Blades: Remove after every shave?

I am a dedicated disassemble , rinse and dry shaver. I just rinse the blade under very hot water then flick it dry not wipe and then let it air dry. Very dry climate where I live so it’s dry in a short time. I rinse and then dry the razor parts with a barber’s towel.

I find this thread to be fascinating. Many, many years (decades?) ago I shaved with a double edge safety razor before switching to a horrible relationship with the Trac II ingrown hair system. I never removed and cleaned the blade. Having been a SR shaver now for a long time, I am used to rinsing both sides of the razor, stropping dry on a linen (non-terry cloth) towel, a few drying passes on a canvas strop, etc. before putting it away. Short of soaking it in barbacide, it is pretty clean-at least it looks spotless. I use a Valet Auto Strop razor for the back of my neck, and I use the stropping feature to expose both sides of the blade, rinse under hot water and strop both sides of the edge on the linen towel to clean and dry the edge.

Having done that for years now, the idea of using a double edge safety razor without removing, rinsing and towel stropping both sides of the blade seems extremely unhygienic to me.

Perhaps using SR razors makes one irrationally germ phobic!

- What Causes Razor Blades To Dull - Knife Steel Nerds
- Why shaving dulls even the sharpest of razors | MIT News
(HERE full paper with interesting video supplementary material at the end)

Summarizing: if you want comfortable shaves and long lasting edges, clean and dry your blades.

I have always since 2016 when I started with traditional wet shaving, broken down my razor and wiped it dry including the blade and then reassembled for my next shave. During this time period I was using a blade for 3-4 uses before disposing the blade for a new one. This year however, one of my new years shave resolutions was to convert to only using a blade 1 time and disgarding it after drying my razor and installing a new blade for the next shave due to what I found were sub-par shaves on shaves 2-4. This has worked out great as I now have not only found my grail razor, Ti Blackbird, but also my grail blade, Perma-Sharp, to use in the grail razor!! My shaves are even better from shave to shave and I've now zeroed in on my technique more and the improvements are materializing for me already just a few months into the year!! The way I figure it is blades are a very minimal expense in the big picture compared to what it was when I used carts prior to traditional wet shaving...

Sure, allways.

- What Causes Razor Blades To Dull - Knife Steel Nerds
- Why shaving dulls even the sharpest of razors | MIT News
(HERE full paper with interesting video supplementary material at the end)

Summarizing: if you want comfortable shaves and long lasting edges, clean and dry your blades.

This is interesting. I wonder, however, if this applies to DE blades 1:1. The reason I say this is that I wonder if the coating on the blade is negatively impacted by drying or wiping off the water with at towel?

I looked at a new blade under a microscope and then after I corked it and the coating at the edge was completely gone.

By carefully clean and dry I mean gently wipe off with fingers water and soap residues around the bevel in a stropping way, then let the blade apart in open air to completely dry. Anything rude like towels or hairdryers should bring more damages than benefits to something so fragile like a DE blade imho too.

About corking, that’s a practice I'll never get to understand...
I mean, there are indeed circumstances (like a brand new Feather - even worse a ProSuper AC or an inox full hollow refined on a synth finisher) where a fresh edge isn’t the most comfortable experience. But that roughness can be easily tamed, by pairing it with a mild razor i.e. Even better: by investing in shaving technique. I really don’t see any logical reason to deliberately reduce an edge’s (DE, AC, SR... whatever) life.

Never

I always remove the blades from every razor after each shave (except for my injector razors) as I don't want to take the chance of the blade potentially discoloring my stainless steel razors (which I have seen pictures of that happening to other people). I also rotate my razors and their is a good chance the next use of a given blade will be in a different razor.

I typically take the blade out, dry it, and let the razor dry.

Then I replace it once it has sit for a while.