Consumer

Save-a-Blade: Does It Really Do That?

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Shaving can be expensive. It's something we do just about every day. Those replacement blades can add up; but what if just one blade could do the job. That's the promise from "Save-a-Blade."

"The ingenious razor sharpener that will give you up to two hundred shaves from a single blade," the infomercial claims. "Just slide the razor inside, press the button and in seconds the blade is like new again."

But Does It Really Do That? 

Rick and Debbie Brown of Mt. Lebanon agreed to help us find out if "Save-a-Blade lives up to the hype.  

The Browns said they hope this product does what it claims.

"I think that would be great," Rick Brown said, "anything to save a couple of pennies the way prices are now."

As part of our test, Rick and Debbie each got their own razors. For Rick, we labeled one razor "right" and one "razor "left." 

Rick will shave the left side of his face as usual, replacing the disposables when they get dull. On the right side of his face, he'll keep the same razor sharp as new by using Save-a-Blade.

Debbie gets labeled razors, too. She will shave her left leg with the disposables as usual; the right side, she'll keep sharpened with Save-a-Blade.

We return one month later. Debbie says she couldn't tell a difference between the blades.

"The stubble came in just the same as the other leg," Debbie explains.

Rick could tell a difference and he didn't like it.

"It didn't work for me at least," said Rick. "Once you sharpened it..it seemed to really decrease the sharpness of the blade as soon as you took a couple of strokes."

No wonder, even though the infomercial boasts "Independent laboratory testing proved that after 200 shaves a razor sharpened with Save-a-Blade" is virtually identical to a brand new blade."

That's not what our lab tests showed. We took Save-a-Blade and our used and unused razors to Carnegie Mellon University where two graduate students put our blades under the microscope for a closer look.

Under the microscope, grad student Kelsey Miller says you can tell a new razor blade is sharp because the beveled layers of the blade are very close together and there is a definition between the layers.

A used razor is darker, and there is no definition between the layers of the blade.

Miller put the used blade into the Save-a-Blade to see if the used blade looks more like a new blade after sharpening.

"The edge is still dull in that you can still see all the imperfections and the dullness of the tip there," explained Miller.

So did the Save-a-Blade make a difference?

"Not much, if at all," said Miller.

Not surprising when you take a close look at the sharpening device inside Save-a-Blade.

Miller shows us he thinks is a piece of carbon paper, or kind of polishing paper that rotates around and gives a sharpening effect to the blade, but as we saw, it didn't do much.

"I can put my thumb in and it doesn't hurt, because I just have paper that comes across my thumb," demonstrated Miller.

We even put a brand new blade in Save-a-Blade. It made a brand new blade duller.

So bottom line on Save-a-Blade:  Does It Really Do That?  Debbie and Rick Brown give it a definite thumbs down.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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