How many shaves do you give a blade?

[Reverend Jim]

Not how many shaves do you get out of a blade, but how many shaves do you give a blade (say out of a sampler pack) before you move on to a different and hopefully better blade? Do you try the same brand of blade in different razors?

[bernards66]

Jim, That's really a good question, but one that's hard to answer. It would to some extent, depend on one's experiance, I think. Personally, I can usually tell in a couple of strokes whether a blade is a keeper or not for me. But I've been DE shaving for over forty years and hence, have a deep reference frame....and I know that my technique is solid. Of course, still, I am occasionally fooled, in the sense that I think a blade is okay, and as I go along for a few days ( or a few blades ) I conclude that it isn't. Or my evaluation of a given blade will subtly shift over a bit of time. But generally I know almost immediately. Blades are very difficult to meaningfully evalutate until one's gotten to the point where one can get a good, close, pretty irritation free shave daily with at least one brand. At that point, at least the shaver has a useable reference frame. For some guys, getting to that point takes awhile. Once you DO have that, then one blade life ( 4-7 days ) should be enough in most cases, to give one a good idea if the blade is a keeper.
Regards,
Gordon

[shavedhead]

I usually give the blade one week and she goes irregardless

[notthesharpest]

Not how many shaves do you get out of a blade, but how many shaves do you give a blade (say out of a sampler pack) before you move on to a different and hopefully better blade? Do you try the same brand of blade in different razors?

If you are familiar with more than one razor, go ahead and try them with the different blades.

To test blades, you should give them several shaves each, to find out if the edge lasts well for you. Some blades for some fellows only give two or three good shaves, and if that's going to happen, you'll want to know before buying a whole lot of that blade.

[fallingwickets]

as a new newbie I followed the 'change the blade once a week" rule regardless of whether or not i actually needed to do this. Now that I'm just a plain 'ol newbie, I still follow it. However, I'm not the sensitive type and if a blade was a bit dull or off i wouldn't know it even if it hit me over the head....LOL. Anyway, all this to say that as you spend more time with you blades it will come naturally to you as to when to change them.

Clive

[Areler67]

I usually use my blades 4 times. I do 2 passes so I think It's enough...

[nteeman]

I don't shave my blades...

No, really, I used to be a change the blade once a week guy, but sometimes I found the last shave (or two) a little harsh. So with the price of blades being between $0.13 to $0.45/blade (depending which blade I choose) I decided I could afford a fresh blade once every 4 shaves.

[Brett G]

For me it depends on the blade. Feathers crap out after five shaves. Pushing it to number six almost always causes a problem. Swedish Gillettes last the longest. Those I can push to six, maybe seven, but still toss them after five most of the time. Treet Blue Special blades give one fantastic shave, one OK shave, and then they are wasted.

[Mike R]

I think I can tell pretty quickly, like in the first few strokes, and I would kinda think most guys with some experience would be able to as well. But YMMV, and all. If the first shave (or first few strokes) seems bad and I can't finish the shave, I'll at least give it another day, then chuck the blade and try a new one and go thru it all again.

But there's another aspect to this for me, too. I got a few of the English Wilkensons 6 months ago or so. I got great, smooth shaves, and the blades lasted long enough to make the price worth it. So I bought tons. Shaves were great, I was happy.

They didn't totally work for me, though, because over the course of maybe 3 or 4 weeks my face slowly turned red. It didn't hurt, and it was gradual enough that I didn't notice it, but it must have been noticeable, buecause my boss asked me one day if I was tanning (which was slightly embarassing). So I had to re-tool things and go back to Derbys.

So that's my take.

Mike

[Julius_Rodman]

For me it depends on the blade. Feathers crap out after five shaves. Pushing it to number six almost always causes a problem. Swedish Gillettes last the longest. Those I can push to six, maybe seven, but still toss them after five most of the time. Treet Blue Special blades give one fantastic shave, one OK shave, and then they are wasted.

2 minimum, 3-4 on average. sometimes a feather is a good friend for 10-12 shaves.

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Kent

[2clfrwrds]

I had forgotten how many shaves I had on this UK Wilkinson, but it felt normal on Tuesday, so I used it again Wednesday.

The shave started out perfectly fine, then the blade faded like an old alkaline battery: fine, fine, not fine, not fine at all, a little rough, pretty bad, OMG that's horrible!

I've never felt another blade just fail like that before -- maybe because I usually remember to change a blade after 4 shaves.

--Glenn

[Barbarosa]

4-5 shaves

[drumana]

3-4 shaves with Derby blade. Each shave is 2 or 3 passes.