Ed Huntress wrote:

Anyone old enough to remember blue blades knows that they've made a lot of
progress in the years since. They were made of very high-carbon steel,
hardened to within an inch of its life, and it was rare to get more than two
shaves out of a double-edged blade.

I've just turned to DE shaving after finally getting disgusted at the
escalating feature/blade/price creep of cartridge razors. Getting hard
to find the Sensor Excel blades locally that I've been using the past
few years, started buying them in lots on ebay. Last batch is ****, I'm
wondering if I just got a bad batch or counterfeits. Regardless, even
the good ones only gave 4-5 shaves at best for a cost of around .20/shave.

Setting up for DE shaving entailed up front costs, but I got a lot of 50
blades for about $8 and so far look to get 3-4 shaves each for a cost of
around .06/shave. So in the first year I'll more than amortize the whole
setup. Biggest downside is I can't just shave blind in the shower
anymore, one does have to pay attention to blade angle with a DE razor,
but I've yet to nick myself. (though to be fair, the razor I selected is
not aggressive at all. Biggest upside besides the cost savings is
getting a much better shave.


Jon