How Often Should I Change the Razor Blade on My Bread Lame?
/UFO Lame by WireMonkey
Scoring sourdough bread can be dreamy with the right tools, including have a fresh, sharp razor blade on your bread lame.
Like anything to do with sourdough, reading helps give you an idea of what you should be doing, but actually DOING, and doing repeatedly, will give you the hands on knowledge of what works best for you.
Making sourdough occasionally, weekly, or daily, one principal score or detailed score, will all impact how often you should be changing your razor blade.
Signs Your Razor Blade May Need to be Changed
Wiremonkey UFO Lame, a stick lame, and a Blueberry Lemon Sourdough Loaf
Keep in mind that none of these are absolutes
The blade has a hard time breaking through the skin of the dough
The blade catches and drags while scoring
It slices inconsistently despite even pressure and movement
It has crusty dried dough or inclusions on it
You can find my favorite razor blades here. They’re the trusted Astra brand and not expensive!
How Often You Might Need to Change with Occasional Sourdough Baking
If you make sourdough bread only on occasion, let’s say less than once a week, then you might need to change your razor blade only once every several months. If you’re doing only principal scores, no fancy designs, you might get away with even longer.
When I first started sourdough back in 2017, I didn’t even know that the razor blades on lames even needed to be changed! My stick lame had its razor blade on it for, ahem, maybe a few years. It was largely unused during this time, but still. Haha. The realization that my razor blade was long overdue to be changed coincided with about the same time that I drastically started increasing the amount of artisanal loaves I was making. Using a new lame was great, but it wasn’t as drastic of a difference as I was expecting. This was in part due to the fact I first tried a new single edged razor blade, and also dough that hadn’t been bulk fermented properly. Sometimes under, mostly over fermented. More on that later.
How Often You Might Need to Change with Regular Sourdough Baking
If you bake sourdough loaves at least once a week, you’ll probably want to change your lame more frequently. If you only do principal scores and are frugal, you might try every couple of months.
If you enjoy intricate scoring and want the freshest cuts, you might want to change your blade once a week.
When I started baking more regularly, 2 loaves 2x or even 3x a week, I started changing my blade more often while still keeping it probably longer than I should have. I would change it once every 3-4 months. I was doing mostly principle scores with simple wheat stalks or simple designs. In fact, after buying a 100 pack of Astra razor blades I did the math and realized that $9 worth of razor blades would last me about 25 years.
How Often You Might Need to Change with Frequent Sourdough Baking
If you bake frequently throughout the week and especially if you make large quantities of bread, for friends and family or your own microbakery, you’ll want to rotate your razor blades frequently.
I opened my microbakery just a little over 2 months ago, and while I really bake just once or twice a week now, there are still plenty of loaves to score, with varying quantities each week that I do more intricate scoring on. I change my blade once a week, but I often start to feel it dragging before my bake day is over.
Other Things to Keep in Mind
Dough that has not been fermented correctly, especially if it is overfermented, is going to be very hard to score. Changing out your razor blade will not help your dough.
Double edged razor blades work better than single edged. Double edged are thinner, and thus create a cleaner score.
Blades will give you more life if you rotate them and use each of the 4 corners of a double sided razor.
If you have to clean your blade, do so very carefully to avoid dulling the blade and of course, cutting yourself. If your blade needs cleaning that badly, it might be time to rotate or change it out anyway.
If you have a pouch or other protective covering for your lame, be mindful that covering and uncovering could be contributing to the dulling of your blade if it comes in direct contact with it.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, if you’re still really unsure if your razor blade needs to be changed or not, just try it. If you don’t notice much of a difference, maybe you didn’t need to change it, and you can put the old one back on until it really does need to be changed out. If you do notice a difference, then it was probably a good call.
With time, the more you bake sourdough and score it, you will learn when you need to change out your blades intuitively, no blog posts needed. :)
