TATARA RAZOR

wyze0ne - It's a gift and a curse...

You are one of the few I know that can get seven shaves out of a feather.  I hear of others boasting about 20+ out of a polsilver.  My only question is:  Why?  Blades are so damn cheap so I have no idea why people try and stretch them out that long.  Serious question.  Why is that a requirement for you?  I'm just curious.

tl;dr - Slight OCD tendency and desire to keep my collection minimal drive my desire to stretch blade life.

Actually I'm not a fan of the Feather blades at all as I have never been able to get a smooth shave with them with the exception of the two initial shaves I got with the Tatara/Feather combo.  As far as the stretching out a blade thing, it's more of the Monk in me to want to go 7 days with 1 razor and 1 blade.  No science or cost aspect plays a role in my decision, it's just a slight OCD thing that I can't get past.  Now if there's anything else driving me, it's the desire to stay within a reasonable number of wet-shaving items in my collection.  At no time have I ever had more than 4 soaps in my collection, 4 brushes in my collection or 12 razors in my collection.  I also tend to stick with one brand of blade (of each kind of blade) in my collection.  I'm currently testing blades without wax spots (another peeve) to replace my beloved PolSilvers.  That all being said, I tend to not hold on to a razor or blade that doesn't give me 7 consecutive days worth of shaves and that keeps me within my self-imposed threshold of items in my collection. I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment on cost and if my brain was wired different, I'd go all berserk and switch multiple aspects of my shave routine at least daily.  Damn you brain and your overly structured ways!

Ha, I get it my wife is TOTALLY OCD. That actually was my first guess.

You are one of the few I know that can get seven shaves out of a feather.  I hear of others boasting about 20+ out of a polsilver.  My only question is:  Why?  Blades are so damn cheap so I have no idea why people try and stretch them out that long.  Serious question.  Why is that a requirement for you?  I'm just curious.

The way I see it, if a blade continues to give me good shaves, I’ll continue to use it. I see no reason in getting rid of it if it’s still functional. I took my latest Personna (Med) Prep blade to 12 shaves, and shaves 8–11 were the best shaves on that blade.

On the other hand, if a blade causes irritation or starts to tug, it gets recycled, even if that was the first shave with it.

On another forum, someone mentioned having taken a Feather blade to over 60 shaves. Maybe that’s a little extreme…

I've read about a couple different guys taking an Astra SP to 100+ shaves. Seems extreme to me, but like Matsilainen mentioned, if it's still giving you a good shave, keep on truckin' with it. Granted we don't know what qualifies as a "good" shave to those guys. You know they did it just to be able to say they did anyway.

I have noticed that as I get more than a few shaves with any razor blade(different number for different blades) there are certain areas of my face where I cannot get completely rid of the stubble. I have a swirl pattern under the right side of my jaw and that is one of the areas that I can feel after about 7 shaves with almost any blade. Another is on the right side of my face at the goatee region. So it doesn't matter to me if I can get bbs with a blade on the 10th shave on other areas but those 2 so I change when I start feeling more stubble in those areas after shaving.

I have owned the Tatara OC for a little over a month now and shaved with it for a week. I will say that it is a great learner razor - the comb teeth are sharp, and will rake if the shaving angle is wrong. My technique with this razor is to "ride the cap" to find the angle, much the same way for the Razorock Mamba. For me, the OC is definitely in medium-aggressive territory, and holds its own in terms of efficiency against the other reference razors in my collection (Paradigm 17-4, Wolfman 0.67, Charcoal Level II, Blackbird.)

This razor, and the Charcoal Level II, are my favorite razors to tame a new, out-of-the-packet blade, which in subsequent uses I transition into my other razors. Did it wow me in the same way that the Paradigm or Blackbird did? I would not say so - the Paradigm and Blackbird are simply in a different league for me. But does it have a place in my collection? For sure, it does.