The Excalibur club is a club that originates from Badger and blade, and basically it consists of a bunch of guys challenging the stigma that a blade should be binned after 3 shaves. It encourages people to shave and replace blades by feel rather than a fixed time, and discover the different properties of different blades as well as how those properties affect lifespan. Its a huge case of YMMV. Ive gotten about 15 shaves out of a Derby before it needed replacing and about 20 out of a lion, but some guys have gotten 125 shaves out of a blade!!! Its not a case of saving money and using less blades, its about finding out how long different brands last for you and learning how to tell when they need replacing, and its a journey id highly recommend to everyone, even those not members of badger and blade.
Thees shaves and out is encouraged for Newbie DE shavers. Been a while and I don't remember if I ever practiced it. I did count shaves for each blade at some point. When I had to dip into the old D&D dice to find an upgrade to six sided counters ... that's about when I stopped counting. Replacing by feel has extended blade life to their effective range but I haven't kept records. I'm intrigued by the idea of seeing just how far any particular brand will last. What is your own personal longest lasting blade and razor combination? The Lion in which razor?
The lion in my aristocrat, but its about to be overtaken by the gillette 7 oclock sharp edge in my fatip piccolo. Sent from my Redmi S2 using Tapatalk
I'd be interested to hear how well folks do with the Personna 74. Maybe thats where the over 100 comes from.
I know some of the over 100 uses came from a feather, how they got this right i have no idea. Sent from my Redmi S2 using Tapatalk
I saw a report on DE blade sharpness. Feather was rated highest on first use of all blades, though I don't know how the data was generated. On second & third use it dropped in sharpness rating below many others first and several 2nd & 3rd use ratings. That explains why some consider a Feather "harsh" on initial shaves. Does the challenge allow for any edge maintenance like stropping or honing? Tapatalk via LG
Nope, no stropping or honing allowed, one thing ive discovered while using the Derby's, ive also seen other people mention this before, the sharpness drops off around shave 7 but goes up at around the 10 mark, my theory is that its actually the coating on the cutting edge wearing off making the blade feel dull, but as soon as the coatings worn away the sharpness picks up again. Sent from my Redmi S2 using Tapatalk
Interesting theory. I don't think I've ever used a blade past 7 shaves just because it's easy to keep track of when to change them that way. Plus, bought in bulk, blades are plenty inexpensive.
The most I ever pushed a blade was 14 shaves with a Wilkie Light Brigade in a Red Tip a number of years ago. Yes I was able to continue to shave with it, but the longevity of the results definitely suffered. I get trying to get the most out of it, but anymore I don't bother. Anywhere from 3 to 5 shaves with either a DE or SE is my normal practice.
Yep they're definitely cheap, its about seeing which blades last longer and trying to figure out why rather than saving money Sent from my Redmi S2 using Tapatalk
Know anyone who climbs mountains? The obvious question arises. The Excalibur Challenge makes sense as an exercise. While the rest of us get in our cars and drive around the pile of rocks, or swap out blades for as close to perfect shaves as we can get, there will be Sport Shavers who choose the difficult path. Salute! It's not like I'd staple a DE blade between a couple of pop-sickle sticks and try to shave... Oh, wait. Carry on!
Similar but slightly more refined. Rather than gather a fallen tree branch of an appropriate razor handle size, a number of 30 Day Crew members repeated an exercise in Sport Shaving suggested by ... John @John Ruschmeyer ? Last years results can be found among the 3685 post of last May. If you have good Shavette technique it's only scary the first time.
Do you find that your shaves are consistently as good when you use a DE blade 15 to 20 times? Blades are so cheap that I don't give much thought to tossing them after three shaves. I may never use up all the blades I have.