I’ve had a ceramic kitchen knife for 2-3 years now. It’s the only one we use; it keeps an edge for a long time.
the tip is rounded rather than coming to a sharp point like most metal knives because the ceramic is brittle; a sharp point would indeed be vulnerable to damage.
This also points to a potential shortcoming for ceramic shaving razors. if you look at a disposable razor, the blades are really thin and not very tall: each one is maybe 1.5" wide, but it’s only about 0.125" tall and 0.030" thick. Any kind of side load on that (like pressing it against your face) would probably snap a ceramic blade that had those dimensions.
It would need to be a rigid holder supporting the entire width of the blade to prevent it from flexing; whether you mount that holder on a suspension or not won’t much matter.
And no matter what you do, there will be a side load on the thinnest and most delicate part of the ceramic insert (the sharpened edge) when you press it up against your skin.
You could probably engineer a solution, but you’ll end up with a razor so expensive no one will buy it.
Well, firstly, it’s not necessary to make them so thin. The manufacturing methods for steel and ceramics are different, and just because this is the most cost-efficient for steel doesn’t mean the same for ceramics. Also, there’s no reason they can’t be made larger and more robust - in the shape of a safety razor blade. It’s also ok if the blades cost more, being they last longer and all. You don’t need to cram 5 blades in there. And a stiffer, thicker ceramic doesn’t need as much support - i.e. more flexibility.
Secondly, the cartridge design of existing razors already has floating blades mounted in a rigid frame. That’s why it’s almost impossible to cut yourself with one. The same design prevents excessive stress/shock on the blades.
And here’s a one minute video showing what ceramics can withstand: KYOCERA Knife Test - YouTube Meanwhile, my “Exact-0” blades’ tips disappear within 5 minutes of using them.
For most users, I think it’s pretty simple: metal blades are cheap and easy to make and they don’t call it a “razor and blades” business model for nothing. The last thing Gilette wants is a razor blade that will last forever.
That said, I AM surprised I’ve never seen a ceramic straight razor. It would be great for folks who genuinely like straight razors (like myself) but don’t want to bother with stropping and sharpening and don’t like snapping DE blades in half.
It started during the Depression, for obvious reasons. Various devices, gimmicks and contraptions were marketed claiming to rehone carbon steel blades (which is all there was in those pre-stainless days). Some of them worked, most not so much. The times I do it, which is not often, I do so just because I can, not because I need to.
That’s paying Gillette what they want for what, in some ways, is a superior shaver to their newer, redundantly bladed razors. The Dorco brand (made in S. Korea, I think) available at Dollar General fits both Atra and Trac II handles, shaves indistinguishably from Gillette’s insanely priced name brand cartridge, but for $1.75 for a six pack. It simply cannot be beat, if the Atra/Trac II is one’s razor of choice.
I’ve never thought highly of the argument that “a company won’t make a product more desirable than their current product because then nobody will buy their current product.”
If a ceramic razor is so incredibly awesome that no one will buy ever buy a disposable razor after that, then the first company who markets a ceramic razor will steal the entire customer base of all the other non-ceramic razor companies. If ceramic razors are indeed that awesome and desirable, their continued unavailability would require a conspiracy of inaction between every razor manufacturer in existence. It’s like claiming that a cure for cancer doesn’t exist simply because pharmaceutical companies would rather sell endless rounds of chemo: if true, then the first company to break the stalemate will become wildly profitable.
I am a manufacturing engineer and this is exactly correct. I have grown so weary of “hurr durr planned obsolescence hurr durr vast conspiracy to buy up patents” that I don’t bother to fight it any more.
Yeah, and adding a lubricating strip that lasts for 3 uses is definitely to improve your shave and not a reminder to change your blade more often. And if you come out with a good product, you can capture the entire global market before your competitors copy it, because shaving companies are like Nokia and Blackberry. And consumers are known to buy long-lasting products over cheap. And once everyone is using ceramic razors, then what? You’ll be like the smartphone market now where you’ll have to compete on price: In smartphone mass-market, Samsung, Apple have margins on their minds
I don’t think there’s a vast conspiracy, but, if I were a Gillette employee, I’m not sure how I’d pitch, “here’s a razor whose only advantage to our current product is that customers will by blades much, much less often. It will also be costly to develop, potentially risky to market, and will either fail in the market or substantially reduce our profits, which are almost entirely based on selling disposable steel cartridges.”
There’s very little upside to a company like Schick or Gillette. It’s not a conspiracy; it’s a cost:benefit failure. That doesn’t mean a ceramic razor might not be better.
This is a totally different situation and I agree with you. If there was money to be made with a ceramic blade, one of the big boys or a smaller upstart would get in the business. In the end there really isn’t a market even if they were practical. Most of us are fine with the regular ones, hipsters are going to use a straight razor and geeks don’t use razors at all.
Nah. Carbon fiber doesn’t work this way. Wouldn’t even be that expensive, it’s just that “carbon fiber!” you hear touted as a high-strength material isn’t strong in the way you are thinking.
Carbon fiber on its own is a fabric. Woven, typically. A single strand of carbon fiber behaves like a thin, stiff thread.
Keep in mind - when you hear “carbon fiber” what is typically meant is a composite material. Carbon fiber, typically woven into some kind of cloth (and it does feel and handle like a stiff cloth) is made into a composite by binding it together in laminates or otherwise with a polymer. Typically epoxy or vinyl ester.
Carbon fiber has fantastic tensile strength / weight, but not much else. In a composite this high tensile strength can be turned into excellent overall strength/toughness, but on its own it’s just thread.
Now - if you wanted to try a composite razor blade - the cutting edge would still be essentially plastic. Not something you want for keeping an edge, not something you can really sharpen, just not suited.
You can google “carbon fiber razor” and get shopping hits, but everything I saw had a regular metal blade and a carbon-fiber handle or case. Fairly silly, IMO. Who needs an indestructible straight-razor handle? Are they hurling it at the mirror after every use? Dropping it off buildings?
