This is part of an ongoing series to test various internet-based suggestions for extending the life of a razor blade. You can see the background for this in the Post #1672.
I suppose that any group of people obsessed with the minutia of some activity will seem a bit odd to the rest of us. But the more I dive into on-line shaving culture, and on-line blade-sharpening culture, the weirder it gets.
For example, there are guys who literally log every shave they perform, for months on end, complete with details as to materials, methods and quality of outcomes. And post that on-line.
I can’t really judge whether that’s edging into OCD or not. Really, I guess it’s no different from Instagramming your every restaurant meal. It’s just an aspect of shaving in the modern world that I was surprised to see.
I come from the perspective that shaving is a necessary chore. All I’m after is a quick, cheap, simple shave. Fully realizing that the cost is trivial, I’d still like to know if various suggestions for extending the life of a razor blade are true, or are just so much internet folklore.
Background
Above you see all the suggestions I’ve run across for extending the life of a razor blade. In a nutshell, they boil down to:
- Keep the blade dry (with varying degrees of effort)
- Re-sharpen the blade by stropping it.
- Soften your beard first, and maybe exfoliate before you shave.
I already tested stropping the blade in Post #1673. Answer: Meh. At some point, I’ll want to go for a re-test of that, using a more severely worn blade. For now, I want to take a first pass at testing the other methods.
Testing “dry the blade”
The “dry blade” camp lists two different possible mechanisms of action: oxidation (rust) and mineral deposits from water. Either one of these, so the story goes, will reduce the usable life of the blade.
I’m frankly skeptical of the oxidation theory because modern razor blades are almost exclusively made from stainless steel. Which usually will not rust. The ones I routinely use (Persona) show no signs of rust despite having sat in a “used blade bank” for up to six years, with wet blades added weekly.
But some low-end blades will rust. I note that the Treet brand blades that I had tried in the past had rusted noticeably in that same “blade bank”. And, as it turns out, stainless steel razor blades were not introduced until 1962 (reference Wikipedia). Before that time, razor blades would rust, and that would certainly shorten the life of the blade.
So I wonder if “dry the blade” isn’t just an echo of actual, useful folk wisdom from the pre-stainless-steel era. Or, that “dry the blade” is helpful for low-end blades that will still rust, even in the modern era.
It’s possible that there is something going on at the microscopic level that is not visible as literal rust stains. A lot of the passivation (rust-resistance) of stainless requires some fairly exotic chemistry. It’s possible that a combination of many small chips and fractures, and standing water, might damage a blade in a way not visible to the naked eye.
That said, given that I think this is outdated folklore, I think I can provide a fairly solid negative test of the “oxidation” theory by keeping one edge of a blade edge continuously damp for a couple of weeks. That’s as easy as sticking it into a sponge and wetting that sponge periodically. If, at the end of that period, there’s no visible difference between wet and dry sides under a microscope, and no perceptible difference in shave quality, I think I can pretty much dismiss the “dry the blade to prevent rust” theory.
The theory about hard water deposits is really no harder to assess. Per the Town of Vienna’s last water quality report, my tap water qualifies as hard water:
"Vienna’s water can be classified as moderately hard to hard. The historical range on our water hardness is 5 – 10 grains per gallon (80 – 170 mg/L)."
Testing that “hard water deposits” theory would seem to be no more difficult than periodically dipping one edge of a razor blade into water, and allowing it to dry. At the end of a couple of weeks, I can again examine that edge under a microscope for deposits, and see whether there is any perceptible difference in shave quality for the treated and untreated edges of the same blade.
Methods:
- Treat the blades:
- Start with two pairs of Persona stainless-steel blades.
- Each pair will have one new blade and one well-used blade.
- Mark one edge of each blade as “dry”.
- For one pair of blades, stick their wet edge into a damp sponge. Keep the sponge damp.
- For the other pair of blades, dip the wet edge in water periodically over the course of a day, and allow the blades to dry.
- Test the blades after two weeks.
- Examine the blades under a microscope after two weeks.
- Test sharpness using my home-made sharpness tester (prior post).
- Test-shave with them to see if there is any perceptible difference between wet and dry edges.
As long as I’m going to the trouble, I’ll go ahead and gin up some test of keeping the blade stored in oil, along these same lines. Pair of blades (one new, one used), but I’ll coat the “dry” edge with mineral oil.
In any case, if failure to keep the blade dry causes some material deterioration of the razor edge, I think it should be obvious after two weeks of treatment.
A significant limitation is that I’m only testing the blades I use, which I already know do not routinely rust.
Testing “soften your beard”
When I first switched to a safety razor, I used an old-fashioned mug-soap-brush setup. Wet the brush, swish it around on the cake of shaving soap, lather up your face.
For me, this was way too much effort. And the wet brush was, in my opinion, less than sanitary.
Now I just use Dove soap. This has a lot of emollients in it, and as a plus, I don’t need to keep two types of soap on hand. I shave with the same soap I use to wash my hands.
But, even with that limitation, I don’t do the full shaving drill that shaving aficionados suggest. Hot towel for five minutes. Shave in the shower after repeatedly applying hot water to the face. Generate shaving lather and allow it to sit on the beard for a couple of minutes. And so on. For me, this all seems like way too much effort.
So I’m guessing that what I do — put a little Dove bar soap on my face, and shave — does not count as softening my beard prior to shaving. Certainly, it’s no three minutes relaxing under a warm towel.
But there is an easy solution to this, for the lazy shaver: Old-fashioned canned shaving cream.
I long resisted using canned shaving cream because a) I don’t need yet another potentially un-recyclable aerosol can, b) I’m from the generation where aerosol cans were per se evil due to ozone depletion from the propellants, and c) perceived high expense.
Turns out, only a) above is real. In Fairfax County, aerosol cans should be disposed of as household hazardous waste (per this website). They are in the same category as (e.g.) disposable propane cylinders.
Otherwise, aerosol cans haven’t used CFC (Freon) propellants, in the U.S., since the late 1970s.
And, drug-store shaving cream is cheap. Based on one test that I found, I ought to be able to get 15 shaves per ounce, which brings your standard can of Barbasol down to a cost of about 2 cents per shave. A big can of shaving cream ought to last me a year or so. (I probably should have gotten a clue from the fact that they advertise rust-free aluminum bottoms on the cans, suggesting that a lot of these sit in bathrooms until the can rusts through).
So this creates an obvious test. It’ll just take a bit of care to see it through.
Methods:
- Treat the blades:
- Start with one new Persona stainless-steel blade
- Mark one edge as “cream”.
- Mark one edge of the safety razor itself as “cream”.
- Install the blade accordingly.
- Use shaving cream on half my face, allowing it to sit one minute prior to shaving.
- Use Dove soap on the other half.
- Shave each half-face with the correct edge of the blade.
- Remove and dry the blade as I normally do.
- Test the blade after (say) two weeks of shaving.
- Examine the blade under a microscope after two weeks.
- Test sharpness using my home-made sharpness tester (prior post).
- Test-shave with it to see if there is any perceptible difference between the two edges.
A comment on correlation in observational data, and reports of extreme razor life.
Just a bit of casual empirical observation here. At least one detailed report of extremely long razor life came from an individual who meticulously prepared his face for shaving, each time.
And so I wonder about the extent to which the same folks who focus on extreme blade longevity overlap strongly with the folks who are meticulous in their shaving habits.
Maybe what I have observed, in reports of extreme razor blade life, isn’t so much natural variation in beard toughness (or tolerance for pain), as it is that some people are really “into” shaving, and others aren’t. Guys like me (slap on some soap and have at it) may be materially less likely to obtain long blade life, relative to those whose shaving routines are far more extensive.
Anyway, you see this a lot in health care data. People who exercise also tend to eat right. People who smoke also tend to drink. And so on. I have to wonder if people who take care of their razor blades also tend to take care of their face.
Conclusion: Sometimes you just have to take the hit, for Science.
That’s it. For the cost of a $4 can of shaving cream, and a bit of baby oil (left over from long ago), I think I can provide some sort of objective test of all the remaining suggestions for extending the life of razor blades. Again, with the limitation that I’m testing just one brand of blade.
I’ve already estimated that the shaving cream is unlikely to be cost effective, even if it’s technically effective. Even if it extends blade life modestly, at 2 cents per shave, with 15-cent blades, I’ll probably be in the red to the tune of 3 cents for every four-shave cycle. But I’m willing to take that financial hit. For Science.
Check back in a couple of weeks for the thrilling conclusion.
