RayClem's Blade Evaluations

Over the next couple of months I plan to most evaluations of a number of blades that I had not tried previously. Some of these blades do receive some press on the forum while others are rarely mentioned. 

To put these reviews in perspective, please be aware that I do not consider myself to be a typical shaver. I have an old man beard and skin. My beard is silver white and very tough. I skin is highly sensitive. Forthermore, my beard grows rapidly and my current practice is to shave every 2-3 days. That means I need a blade that is very sharp to slice through my heavy beard, yet very smooth to prevent irritation of my sensitive skin. 

I understand that Astra SP blades are one of the most popular blades among the wet shaving community, yet I have never been able to get a decent shave using an ASP blade. They are neither sharp enough for my beard, nor smooth enough for my face. I can use them, but do not enjoy them. All of my ASP blades are older printed blades from Russia rather than the laser etched blades or the recent blades from India. I might try some of the India blade at some point, but they were not be in this series of evaluations. Thus, the Astra SP blades will be used for comparison purposes for the least sharp of the blades. If a test blade is even less sharp than ASP, the evaluation will be terminated as I cannot use them.

Blades that I do enjoy using are: BIC Chrome Platinum (Greece), Gillette Nacet Platinum and Nacet Stainless (Russia), Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Platinum black (Russia), Personna Platinum Chrome (Israel), Dorco Prime Platinum STP301 (Viet Nam), Durablade Sharp Titanium (Bangladesh), and SuperMax Blue Diamond Platinum (Italy). These are super sharp, yet smooth.

There are other blades I can use but do not like as much as those listed above. 

With many blades, the performance changes during of after the 1st shave as coatings wear off. Thus, I plan to do a minimum of two shave with every blade unless the 1st shave is so bad I cannot tolerate it. 

The blades that I will evaluate over the next couple of months include:

Kai Stainless completed
Wizamet Iridium completed
BIC Astor completed
Gillette Minora completed
Personna Platinum Chrome (Germany)
Tiger Super Stainless completed
Zorrik
SuperMax Super Stainless completed
Lord Asco
Lord Cool
Lord Silver Star
Treet Platinum completed

If there are other blades that you would like me to evaluate, let me know. If I have used them previously, I will post a review, if not I will see if I can obtain them.

Added at request of others:

Timor Stainless completed
King C Gillette completed

Here is my evaluation of the Kai stainless blade.

I have seen both highly complementary and somewhat disparaging reviews of these blades. They are one of the most expensive blades available. I paid $10 for 20 blades. However, I am glad I did not purchase 100 for $35 as will become clear from my review.

I have heard that these blades are slightly wider than most others. Thus, I was expecting them to have slightly more blade exposure and be slightly more aggressive than some other blades. In my first shave with them I selected my Van der Hagen (Weishi) Superspeed TTO clone. It is a very mild razor that I can normally use with the sharpest blades. I had two days beard growth and the Kai blade was similar in performance to what I have come to expect from the much less expensive Astra SP blades. That is to say, it was not nearly sharp enough for my beard nor smooth enough for my face. That first shave was not as close as I hoped and I experienced significant irritation when I splashed witch hazel on my face.

On the second shave with 1-1/2 days growth, I tried moving up to my Karve CB Stainless with C-plate. It is reasonably mild, but not as mild as the VDH. The Kai blade on the second shave was noticeably sharper than on the first shave. That is typical of many blades. While the shave was better, the blade was still not quite sharp enough for my beard. Once again, the shave was neither as close as I like and there was significant irritation when witch hazel was applied.

I might try a third shave to see if the blades become even sharper than they did on the second shave; but I would never want to tolerate two poor shaves just to get to the third shave. This would be for evaluation purposes only.

Thus, like the Astra SP blades I have tried before, I could use Kai blades if I had to do so, but I would not enjoy the shave. I do not know why anyone would pay the rather high prices for Kai blades when sharper, smoother blades are available for a fraction of the price. In my opinion, Kai blades represent a poor value, even if they are sharp enough and smooth enough for some people.

Thanks for the hard work!
May I suggest you use the same razor in all your tests, please.
Using the same lather would also be important to have the least possible variables for comparisons.
Thanks again!

Best,
François

Is a Van Der Hagen TTO razor the best choice for evaluating blades? I don’t know what you think but I find Gillette TTOs a bit wobbly for holding blades and I’m not convinced they keep a rigid edge like a 3-piece razor with good clamping would. Perhaps I’m wrong about that and I don’t use these TTOs very much, but if I’m right your results may skew towards the thicker, more rigid blades rather than those with the best edge or coatings.

If you haven‘t tried Gillette Rubie, you should add them to the list.

I agree with Ventastic that the Gillette Rubie is a good addition to your list. I request that you add Feather and King C Gillette (Russia) as well. My beard is similar to yours, and I have tried nearly all of the blades on your list (and could make some educated predictions). There are several on your list that are nearly identical to the Astra in shave quality for a beard of your description. BICs and Nacets are two that work well for me (in my top 5), but I have found more BIC duds than most other brands. IMHO, you should use one razor for all of the testing, since that removes one variable that could influence your findings. I have respected and learned from many of your posts and very much look forward to your blade testing journey.

Ray, great thread. I look forward to your findings. The suggestions proffered to date are valid.

A request from the cheap seats:

Voshkhod
Gillette Silver Blue
Permasharp
Gillette Yellows
Personna Reds

This is where I really love our forum. Observations & learnings which we can/might weave into our shaving routines.

BTW, Astras were my least favored blade as well. But I found one razor that they perform marvelously well.

C U all tomorrow

Sent from my SM-A536U using Tapatalk

If you haven‘t tried Gillette Rubie, you should add them to the list.

I have tried the Gillette Rubie in the past. Unfortunately, I found it to be similar in performance to the Astra SP. That is to say, it is neither sharp enough nor smooth enough for my needs. That would also place it similar to the Kai blades I just tried. I thihnk I may still have a few of the Rubie blades left since it was not a blade I preferred. I can try adding it to my list later.

I agree with Ventastic that the Gillette Rubie is a good addition to your list.  I request that you add Feather and King C Gillette (Russia) as well.  My beard is similar to yours, and I have tried nearly all of the blades on your list (and could make some educated predictions).  There are several on your list that are nearly identical to the Astra in shave quality for a beard of your description.  BICs and Nacets are two that work well for me (in my top 5), but I have found more BIC duds than most other brands.  IMHO, you should use one razor for all of the testing, since that removes one variable that could influence your findings.  I have respected and learned from many of your posts and very much look forward to your blade testing journey.

Thanks for the feedback. I already replied to Ventastic on the Rubie blades. I find them to be similar to Astra SP, but will evaluate them again. I should have a couple left. Since Gilllette has discontinued production in Russia, I do not know if the Rubie will be available in the future.

I do have Feather blades. They are plenty sharp, but I do not like them as I can only get two good shaves before the edge becomes to harsh for my face. I tried to make it through a third shave one time, but could not do it and had to change the blade after the WTG pass.

I could use one razor for each evaluation, but I have found that different blades tend to work best in specific razors. When I do a typical shave, I normally start with a Parker 24C open comb for WTG, switch to a another razor for XTG, switch to a third razor such as the Karve C plate for ATG and finish off with a clean-up pass using the VDH razor. I have had the VDH for a while and it is getting some wear, so you might be right about it not holding the blade tightly. I ordered a Timeless 0.68 Titanium, but my wife has confiscated it until my birthday next month, It is a mild (zero blade exposure) razor, and that is one reason I purchased the Kai blades. Unfortunately, I do not think the Kai blades are going to be helpful based on my initial test, but I will try again.

I have a Karve D plate that I can use for the evaluations, but if any of the blades are super sharp, the Karve will be too aggressive for my ATG and clean-up passes. I will probably stick with the Karve C plate for the evaluation, It is not as aggressive as I would like for my WTG pass, but it is ideal for ATG and clean-up.

Ray, great thread. I look forward to your findings. The suggestions proffered to date are valid.

A request from the cheap seats:

Voshkhod
Gillette Silver Blue
Permasharp
Gillette Yellows
Personna Reds

This is where I really love our forum. Observations & learnings which we can/might weave into our shaving routines.

BTW, Astras were my least favored blade as well. But I found one razor that they perform marvelously well.

C U all tomorrow

Sent from my SM-A536U using Tapatalk

Tommy

I have used Voskhod, GSB, and 7 O'Clock Yellows in the past. I still have some and can include them in the evaluation.

When you mention Permasharp, do you mean the Gillette PermaSharp Super blades from Russia or the 7 O'Clock Permasharp green blades from India? The PermaSharp Super blades are quite sharp, but they just missed my favorites list because they are not quite as smooth.  I have some 7 O'Clock greens, but I am not sure whether they are from India or Russia. The Indian blades are called Permasharp stainless. The Russian ones are called Super Stainless.