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What makes you change a blade out

G'ville Ute

G'ville Ute

0
i have only been DE shaving for a little over a year and struggle to know when I should change my blade out. I realize this is really a subjective and is a YMMV thing but what makes you change a used blade out for a new one?
Is it because it is pulling the hair more? Is it because you get a burn after using it? I realize there could be a million reasons why but I would like to hear your experiences and reasons.

Thanks
 
Could be for me that I don’t seem to get as close of a shave without a bunch of cleanup and then secondly I get more irritated once a blade is getting old. Usually I get 6 or 7 good to great shaves out of a DE blade and SE blades last a fair bit longer than that for me.
 
To be honest...I probably toss my blade way before it needs to be. Some of the blades I use last a long time. Others, not so much. I'm not even going to say I take an average of the blades I use. For me, it's a convenience thing...or just something along the lines of...I know all the baldes will last at least a week. So when I start a new week...I get a new blade.
 
I seem to have a high tolerance when it comes to “blade life”, routinely getting more shaves than most others seem to.

My blades get binned when the irritation from my ATG passes gets uncomfortable, or when I simply feel that “OK, I’ve used this one plenty, time for the next”.
 
My face is the only place on my body I think that has even remotely sensitive skin. Not bad enough that I can't use most soaps (only found one or two that really bother me in that regard), but it is very sensitive to a bad shave. Top that off with whiskers so tough that a 3 day growth will shred a paper towel or napkin, I need a sharp blade.
My straights probably get honed more than most peoples and I generally can't use a DE blade more than 4 or 5 times. When I was counting I noticed that usually they started to tug a bit around 4, so I just toss them.

I actually enjoy shaving now, so I don't see any point in going back to the miserable feel and 3 days worth of irritation I got with a cart, just to stretch a 10 cent blade for an extra shave or two.

I don't really count uses anymore because I jump between straights, SE, and DE so much, but the stroke that it starts to tug it gets binned or honed.
 
There are a few things that will make me toss a blade. But primarily I go off of face feel, throughout the day. I’m judging the blade on how well, and how closely it shaves me. So if one day I feel my face at noon, and the stubble is long like I’d usually only feel around 8pm, then I know it’s time to switch.

I also am in the camp of using blades for a really long time. Most blades I can get a week or two easily from them. Good blades I can get a month or two from. I shaved with a Feather blade once for 115 shaves.

But sometimes you just get a rough shave, and you know to just toss the blade out, right then and there!
 
If I get to 6 I toss it. The die I use only has 6 sides. If I get a rough shave before that I toss it sooner
 
Cvargo said:
If I get to 6 I toss it. The die I use only has 6 sides. If I get a rough shave before that I toss it sooner
Click to expand...

Well if that's the only thing keeping you, I could send you one of my little statues that are life counters I used for Magic The Gathering. They have a dial on them that goes to 40.
 
If it’s a counter you’re looking for, a simple hand held golf counter will do the job. I rarely change a blade based on feel, most often it’s because I feel like it’s been awhile. If push comes to shove I can get s pretty good number of shaves off a blade without ever feeling tugging, pulling or other indicators, like KJ how my beard feels during the day is the best indication.

one of the things that complicates my decision to change a blade is that I rarely use the same DE,SE or Straight more than once or twice before moving on. I don’t transfer a blade from razor to razor.
 
ShawnF said:
Well if that's the only thing keeping you, I could send you one of my little statues that are life counters I used for Magic The Gathering. They have a dial on them that goes to 40.
Click to expand...

Oh man, Magic...there’s a rabbit hole for ya!
 
You all leave Chad alone...he has a hard enough time using his fingers and toes to count. I am surprised he knows what numbers on a die look like?
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I tend to change for one of 3 reasons. Not as close, irritation, or it seems out an invitation to Mr Murphy. That being said, I usually get around 30 from a GEM and 8-12 from a DE.
 
After all the terrible cart shaves, I never wanted to ever again feel a bad shave because of the blade. So I change them before I feel them starting to degrade. Early on I found felt the change in the blade around shave 4 or 5 so I decided to change a DE after 3 shaves. And when I started to use AC blades I felt it at shave 7 so I change them at shave 6.
 
Wow, I am at the bottom end of the number of uses out of a blade.
I toss a blade when it starts skipping or chattering. When there is pulling and tugging. Or I just get no hairs being cut. Or when the thing splits in two and cuts the heck out of my face.

But that falls in the 3-5 shaves .. Sometimes as little as 2.

I will usually toss a blade after 3-4 shaves because why take the chance of irritation and weepers? Life is short DE blades are cheap.
 
ShawnF said:
My face is the only place on my body I think that has even remotely sensitive skin. Not bad enough that I can't use most soaps (only found one or two that really bother me in that regard), but it is very sensitive to a bad shave. Top that off with whiskers so tough that a 3 day growth will shred a paper towel or napkin, I need a sharp blade.
My straights probably get honed more than most peoples and I generally can't use a DE blade more than 4 or 5 times. When I was counting I noticed that usually they started to tug a bit around 4, so I just toss them.

I actually enjoy shaving now, so I don't see any point in going back to the miserable feel and 3 days worth of irritation I got with a cart, just to stretch a 10 cent blade for an extra shave or two.

I don't really count uses anymore because I jump between straights, SE, and DE so much, but the stroke that it starts to tug it gets binned or honed.
Click to expand...

Shawn, How often are you honing your straights?
 
When a blade starts to tug, I finish the shave and toss it. Whiskers need to be cut, not pulled. I have no patience with, and no use for, blades that are only serviceable. I want clean, close cuts with each pass.
 
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