Does it do any good to flip the DE blade up side down in the handle

Of course, I spin the blade after a few swipes and use the other blade too.

I am talking about turning the blade in the head so the writing is down instead of up.

Same blade, same edges, so the accepted wisdom is that it does no good at all.

wingnut said:

same blade, same edges, so the accepted wisdom is that it does no good at all.

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+1

I agree with the previous comments, it makes no difference at all.

Duncanh48 said:

I agree with the previous comments, it makes no difference at all.

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Ibid. It can increase the opportunity to cut yourself through handling though.

Two things can come of this.
You can keep each side cleaner by flipping (exposing the blade to more water flow).
You can cut yourself.
I occasionally flip the blade, but I have found that opening the silo doors slightly while rinsing seems to work as well without exposure to cuts.

It makes no difference. Just be sure to use both sides of the razor.

I thought about flipping the blade after using it for a while to see if it's any sharper and I couldn't tell a difference.

If anything I'm guessing it would be scratchier as the blade wears down 1 way and if you flip it it would be slightly off so you could probably end up with more cuts, but what do I know lol

HerbalAbuse said:

I thought about flipping the blade after using it for a while to see if it's any sharper and I couldn't tell a difference.

If anything I'm guessing it would be scratchier as the blade wears down 1 way and if you flip it it would be slightly off so you could probably end up with more cuts, but what do I know lol

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It is sort of confusing. Envision a knife... would it get more dull cutting from one side of a cucumber or the other? Nope. Because the cut is made from the edge formed by two planes.

I don't think that flipping a blade in the razor will do anything to lengthen the use life of the blade. The new DE blades are so thin I don't believe a bevel is possible. I have a few "blue blades" in the house from another time and they are much more "substantial" than any of the newer offerings and I don't think that grinding a bevel on on a blue blade is possible either.

Flipping the blade doesn't do anything no.

Let me be a Devils advocate here

It is the same edge, but take the example of a straight, you hone to sharpen and strop to smooth and polish each side of the edge of a straight.

There was a discussion on here last week about honing DE blades on glass, although I think the conclusion was that, if done at all this this should be done before use.

Pure conjecture here but although it is the same edge, same sharpness may be the unused side could give a smoother shave?

Ronanh said:

Pure conjecture here but although it is the same edge, same sharpness may be the unused side could give a smoother shave?

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There is no unused side; you can flip the blade but it remains the same used edge.

It is the same edge, but take the example of a straight, you hone to sharpen and strop to smooth and polish each side of the edge of a straight.

There was a discussion on here last week about honing DE blades on glass, although I think the conclusion was that, if done at all this this should be done before use.

Pure conjecture here but although it is the same edge, same sharpness may be the unused side could give a smoother shave?

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That's the thing, there really is no unused side per se as it is the inflection angle of the two planes that create the edge.

Again using the knife analogy but one step further: if you had a two handled knife, would it slice better once dull if you switched to the other handle (essentially "flipping" the blade)?

P.S. talibeard beat me to it...

Unless I and others are somehow wrong, there is no difference. Probably best to leave well enough alone.

Ronanh said:

Let me be a Devils advocate here

It is the same edge, but take the example of a straight, you hone to sharpen and strop to smooth and polish each side of the edge of a straight.

There was a discussion on here last week about honing DE blades on glass, although I think the conclusion was that, if done at all this this should be done before use.

Pure conjecture here but although it is the same edge, same sharpness may be the unused side could give a smoother shave?

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It's like cutting bread with a bread knife. Using your left or right hand, it won't change anything, it's the same edge.

Some mixture of opinions. I do agree with what I believe is the majority that it does not produce a discernible improvement in the blades ability produce a better shave

Luc said:

It's like cutting bread with a bread knife. Using your left or right hand, it won't change anything, it's the same edge.

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yup. same edge, no difference.

In that case why strop both sides of a straight razor?

Ronanh said:

In that case why strop both sides of a straight razor?

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I see your point. You strop both sides of a straight to make sure that the thin edge isn't bent in one direction or the other. However, in the case of a DE, supposing that the edge is bent up by shaving, flipping the blade would put the bent edge towards the skin and that wouldn't be good. The difference is that a straight can be rehoned and a DE can't. If you did hone a DE blade, you would have to hone both sides. In fact, when shaving with a straight, if the edge degrades, flipping the orientation of the blade doesn't help either.

I think that what actually happens is that the edge is micro-chipped. Think of a triangle with the tip cut off. It would look cut-off from either side.