02-13-2021, 07:28 AM
Some number of people swear by keeping their razors in an oil bath between uses. They say it really helps the life of the blade, but I have no experience myself.
I use a Double Edged safety razor. The blades I just switched to (German made Wilkinson Swords) cost $22 for 100, so about $0.22 each. It get around 7 to 12 shaves from these before I think they aren't working well any more. My old Gillette Silver Blues were more like $0.17 each, and shave well also. The Wilkinson's seem much smoother to me.
This last point is why I'm writing: Smoothness trumps sharpness for face shaving. At least for me. The coating on the blade seems to be more important than the BESS score of the blade. In fact, I tested a Gillette Silver Blue a while back, after using it for 7 to 10 uses (can't remember). It measured SHARPER than a blade right out of the package! Yet it was not performing well for face shaving. I threw it away after the test and replaced it with a new one. I've used the sharpest blade on the market, the Feather from Japan. It's sharper. But it shaves terribly for someone like me. It's so sharp that it cuts your skin much more easily and it's honestly not as smooth as the other two blades I talked about. Sharpness is far from the only factor here.
The total price for shaving needs to include everything involved. In my case this means good quality shaving soap and some nice aftershave. I really like both Soap Commander and Stirling Soaps. They have great ingredients and produce an incredible high quality lather. If you've only used lather from a can, these products are a revelation. Truly.
So my blades are extremely cheap. I spend something like $12 per year on blades. But the soap and the aftershave cost quite a bit more. Probably around $13 per 6 months, or about $26 per year. As a guess. Really, I don't keep track or really care. I'm getting really nice shaves pretty much every day. I never got that with canned foam and cartridge razors. The lather is probably more important than the blade. Or at least equally so.
Brian.
I use a Double Edged safety razor. The blades I just switched to (German made Wilkinson Swords) cost $22 for 100, so about $0.22 each. It get around 7 to 12 shaves from these before I think they aren't working well any more. My old Gillette Silver Blues were more like $0.17 each, and shave well also. The Wilkinson's seem much smoother to me.
This last point is why I'm writing: Smoothness trumps sharpness for face shaving. At least for me. The coating on the blade seems to be more important than the BESS score of the blade. In fact, I tested a Gillette Silver Blue a while back, after using it for 7 to 10 uses (can't remember). It measured SHARPER than a blade right out of the package! Yet it was not performing well for face shaving. I threw it away after the test and replaced it with a new one. I've used the sharpest blade on the market, the Feather from Japan. It's sharper. But it shaves terribly for someone like me. It's so sharp that it cuts your skin much more easily and it's honestly not as smooth as the other two blades I talked about. Sharpness is far from the only factor here.
The total price for shaving needs to include everything involved. In my case this means good quality shaving soap and some nice aftershave. I really like both Soap Commander and Stirling Soaps. They have great ingredients and produce an incredible high quality lather. If you've only used lather from a can, these products are a revelation. Truly.
So my blades are extremely cheap. I spend something like $12 per year on blades. But the soap and the aftershave cost quite a bit more. Probably around $13 per 6 months, or about $26 per year. As a guess. Really, I don't keep track or really care. I'm getting really nice shaves pretty much every day. I never got that with canned foam and cartridge razors. The lather is probably more important than the blade. Or at least equally so.
Brian.