Carbon Steel DE blades - love or loathe them?

[Maxime D.]

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).

I can't sharpen a knife properly, I don't imagine myself stropping a edge that my eyes barely see. I already clean my razors and blades,,between every shaves, so I guess I'll keep doing that.