DE Blades: Can the blade be "Flipped" upside down to prolong use?

[iron maiden]

All this blade flipping is making me hungry for burgers

After reading Mr.Gillette's posts about gunk and hairs under the DE blade, I just had to look....so I went and opened up my Vision.....not a lot of mess, but some soap scum and a few hairs left...

And I thought I did a good job at cleaning...

 

[Kyle]

I'm a "new guy" to these forums, and still waiting for my new shaver to come in the mail, but I have $0.02 to toss in on this conversation. I'd skip to the last paragraph if you are short on time, or read through if you care about my overstated opinions

Having spent many long winters sitting around on the weekends sharpening hunting knives, chainsaw chains, fillet knives and run of the mill pocket knives, I have studied metals and cutting edges to an extreme degree. There are two basic principles that you need to understand regarding the edge of a blade, and why it gets dull; rollover and simple wear. I can only speak to my experience with knives, but I expect it would help with this discussion.

Rollover is common with all stainless steel edges, due to the metal being rather soft. Most people think that stainless simply doesn't hold an edge, so it's not popular as a knife metal among true blade aficionados. This is true, but not typically because the blade dulls - the metal actually folds over! Thus, if you sharpen the metal to an extreme angle, it 'dulls' immediately because the metal folds over (note: you can't see this with the naked eye in most cases). If you sharpen to a moderate angle, it simply isn't all that sharp, and dulls faster than a non-stainless blade anyway.

Simple wear is the act of the metal itself being worn down by friction and corrosion. A high carbon metal blade is far and above the best at keeping an amazing razor sharp edge, but it can (and does) corrode quickly if not properly maintained and protected.

Friction is the most the most prevalent aspect of razor blade wear, with a small amount of corrosion wear. When you shave, you are sliding one side of the metal edge over your skin. That causes it to wear down, and creates small pits in the edge as it wears. The opposite side of the blade 'ramp' stays smooth, not being subject to the friction of your beard and skin. So does it make sense to flip the edge? I think no, and here's why:

If you keep using just one side, it leaves the un-worn ramp to the edge to maintain a more uniform blade edge over time. If you flip every shave, it can cause a greater difference in blade edge irregularities because you are attacking 'through' the blade edge in both directions, giving you a much higher chance of 'meeting' irregularities in the wear surface on the other side and causing a large 'groove' of sorts to appear in the sharp edge. Keep in mind this large 'groove' may be barely visible to the human eye, but still technically less than ideal!

So my vote on this matter is no, don't flip. Technically it doesn't help, at least in my opinion. Don't flip those blades over! On the other hand, the difference is so incredibly small, I highly doubt anyone would ever notice the slightest difference in their quality of shave. So my vote is equally "it doesn't really matter" on this one, since you shouldn't be able to tell either way.

Cheerfully,
Matt

edited for spelling, woah

Very interesting and well stated.