 13th shave out of one.
I know that jeff hand strops like me but I have not gone beyond 7 shaves.
What about some of the other guys who use the Pella blades. What kind of longevity do you guys get?
Think I am going to try to extend the life of the Pella I am using now just to see the max number of shaves I can get from the one blade.
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SharpSpine
Master Shaver
My Flavor Sabre
Posts: 1,151
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Post by SharpSpine on Feb 11, 2012 9:59:48 GMT -6
I think I stopped after 12 shaves but felt like I could go farther. I then realized with 200 blades and them lasting 2 weeks that it would take me 7.5 years to get through them. So now I change weekly whether that's 3 shaves or 7. A new blade comes out every Sunday. I guess I'll still have to wait almost 4 years before buying more blades.
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MrGuy
Gem Jr.
My mom says I'm cool!
Posts: 254
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Post by MrGuy on Feb 11, 2012 10:40:20 GMT -6
Under normal circumstances, I'll use a Pella about 5-7 shaves. I pushed one to 16 once, and I'm seeing if I can do the "one blade in February" thing with one right now. They still perform after 7 shaves, but I can feel they aren't at their best. I think the razor has something to do with how long I can go. In the Micromatic, the dull blades aren't any fun to use, but I recently changed the February blade from a very curved top 1912 (like the ones you'll see in the Minute Man sets) to the skinny plastic handle 1912 and the blade felt a bit smoother. It might be all in my head, but the voices liked the change too
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ShadowsDad
Gem Star
None boring shaver!!
"It's not the bow, it's the Indian"
Posts: 4,534
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Post by ShadowsDad on Feb 11, 2012 11:31:12 GMT -6
Possum, all I can say is that really great minds think alike.
I was considering posting this very thing this AM. When I was shaving I was considering why I get so many shaves out of a SE blade and not nearly as many from a DE blade.
Today was my 10th shave on a TP 121-3. I took one to 18 shaves in the past, and probably could have gotten more out of it, but frankly I was growing bored with it and clearly, while the blade was still working it had been past it's prime for some time.
Todays 10th shave wasn't nearly the same as a fresh blade, but it was far from terrible. It was much better than some fresh DE blades right out of the package.
In the past I'd just can any blade that got to the 7 shave mark (I tally the shaves for each blade), but not anymore. I find it amazing that these blades last so long, and it gives me something to think about as I shave (as long as I'm using a milder razor that supports the la-la land mental state while shaving). I can have as many as 2-3 blades "in use" at any one time, so I just can't keep track of the life of a blade w/o tallying the shaves. I take the packaging and do what needs to be done to it (folding, tearing, whatever) to make it fit under the razor handle that contains that blade. That tells me which razor is loaded and of course how many shaves are on the blade.
Like MrGuy, I like a fresh blade in the more aggressive razors. I just don't want to take the chance of tugging with an aggressive razor. I don't think that'd be any fun.
With your permission, I'm going to ask folks if they've ever given thought to why SE blades are so long lived compared to the wimpier DE blades. I've given this some thought the past 2 days shaving with the Jr. . This is what I've come up with.
I've read that it could be the thickness of the blade, and I don't discount that. But I think the main contributor to the longevity is the angle that a SE operates at. Compared to DE, which has a steeper angle (to the plane of the skin) and scrapes the whiskers off more than simply slices them off. That very fine and sharp edge can only take so much of that before the whiskers, which are as tough as a copper wire of the same thickness, gets bent and developes micro burrs, snapped off edges, and the like. Use a blade like this for too many shaves and I don't get tugging, but I get lots of weepers first!
Contrast the angle of the DE razor to the SE and the angle is immediately apparent to all of us. The angle we use is much shallower, and rather than an action that "scrapes" the whiskers off, our blades are allowed to cut them off. The whisker, rather than having the force as a more scraping, sideways force, is more in line with the blade. The blade supports the cutting edge more. Instead of having a few thousandths of an inch cross section of edge support, we may have 50 thousandths of an inch backing up the cutting edge.
Edit: proofread
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RocketMan
Gem Star
RazorAddict
Welcome To The Sharp Side!
Posts: 4,167
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Post by RocketMan on Feb 11, 2012 12:36:22 GMT -6
This is pretty interesting stuff!!
I gotta try seeing how much life I really get out of a blade sometime. I tend to switch up razors quite a bit and forget which is which and when I did what so I'm never really sure.
I am out of town travelling next week and my travel shaver is a 1914 LC so I will start with that today, and bring it on holiday and keep up with one blade and see what happens.
Good thoughts ShadowsDad. You seem to have touched base on the possible differences that might contribute. The answer is probably in there somewhere!!
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Post by wchnu on Feb 11, 2012 13:01:38 GMT -6
You guys can count that high. Wow:)
I don't hand strop at all. I also can never keep up with how many shaves I am putting on a blade.
Another thought is how many passes are the guys that are getting alot of shaves making?
I will be watching this thread to see how things go.
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Possum
Master Shaver
Cast Iron Marsupial
Look out you "Fuzzy" wabbit!
Posts: 1,274
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Post by Possum on Feb 11, 2012 14:51:31 GMT -6
Brian,
Speaking of DE blades, I use the Gillette 7 O'Clock Sharpedge (the yellow ones) and I routinely get 14 shaves from one blade. I hand strop between shaves. And I never (well usually never) use the same razor twice in a row.
As for the SE blades I do 7 shaves and then into the blade bank but I think I could on occasion get a few more. But like you with a ton of Pella blades on hand why push my luck.
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Post by stljeff on Feb 12, 2012 15:14:21 GMT -6
I regularly get quite a lot of shaves out of the Pella-style ASR blades. I got 14 from the last one. I must admit that its dullness was much more apparent after using a fresh blade today. Nevertheless, the shave was not all that bad even on the 14th day. I normally do 2 passes with touch-up. One thing I've mentioned before is that my beard is very light and I have unusually fine hair, even on my face. I think that plays a significant role in the increased blade life that I regularly experience. As with anything in the shaving world, YMMV.
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jmacak
SE Super Freak
Posts: 26
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Post by jmacak on Feb 24, 2012 19:33:45 GMT -6
I switch blades on Saturday, and I feel that the blade is getting tired by Friday.
Right now, I'm using the Ted Pella SS PTFEs and hand stropping between shaves. I typically do a three-pass shave.
I guess that I'm just not as lucky as you guys. I would be cool to get a couple of weeks out of a blade.
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ShadowsDad
Gem Star
None boring shaver!!
"It's not the bow, it's the Indian"
Posts: 4,534
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Post by ShadowsDad on Feb 24, 2012 22:00:30 GMT -6
I'm getting off the subject a bit since the posted subject was Pella SE blade longevity.
Using Feather DE blades I get 2 good shaves, maybe a 3rd, but not a 4th. I assumed Feather SE blades would be the same, so I just canned them after 2 shaves and called it good.
To make this short, I have a Feather in a VAS VC1 and it has 6 shaves on it.
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blobby
SE Super Freak
Posts: 83
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Post by blobby on Mar 3, 2012 23:57:34 GMT -6
I generally get 5 shaves with a GEM PTFE coated blade. I could push it further but it's nice to grab a new blade and start up again. I tend to go from least aggressive to more aggressive razor as the blade gets older. In my case that's Featherweight-Flying Wing/Clog-Pruf- Streamline, with an occasional 1912 thrown in,
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Post by bladerunner on Mar 5, 2012 8:44:10 GMT -6
4, maybe 5 shaves max out of these blades for me SE blades don't last a long time for me. 3 x 3 pass shaves comes easy, even the 4th and 5th shave depends on the razor and me making the lather extra slick to stretch it out on the 4th and 5th shave. My stubble - death to blades.
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sargon
Shave Master
Vendor
Posts: 157
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Post by sargon on Mar 25, 2012 12:36:18 GMT -6
I've only used the Drugstore Gems So far, but, two is already pushing it for me ( yes, my beard really is that hard on blades).
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blobby
SE Super Freak
Posts: 83
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Post by blobby on Mar 29, 2012 2:24:56 GMT -6
I think there are only two different types of SE blade that you can use. They're just packaged by different companies. There are carbon steel blades and stainless PTFE coated blades. So chances are that the drugstore blades you used are as good as it gets. Some swear by carbon steel others swear by stainless.
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