Currently I’m conducting a personal experiment to see how many shaves I can get on one blade among my vintage DE blades. Usually with modern blades I use it 1-2 times and I’m done with it. I’ve heard legendary things about 70’s era blades and thought I’d see how far I can stretch them on one blade. If a blade can shave comfortably for 5 shaves, it’s a good blade. If it reaches a maximum of 10 shaves on one blade I’ll say it’s an excellent blade. Here’s the blades I’ll be using in my experiment. Feel free to tell me your experience with any of these blades. The Wilkinson Sword Super Sword Edge is the first in my experiment; having shaved twice on one blade so far. Wilkinson Sword Super Sword Edge (so far I have shaved 2 times on the same blade) Schick Plus Platinum Gillette Spoiler Personna 74* (waiting for them in the mail)
With proper techniques and preshave prep, you should get 30-50 shaves, comfortably, with most modern and 70's era blades. Especially those Wilkies.
I’m currently using vintage Gillette twinjector blades in my Gillette injector razor. I’ve gotten 28 shaves out of one blade before it started going downhill. Vintage stainless blades can withstand the years quite well.
So far I got 4 shaves on the WS Super Sword Edge blade and I feel that I can get another 3-4 or more shaves on this blade. Of course I could be wrong, but this blade is very efficient at shaving and the quality of this blade has not deteriorated one bit.
It is all about proper prep, and shave techniques. Thorough hydration and cleaning of beard, before shave. Hot towel after hydration, and just before shave. Very slick lather. Fluffy looks good, but don't help with a proper shave. Perfect shave angle, with very light pressure. Notice I didn't say no pressure. Then same for 2nd and 3rd passes, with a warm water rinse between passes. After finished, rinse razor/blade with hot tap water, blow the water off, and a light wipe of the razor/blade against a towel or shirt. I never take the blade out, and don't flip. I've done this many times.
The Wilkinson Sword Super Sword Edge has been used for 7 three pass shaves and it seems to still have some life in it. I can see this experiment of mine lasting over a month minimum time before I am finished with all 4 blades.
Update on my vintage blade experiment. On the fist blade I tested, the Wilkinson Sword Super Sword Edge blade I got 10 comfortable shaves on one blade. Shaves 1-6 were awesome; I’d get a baby butt smooth shave that would leave me silky smooth. I wouldn’t feel any stubble ‘til 12 hours later. By the 7th shave it would be close but not as long lasting; at most 4-5 hours of being BBS. On my 10th shave with this blade, the Wilkinson Sword Super Sword Edge, while I had no damage there was a small patch of stubble left after 3 passes (with, across & against the grain of my beard). So I decided it is time for me to junk this blade and move on to the next blade in line, the Schick Plus Platinum. We’ll see how well and long this next blade shaves and lasts compared to the first one I tested.
I have a few old blades that I bought at a lawn sale. Maybe I'll try a few, some are Jockey blabes. I started out shaving with Gillette Blues, I think the Jockey blades are older.
Today was my 4th shave with the Schick Plus Platinum blade. I will say it feels much more sharper than the WS blade. It seems to work well in a Super Speed or even a Tech.
Part 2 of 4 on my vintage blade experiment is finished. The blade: Schick Plus Platinum. This blade is very sharp; however I had to stop after 5 shaves on the same blade because I’d get unpredictable nicks and cuts. By the 5th shave it was just not doing anything for me even when I use a mild razor like the Schick Krona or Gillette Tech. I’ll say sharpness wise the Schick Plus Platinum is definitely up there, but comfort wise it seemed to be lacking. Next blade I’ll test is going to be the Gillette Super Stainless aka The Spoiler; we’ll see how that does compared to the Schick Plus Platinum or its predecessor the Wilkinson Sword Super Sword Edge blade.
The only issue will be how these blades were stored, I have had a few packs of 74s, one was in good shape and tossed the blades some were in the 30s and the other pack I couldn't get one shave out of them. My favorite vintage blade is the super blue blade, not of the longevity but for its smoothness.
Part 3 of my blade experiment is finished. This time I tested out the Gillette Spoiler aka the Gillette Super Stainless blade. This blade was much more comfortable than the Schick Plus Platinum blades I tried previously. I was able to get 8 BBS shaves out of this blade; the first 7 with no problems whatsoever. By the 8th shave it began to tug and nick me slightly so I stopped after the 8th shave. Next and last in line is the Personna 74* Tungsten Steel blade.