It's been about a year and there is still little difference between it and a new blade.
I am doing the shave one side of my face with a new blade and the the other side with the old blade and after 3 days the comfort is almost the same. But when I put lotion on my face I find the side of the face shaved with the new blade has many more of those little micro-nicks that you can't see, but you can feel burn when you put stuff on your face. I definitely prefer the shave of the older blade.
The shaving thread last June gave me the missing piece to my shaving puzzle - it was stropping your blade after or before you shave. I can't remember if I'd changed my blade just before that thread or during it, but I mentally marked Memorial day as the landmark to remind me to change blades. I wanted to see if my blade would last a year.
The price of replacement blades always irked me because they were way to expensive for what you got so I've looked for ways to extend the blade life without sacrificing comfort for years. Enter the electric razor.
I used an electric razor first, mostly for comfort (a shorter beard is more comfortable to cut with the manual razor) and to get rid of those pesky little hairs around the mouth that are so annoying but are hard to get with a manual blade without risk of cutting yourself. It also had some benefit to longevity of the manual blade by reducing it's work load. This way neither electric nor the manual blade has to work as hard.
Someone mentioned stropping the blade (running the blade backwards) on their arm after shaving. Since I have ADD and the mindless activity of shaving makes my brains go off in unknown directions, I was concerned I might begin stropping in a forward manner and leave patches of shaved arm hair or take off strips of skin so I began looking for a non destructive surface convenient to any area I might be shaving now or in the future that could be used to perfect the blade.
As someone in that thread pointed out stropping doesn't sharpen the blade, that is done by the blade's shape, it is used more to perfect the surface and get rid of little pits or imperfections.
Drying the blade or sitting it in a baby jar of baby lotion helped. Stainless steel doesn't rust, it pits so leaving your blade sharp side down allows water to stay on the blade longer and pit more so I shake my blade off very well and then sit it down with the sharp side up so that any moisture left on there moves downward to the blunt end.
Looking at the wife's fingernail care paraphernalia led me to glass as the proper non destructive stropping surface. Your wives or girlfriends have different grits for filing and shaping their nails just as guys have different pitches of files. One thing my wife had was a glass fingernail file with an etched glass in for minor amounts of removal and then a polished glass end for finish work on the nail. That was my AHA! moment.
This made me realize that everyplace I've ever shaved has had glass available even if it was on the shaving mirror so I began using the glass blocks in my shower to strop my blade. (that sounds dirty when I say it)
Bottom line is that a year later I prefer the shave from the old blade over the new.
The one thing missing from the complete package is the blade in my electric razor - it is 3-5 years old and has begun to pull a little. i keep forgetting to buy new blades for it when I'm in town. That will happen soon and shaving will be a no-brainer once again.
