Has anyone tried cryo tempered blades? (-300F)

I stumbled upon this site: Greatrazors.com. They claim that by super freezing the blades, they will last about four times longer than the same, uncooled blades. That would be four weeks with one DE blade for me.

They sell mostly cartridge blades, but they have Feather DE's as well.

Anyone tried these yet?

 

Hmm. Never heard of. But it piques my curiosity. A question for the "TSD metallurg" @PLANofMAN – Ryan?

 

This subject came up recently in a thread about the Van derHagen "Ice Tempered" blades.

 

I believe I've read about these before. They were not rated well, and the Ice Temper was considered a gimmick. Try them out, and let us know what you think.

 

If you treat certain metals at the time they come out of heat treat the grain structure is set depending on what temp they are quenched at.

Just freezing the blades does nothing except cool them down long after the fact.

In order for it to have any effect on the metal they would need to come out of the press or roller or extruder and then quenched immediately, IF when they leave the processor they are above their critical temperatures that would allow for the right grain structure.

Martensite, Martentite, etc., are different grain structures in steel if I recall correctly from my materials science classes. I'm sure I'm off a bit in name and temps, etc., but I am pretty sure about the phenomenon.

 

I'm familiar with the product from GreatRazors.

From what I remember, the cartridges are cryo-treated to affect their crystalline structure. I can imagine this might affect the shaving performance of carts, which are already overpriced; that said, I haven't tried the cryo-treated carts. As for Van der Hagen's cryo-treated blades...blades are already cheap enough to render cryo-treatment irrelevant. At a few pennies a shave, and the dubious promises of an improved shave, I'm happy using my current setup.

 

Sorry, missed that one.

Thank you for your clear answer!

 

sounds like a gimmick to me.

 

I'm guessing that if this wasn't a gimmick; we'd all be using them. At the very least, we'd be hearing a lot more about them.

 

Well, in theory, ice tempering should make the steel harder (i.e., not dull so quickly). This is probably great for something like a straight razor, steak knife or a good pair of scissors where there is an advantage to the blade being sharp for a long time. This is probably not as important for a DE razor blade.

Blade longevity is a subject that comes up repeatedly in this community, but is often downplayed given the relatively low cost of blades.( I'd venture instead that most of us probably replace a blade well before it is truly dull.) Given that, it would seem like ice tempering would primarily be an issue a) for those whose beard lends itself to quickly dulling blades and b) those in the Excalibur community (using one blade for as long as possible). I would imagine that we don't hear more about ice tempered razor blades because the process would just add cost to the blade, but provide value that no one would take advantage of.

Hmm... I wonder if I should put away a free packs of VdH blades for when society collapses?

 

I'm confused my something... I had assumed that ice tempering occurs as part of the process of manufacturing the Stainless Steel. From what I gather, though, the cryo tempering that Greatrazors.com does occurs long after manufacture. So, how does it actually work?

 

Yep, I wanna know too. Freezing them after the fact is not tempering, so if they aren't dropping them to -320F as soon as they are in the right temp zone to capture and cease the desired grain structure, which is what tempering is, what is the freezing actually doing; the grain is long set at that point.

 

Still, tempering occurs at the time of manufacture. Boxing them up shipping them around the world and then cooling them down does no tempering at all.....the crystal structure of the metal is long set at that point.

Now if they are running them into a cryobath, or something, right out of the hopper, then sure, but I don't care what kind of controls they are using when cooling down and heating back up to room temp, it doesn't temper at that point since the crystal structure is long set at that point.

 

Yeh, Yeh, Yeh. But, how do those VaderHoogans shave???

 

I asked them if they ship abroad. Guess I'm going to give them a try anyway. Get a package of these and a package of un-cryo-ed Feathers. Blade of each in a razor and do alternate shaves. See where we'll end...

But first see if I can get 'em here.

 

I think that's @crackstar daily shave