Carbon Steel DE blades - love or loathe them?

Nick the Knife

Nick the Knife

Krill Enabler
Grand Society
Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Location
Coffs Harbour, NSW
Folks,

Just curious how many folks have ever given carbon steel blades a whirl and what your impressions were?

As we all know all safety razor blades used to be carbon steel - but gradually from the ~1960's the more user friendly stainless steel variants became the status quo. However several companies still make Carbon Steel blades, Treet being the best known.

Feedback on Carbon steel blades seems quite polarised - people generally hating them but others swearing that with the right razor, prep and understanding they can shave at the absolute top tier for a blade.

So just wondering what carbon steel blades folks have tried?
What their thoughts on it were?
And particularly for those who've tried and liked Carbon steel blades how they'd compare them to top stainless steel blades?

Thanks in advance, Nick
 
Now this may be me - probably is but CS DE blades always give me irritation. I don't know why, just my experience with them. Initially very smooth but after awhile irritation sets in.
 
How are you guys stroping them ?
 
Full disclosure, never used them myself and I was surprised to find that the only CS blades I had onhand were very old Gillette Blue Blades - and well didn't consider they'd prove much.

From what I've read IF the blades have been stored well and have no signs of rust they're usable - BUT they will work best in relatively mild razors and MAY benefit from a very gentle stropping first. I've heard folks say you can do on a piece of denim or even your forearm if desired (just pay attention to what you're doing!).

Reports tend to be that the first shave CAN sometimes be inferior to the 2nd. It's very common that they're described as 'tuggy' - but dunno if very mild stropping would offset this - as the likers of CS blades say they're much smoother than SS blades....and well reconciling how the same blades can be both tuggy and yet smooth seems somewhat odd - so I think variables are at play.

Post shave they tend to say either dipping the blade into some alcohol (and metho would be the most obvious choice for this) - should dissipate all water - as CS can rust in just a few hours. Others remove the blade and STORE in the alcohol between shaves - and yet others apply a lil mineral oil (like baby oil) to the blade for between uses.

Mild stropping I could handle......dipping in metho/alcohol I could handle.....but it'd have to shave better than a SS blade to make that all worthwhile and they tend to say they've often got a shorter usable lifespan than SS blades.

High quality older CS blades would be interesting as perhaps if handled well they'd perform very well and also give a good number of shaves - otherwise all that extra messing around without much benefit does make you wonder why bother?
 
Treet DS Carbon are one of my fave DE blades. To me, they seem very comfy and they're cheap. However, I can't see myself using them too often going forward now that I've discovered SE razors.
 
Hmm, intriguing.
I was under the impression that the carbon blades were intenswd to be stropped multiple times and last an extended period of time.
 
borked said:
Hmm, intriguing.
I was under the impression that the carbon blades were intenswd to be stropped multiple times and last an extended period of time.
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Well quite often CS blades were stropped and resharped many times but that was more due to their cost relative to the low prosperity of many folks - and there were no other options to shave with. Thats why you'll see so many old gadgets and gizmos specifically for sharpening/stropping DE blades.

CS in general is more easy to put a certain level of sharpness on than a non-exotic SS variant - so they would lend themselves to this type of thing. There does tend to be a lot of feedback that most CS blades do benefit from stropping - but you'll always get a few people who swear back and blue that SS blades benefit as well.

So I think you're right in that their usable lifespan could be increased by a lil stropping but Gillette and the blade makes certainly didn't have any interests in this occurring for any longer than necessary. :)
 
@Nick the Knife . Interesting timing on your part as after a few months using other blades, I shaved this week with a Treet CS blade**. You can see my review of it from many moons ago here. For the price, stropping,dipping in alcohol,etc... Couldn't be bothered! Use 3 times and toss.

Do they give a good shave? Yes. Would I buy more? Probably not only because there are other SS blades that have moved into my rotation that although dearer, last longer like the PSS so cost per shave is similar. However, you'll never never know if you don't have a go! PM me your address and I'll toss a few in an envelope for you.

** The Treet is AFAIK considered the best modern CS blade however I think it has some sort of teflon coating so it is not a completely old school CS blade which is probably a good thing, as I tried a vintage CS blade once ( a Gillette thin ) and barely escaped alive..
 
Excellent post @JayDee , yes the Durasharps have a PTFE coating - the Black Beauties do not and are just blued steel.

I was prompted to ask these questions as I had a chance to purchase some good quality vintage CS blades but given my overall research and the amount of stuffing around it seemed to me that ANY advantage they had over even good modern SS ones (of which I have a lot) is negligible & more likely not existant at all....therefore it makes little or no sense to add another couple of layers of complication to ones shaving routine when there's likely to be a net decrease in the performance of the blades.

Interestingly the vintage Gillette Thins were quite well regarded - so you'd have expected reasonable results possible.

Still I think I'll try and swing a pack of Durasharps down the track just so i can tick off having shaved with a semi-decent CS blade. Much thanks for the reply.
 
I had a shave with a Treet Durasharp (yellow & red box) and liked them. Really smooth.
 
Much thanks to @khun_diddy , swapped a packet with him - alas I did not find the first blade I used very enjoyable (in a Merkur 37c) - hallmark pulling and tugging that one might expect from a SS blade thats due to be swapped out. Will try another one soon to confirm but just midway through a vintage blade that seems to be lasting forever.
 
Monsta_AU said:
Unless you have done a dozen shaves with it, then it will truly be on the downward spiral :ROFLMAO:
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Touche my friend HOWEVER this is actually another circa 1970's blade sourced from yonder shores. Currently up to 8 shaves on it and this morning's shave was one of the best I've ever had from ANY blade - unbelievably smooth and removes several days stubble without any noticeable effort or friction.
 
Yep, I get the same from the La Brune Wilkinsons and also the English Plats. Just amazing how well they work.
 
Shaved with a Treet "Black Beauty". Very smooth comfortable shave. Hoping they have good longevity.
 
Maxime D. said:
Any advice on how to take care of carbon steel blades?
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Having looked at this recently myself it does kind of depend on how obsessive about it you want to be - as some folks insist on removing the blade after each shave and placing in an alcohol solution & all manner of stuff (which IMHO is likely to be a lot of messing around for very little marginal benefit).

The smart money tended to say that ANY carbon steel blade was really only good for 2-3 shaves regardless of how you treated them hence essentially removing any excess moisture via the simplest method possible (for me loosening the razor's head and shaking it out a lil plus maybe a quick towel wipe) was more than ample.

You'll get mixed feedback on any type of stropping of the blades - some swearing it's a big difference maker, others saying if anything it degrades performance (I'm the latter) - so see how you go on that.

So unless the razor is stored in a very humid environment or several weeks between shaves you shouldn't have any issue with carbon blades with a lil shake out between usages over their shortish lifespan (all this said I found the different face feel of carbon blades - much more tuggy - not to my liking but YMMV).
 
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