Every day, there’s another development in shaving technology, but it usually involves adding more blades or making yet another part of the razor vibrate. No matter how high-tech the devices get, the blades just don’t last very long. In the words of every hack comedian from 1990: What’s up with that?

Now, I’m not big on shaving; not because I’m trying to look some hipster bass-player in your friend’s band that you see once to be polite. No, it’s because I don’t like bleeding and I’m cheap. But for those who do shave regularly, the cost of having to replace your blades every week can add up.

Just ask the L.A. Times’ David Lazarus, who recently wrote a compelling piece about the blade business and why, oh why, it just won’t come up with a blade that lasts more than a week.

“Sure they can,” says the president of Coating Services Group, a company that makes scalpels. “They could make a ceramic blade that maybe costs $100 and lasts for years.”

Replacement blades will run you anywhere from a few bucks a month from places like DollarShaveClub.com to more than $150 a year for name-brands like the Gillette Mach3 Turbo.

So wouldn’t people be willing to pay $100 for a blade that you’ll only need to replace every few years?

Alas, that doesn’t fit into the blade industry’s business model.

“They’d sell you one blade and they’d be done,” explains the Coating Services guy. “It’s a business decision.”

So we were curious if there was a market for some startup willing to take a risk on super-expensive, but incredibly durable blades:

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