(This post was last modified: 01-31-2024, 04:00 PM by RayClem.)
Thursday Shave- Van der Hagen Ice Tempered
I was hoping that my supply of VDH blades was exhausted years ago, but alas, I found a few remaining blades. Since I had a poor experience with these blade when I tried them years ago, my expectations were low. I presume that the term "ice tempered" is a marketing slogan for some type of cryogenic hardening of the blade. Supercooling steel can make it harder for enhanced durability, but it done improperly can make the edge brittle such that it develops microchips. I purchased a straight razor that had cryogenically cooled steel. Despite hours of attempts at honing the blade, I never could get a decent shave from the razor. Either the blade was too dull to slice my beard or it developed microchips that caused irritation.
I have also tried Merkur blades in the past that, like the VDH blades, were also made in Germany and were marketed as "ice tempered". They seemed to be the same blade. I understand that Merkur blades are now made in Czech Republic, but the Van der Hagen blades are still being made in Germany and are still labeled as "ice tempered". Timor, which is part of the Giesen and Forsthoff group also makes "ice tempered" razor blades, but the Timor blades I evaluated early in this series did not indicate they were ice tempered.
I started the shave with the Polsilver blade from the previous shave in the razor. That blade still was less sharp than I like. After a few strokes, I replaced that blade with a fresh Van der Hagen blade. Unfortunately, the VDH blade was even less sharp than the Polsilver. I got minor tugging during the WTG pass. Normally, once the WTG pass reduces the beard density, I get very little blade resistance during the XTG and subsequent passes, but there was still significant blade resistance during the XTG pass and even some during the ATG pass. The blade did not seem to be getting sharper during the shave. Because the blade seemed to be doing a poor job at beard reduction, I terminated the shave after the 3rd pass. I skipped the clean-up pass with buffing strokes as I was afraid of potential irritation. I would rate the shave as socially acceptable, but it was neither close, nor comfortable and it was well below even a Damn Fine Shave, much less the near BBS shave I hope to achieve.
Based on the results of this shave, I am rating the blades at a sharpness of 2, which is even below the 2.5 rating assigned to Shark Super Chrome and Shark Super Stainless. At least with those two shark blades, there was little blade resistance on the XTG pass and I was able to do my usual 4 pass shave and achieve a DFS. The Van der Hagen ice tempered blade would not even achieve that level of shave. I rated the smoothness of the blade as 3, but since I did not complete my clean-up pass with buffing strokes, that is just a guess. Van der Hagen receives the dubious honor of being the worst blade I evaluated in the entire series. The devaluation spreadsheet has been updated.
To make matters worse, these blades are expensive. You can purchase 30 blade for $18 making them $60 per 100 blades. At that price, you can purchase AccuThrive Prep blades. While Van Der Hagen blades might be suitable for a new shaver with a fine beard, there are too many better blades at lower pricing available for me to recommend them.
I am still waiting the arrival of the Suneko Amorphous Diamond Coated blades. Whenever they arrive, I will used them for the next shave. Since I got such a lousy shave this morning, I will have enough of a beard by tomorrow that I could test them, tomorrow afternoon.
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