Hyper-miling a blade

As a vintage razor user, I am one of those that seek out and use the Personna 74 blades. I even went so far as to find and use Personna 74 injector blades. And I love them. In fact I havent met or seen anyone that actually dislike them. They really are that good. So good that if you dont mark your calendar, you might not even know when you unwrapped it and put it in your razor. Or after a couple of months you might actually swap it out, out of boredom. Problem is they are rare as hen's teeth, and those that have them usually sit on them, and they rarely come up for sale. And lets not forget, the pool of Personna 74s are dwindling everyday as people continue to consume them. I am even guilty of seeking out grey market Personna blades that are not specifically branded Personna 74, but have been proven to be made on the same line and used the same process to make them. They were just not sold as Personna 74s after that line had been discontinued.

I see new converts, and some wet shaving novices inquire as to how long different blades last as if 2 extra shaves saves you x amount of money. This is a valid line of questioning considering converts are used to paying $5.75 a cart that might only last a week before they dull out. When they inquire if a blade lasts 6-10 shaves or more might sound petty but when they realize they only need to use a blade 4 times at an average of .13-.17 cents a blade, thats still a heck of a deal.

So what is a cheapskate to do? Or just a hobbyist trying to get 60-80 shaves per blade? I am so glad you asked that question you did't know you had.

Well it turns out the best blade to hyper-mile is not a DE or even an injector blade. Its a single edge Gem blade. I sourced mine through Connaught Shaving. Admittedly I haven't done the genealogy on this blade's so I cant say what other blade may be similar, or is the same with different wrapping. But I can say there are NOT the same type of Gem blade one can find at Walgreene's sometime see as Blue Star blades.

Last year I played along with no-shave November and it wasn't fun but relented with some shaving and shaping. I chose a Gem G-Bar for this work. I went about 2 months with a full mustache to include a full jaw length fu-man-chu. Quite literally my first attempt at facial hair considering I joined the military right out of High School and have continued to shave since retirement. I used the same razor and the same blade from Nov to the middle of Jan. I loved it so much I swapped out blades and continued to use this blade until May when my other razors rose up in protest and I relented.

So if you want to hyper-mile a blade, because you are cheap, or just to see if you can, try a Gem blade. Recheck my math but a box of 100 with shipping cost $19.91, making a blade cost about .80 cents a piece. An 80 cent blade that lasts 3 months is pretty damn good in my opinion. I would challenge you to try.

https://www.connaughtshaving.com/gemss.html

I have some Personna 74 injector blades & to be frank I like the NOS Gillette Platinum Plus injector blades better. That said, the modern Japanese Schick Proline B-20 blades give just as good a shave. As to their longevity I don't know. I switched my first one out at 10 shaves or so. If you haven't tried the Proline blades then you are cheating yourself:


https://bullgooseshaving.com/collections...-20-blades

I didn't think the P74 injectors had any more longevity than the accutecs or current production Personnas. Good blades, but nothing spectacular. Current production Personnas lose their edge quick for me so I rate them at the bottom. The Chinese Schicks (Chicks) are very sharp initially and are quite durable. I will have to pick up some of those Japanese Schicks. (Jicks?) If they are as good as you say. But I am still blown away at the durability and longevity of the Gem SEs. If I would have known about these earlier in my quest, my collection of razors would be dominated by SEs instead of DEs.

I have taken several blades to 100 shaves, just to see if I could.

• Astra SP
  
• Personna Blue
  
• Gillette Silver Blue
  
• Feather
  

By 65-80 shaves, the experience became less pleasant, and the Feather degraded sooner than the others.

My daily shave routine includes removing the blade, rinsing and wiping it dry (from middle out to edge), then parking it on top of the blade bank, and turning the counter dice to the new number.
The dice involved are Percentile "D100" dice, from a D&D set, similar to these:
[Image: 1d100-1.png]
Strictly speaking, they go from 0 to 99, unless you choose to treat a roll of "00+0" as 100.

Most of the time I only take a blade to 20, and use an icosahedral D20 to keep track.