In reply to Newbie-in-London:
I used to look after the equipment for a Uni climbing club - and, more recently, a Scout group.
Back in those days, it was a policy of replacing all soft gear every 3 years - or sooner in the case of major falls, on a case by case basis. Hardware somewhat less often - I forget the schedules for that, but some of the axes and so on were quite old. I've used them and not died.
Tried to keep a log of usage, but it boils down to how many days use the kit had had - it's hard to log each piece individually on a day's outing with a dozen, or more, users.
Anyway, everyone else has pretty much covered the advice - they will be solid.
If blunt, that can be dangerous on it's own - get someone who knows what they're doing to sharpen them.