The OneBlade’s feel and performance are great, and in use the only drawback for me is that it is a single-edge razor, and I find the double-edge format better in practice since I can accumulate more lather before having to rinse. In fact, though, the OneBlade this morning easily held all the lather from a single pass, thanks in part to the excellent quality of the lather created by the Martin de Candre shaving soap and my Simpson Chubby 1 Best. (The Chubby Super I tested seemed too stiff for my taste. The Best is better.)
The main problem is blade cost: $365/year if you follow their recommendation to change the blade after each shave (vs. $4.68/year for my Astra Superior Platinums, which cost me 9¢ each and last a week). A blog reader pointed out that OneBlade seems to have realized that cost might be for some a barrier. He wrote:
If you go to the OneBlade website, you’ll see that they have backed off from the “change the blade with each shave” recommendation. I think that the blade cost must have been their biggest sales barrier. They now say that the best results are achieved when a blade is used 2-3 times. No mention anywhere of changing the blade each time.
Even if you change the blade every 2-3 shaves, the cost remains high: 2 shaves per blade = $183/year; 3 shaves per blade = $122/year. Compared to $4.68 per year for an equally good shave (assuming you choose a good razor), that’s steep, especially since it’s not a one-time cost (as paying (say) $100 for a razor is).
That said, this morning’s shave was excellent. So now let’s see how tomorrow and Friday do.
A splash of Speick made a fine end to the shave, and the day begins.