Great Razor Challenge – the 40-day update
How long will my razor last? I figured you was waiting and getting antsy because I didn’t throw out a one month update. After doing one at 2 weeks, I figure people get used to the idea, oh, Grandpa Tic’s gonna keep us updated every two weeks. Well, I blew that one, didn’t I?
So now I got, just in time for Lent for you religious folks (starts on March 1st), the 40 day update. Means if he had some shaving cream, Jesus could have managed the whole time in the desert without needing another blade. But then, most pictures I’ve seen indicate he didn’t shave anyway, so he’s probably not interested.
But for those who are, here’s what happened over the last few weeks. One week I was below 30 shaving strokes per shave, and still had an acceptable smoothness. Now I’m back up in the mid-30s, but considering I started in the 50s, well, guess you can learn no matter how old you get. And I got to thinking, having been an engineer and all, what the mean time between failures might be. We abbreviate that to MTBF. Would indicate how reliable the blade cartridge was, or in this case, how long it can shave until it starts nicking ya. I figure that’s the endpoint. If it starts to nick, that ends it. So I wondered, do I count strokes or days? Hmmm.
On a weekly basis, just sticking to the real facts, I’m using about 250 strokes. Over the entire time, I’m up over 1500 with an average around 38. And I can tell it’s a little harder to shave, or rougher. I can feel the pull of the blades. So my rating for that is around a 2 on a scale of 0 to 5 (0 being ultra smooth). I’ll take a picture of the lube strip, as it has seen better days. But I don’t think it matters much, really. And the smooth-feelingness of the skin, well, that started out as a 5 (again, ultra smooth), and is now down to about a 4.8. Still pretty smooth.
I do notice that one spot, and I think all guys have these, takes more than one pass to get smooth. But so far, things are working out, and I’m already down to 10 cartridges/year, vs. 26 (or 52 if you demand the smoothest all the time). I think I’ll prepare another book, just gotta figure out all the topics.
Until next time, maybe a 60 day update, here’s to smooth shaving.