RayClem's Blade Evaluations

I think they are different.  I could never use Merkur blades, I don’t think they would even shave my arm hair.  

Timors I enjoy in my more aggressive razors. I liken them to a yellow 7’oclock in smoothness (for me).

That sounds good. If the current Timor blades are no longer ice tempered, they might be OK.

I have a Muhle R41 that I pull out every now and then when I am feeling adventurous. When I do so, the 7 O'Clock SharpEdge Yellow is my blade of choice. Any sharper blades I have tried are too aggressive in that razor. Even with the SharpEdge blades, I have to be really cognizant of shave angle and shave pressure or my face will suffer.

I shaved again this afternoon. I tried my 1st pass WTG using the Kai blade on its third shave. It still was not sharp enough for my beard, so after a couple of strokes, I removed the blade and replaced it with a King C Gillette Platinum. The improvement was significant and noted with my first stroke with the new blade. Thus, I completed a nice shave with the KCG blade.

I have used KCG previously with similar results. They are not the sharpest blades available, but they are sharp enough and smooth enough for most shavers. The only thing that keeps me from including them in my list of favorite blades is that they are only available in 10 blade tucks for $7 whether you purchase online or at a local store. If they were available in 100 blade bulk packs at a more reasonable price, I would purchase a pack. While I like the King C Gillette blades, I like many other blades just as well. I can purchase those other blades for far less than $0.70 per blade.. For those who like purchasing their blades locally, the King C Gillette blades are one of the few options available. If you see them, you might want to pick up a pack.

Ray...thanks for writing about the KCG Platinum blades. Everything you said are my sentiments exactly, and I do enjoy them. Last year, I was lucky to find 50 of them on ebay for $15 w/free ship. I agree with your Feather observations. I typically bin my blades after one shave, but I get two good shaves out of a Feather blade...so I cannot say how they work for shave 3 and beyond. Look forward to you feedback on Silver Stars, since they work well for me.



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Since BIC Chrome Platinum are among my favorite blades, I was anxious to see how the BIC Astor blades compared. Thus, installed on in my Karve C-plate SB razor. However, before doing that, I did take a couple of swipes with the King C Gillette blades on their second use. They still were both sharp and smooth.

On their first shave, the Astor blades were sharp, but not quite as smooth as I hoped. While I got a near BBS shave in 4 passes, I got some irritation as evidenced by significant feedback when applying witch hazel after the shave. Without the coating applied to the BIC CP blades, the Astor blades were not quite as smooth. I am hoping the second shave will go better.

One thing I am working on is a spreadsheet that will summarize the results of all my testing. That will make it easier to locate information of interest. I also hope to embed microphotographs of the blade edges using a Celestron 5 MP/200X digital microscope. That may explain some of the smoothness results, but you cannot see the cutting edge easily using a light microscope. The thickness of the edge is similar to the wave length of visible light.

Update: ************************************

On the 2nd use, the Astor stainless blades were similar in sharpness and smoothness to the 1st use. I got a decent shave, but a little more irritation than I would like. I could easily use the blades, but there are blades that perform better for me, so I am not inclined to go for a third shave. Overall, I rates these blades as 4/5 on sharpness and 3/5 on smoothness.

Next up Timor Stainless.

I had not intended to include Timor in the evaluation. In the past Timor produced "ice tempered" blades. I believe they also produced the "ice tempered" blades for Merkur and Van der Hagen. While I never used Timor blades, I did use "ice tempered" blades from the other two brands and had terrible experience. They were horribly dull for my beard. Thus, my intention was to skip Timor.

Fortunately, dtownvino enlightened me that Timor blades are no longer "ice tempered". Thanks to his generosity, I now have two Timor blades for evaluation.

I shaved this morning with one of the Timor Stainless blades in the Karve C-plate SB razor. I am please to say that I achieved an excellent 4-pass shave: near-BBS with zero irritation. The blades did pull slightly on the 1st pass WTG with a 1 1/2 day beard growth. However, the blades seemed to improve in sharpness as the coating wore off. I am looking forward to the 2nd use of this blade.

There are a number of blades that appear to be somewhat dull on the 1st pass with a new blade due to the thickness of the coating. The blades which seem to exhibit this effect to the extreme are: Wilkinson Sword Classic (Germany), Personna Comfort Coated lab blues (USA) and 7 O'Clock Super Platinum (black). They are never sharp enough for me on the 1st pass, but become quite sharp as the coating wears off. The Timor blade did become sharper, but not to the same extent as the three blades mentioned.

It is still to early to determine whether this will become one of my favorite blades, but Timor Stainless is certainly a blade that I could use without hesitation, at least in a moderately aggressive razor like the Karve C-plate. It might not be quite sharp enough for a very mild razor, but it might be perfect in a more aggressive razor. I will check that out sometime later.

As of now, I rate the Timor 4/5 on sharpness due to the slight tugging on the 1st pass and 5/5 on smoothness due to lack of irritation during the shave. I will use the same blade again Monday night or Tuesday morning. for the second half of the evaluation.

Thanks dtownvino . Without your help, I never would have known about these blades.

Next up Timor Stainless.

I had not intended to include Timor in the evaluation. In the past Timor produced "ice tempered" blades. I believe they also produced the "ice tempered" blades for Merkur and Van der Hagen. While I never used Timor blades, I did use "ice tempered" blades from the other two brands and had terrible experience. They were horribly dull for my beard. Thus, my intention was to skip Timor.

Fortunately, dtownvino enlightened me that Timor blades are no longer "ice tempered". Thanks to his generosity, I now have two Timor blades for evaluation.

I shaved this morning with one of the Timor Stainless blades in the Karve C-plate SB razor. I am please to say that I achieved an excellent 4-pass shave: near-BBS with zero irritation. The blades did pull slightly on the 1st pass WTG with a 1 1/2 day beard growth. However, the blades seemed to improve in sharpness as the coating wore off. I am looking forward to the 2nd use of this blade.

There are a number of blades that appear to be somewhat dull on the 1st pass with a new blade due to the thickness of the coating. The blades which seem to exhibit this effect to the extreme are: Wilkinson Sword Classic (Germany), Personna Comfort Coated lab blues (USA) and 7 O'Clock Super Platinum (black). They are never sharp enough for me on the 1st pass, but become quite sharp as the coating wears off. The Timor blade did become sharper, but not to the same extent as the three blades mentioned.

It is still to early to determine whether this will become one of my favorite blades, but Timor Stainless is certainly a blade that I could use without hesitation, at least in a moderately aggressive razor like the Karve C-plate. It might not be quite sharp enough for a very mild razor, but it might be perfect in a more aggressive razor. I will check that out sometime later.

As of now, I rate the Timor 4/5 on sharpness due to the slight tugging on the 1st pass and 5/5 on smoothness due to lack of irritation during the shave. I will use the same blade again Monday night or Tuesday morning. for the second half of the evaluation.

Thanks dtownvino . Without your help, I never would have known about these blades.

You are welcome.  I usually cork and palm strop before use.  This always makes the first pass a smooth for me, but it’s a personal preference and an extra step.

While I do not normally cork or palm strop my blades, that is certainly one way of enhancing the performance on the 1st pass.

There are two Personna blades in common use. One is the Personna stainless with the "comfort coating" made by Acutech Blades in Verona, VA. The other is the Personna Platinum Chrome formerly produced in Israel and often nicknames Israeli Reds. Those blade are now made in Germany. I find those two blade are similarly sharp after the first shave, but the thick coating on the Acutech Personnas makes then rather dull on the 1st shave, especially on the 1st pass. Thus, I prefer the Platinum blades. However, if you were to cork or palm strop the lab blues, they would be essentially identical in performance to the Platinums.

Earlier in your thread I read that you said you enjoyed the STP301 blades from Dorco as well as the Nacet blades. Nacet has been kind of my standard blade for the past year or so but I got curious about the Dorcos and bought some of the ST300 blades (apparently equivalent to ST301 in different packaging) a month ago. Having read that those are the same as the STP variant with one less coating of Teflon which some reported making them rough on the first shave - I don't much care for blades where there's a big difference in sharpness or smoothness shave-to-shave.

How would you compare the Nacet and Dorco blades in your opinion? Do you find the Nacet a bit sharper? I feel like I do but have only been comparing the two for the past month and I wonder if I'm just biased by their somewhat universal high praise. Would be curious to know your opinion.

I have not used the Dorco ST300 and ST301 blades. I have heard that these are both stainless blades and the only difference between them is the packaging, but I cannot confirm that. Make sure the blades you get are labeled HQ. These HQ blades are made in Vietnam at a state of the art facility built a few years ago.

The STP301 blades are also made in Vietnam, but these are Platinum coated blades with another coating of PTFE. I find them to have a wonderful balance of sharpness and smoothness in many razors. I love them in most razors I own, but they are too sharp for highly aggressive razors like the Muhle R41 and they are not quite sharp enough for very mild razors like the VDH/Weishi Superspeed clone.

I have some older Nacet Platinum blades as well as Nacet Stainless blades. Both are excellent blades. I find the Nacets to be slightly sharper, but slightly less smooth than the Dorco Prime Platinums. For this reason, I tend to use Nacets is less aggressive razors with less blade feel. I would never use a Nacet in my Muhle R41. 

This post highlights why razor blades seem to be one of the most individualistic choices for wet shavers. Not only does your choice of blade depend upon your type of beard and type of skin, but it also depends upon the level of aggression of the razor in which the blade is used. I shave with a wide range of razor aggressiveness levels. I can use nearly any razor as long as I equip it with a suitable blade and my shaving technique is appropriate for that razor.

If you like using highly aggressive razors, equip it with a less sharp, very smooth blade. For example, if I use my Muhle R41, my blade of choice is the mid-sharp 7 O'Clock SharpEdge yellow. However, those blades are not quite sharp enough for most of my razors due to my tough beard. For those whose beards are not so tough, they might be ideal. For those currently using Astra SP blades, I would suggest the SharpEdge blades as an possible alternative to improve both sharpness and smoothness. However, they will be more expensive.

On my first shave with the Timor blades, found them to be just slightly tuggy, but smooth. This morning, I shaved my two-day beard with the Timor blade on its second use. The sharpness of the blade was similar to what I experienced on the 1st shave. I got slight tugging on the 1st pass, but otherwise OK. I was hoping that the blades might get sharper as the coating wore off. That did not happen.

What I did not expect was a significant decrease in smoothness on the second shave such that I got irritation similar to that which I had experienced with the Kai blade. While the sharpness is still a 4/5, the smoothness dropped off to 3/5. Thus, I am going to rate the blade overall as 4/5 on smoothness. I was getting ready to order some Timor blades, but after the 2nd shave decided not to do so. I am disappointed that these somewhat expensive blades did not perform better.