Thread: My DE noob take on some blades

I tried the 20 pack sampler. All the blades mentioned before. And then some. GSB’s and feathers are great I agree. Others no matter where I set my razor didn’t make the grade.
For me the Voskhods are the ticket.
Comfortable efficient shaves. And very inexpensive. I have a fairly tough beard. Still I get four nice shaves out of them. That works out to $.225/shave.
In my fatboy many blades work well. The adjustability lets you get the best out of just about any blade.
95%of my shaves are with a straight since 2015. But I did use my fat boy for 30 plus years with grocery store DE’s. So just about any damn blade is better than those. Might be some of the equation that for me Voskhods are good blades. ��
Ken

Thanks for the info.

I didn't think the Voskhods were bad, with and eye towards being picky, they were just not quite as smooth at the feathers and silver blues. If I had no other blades, I'd be happy with the Voskhods.

That's the great thing. The internet with this forum and others, are an epiphany.
I wish I knew about these options for blades back in the 80's.
Literally decades of mediocre shaves with supermarket generic DE's. Could have been avoided. As Col. Kurtz said "The Horror, the horror".

I certainly haven't tried them all, but for now am liking Voskhods in my Gillette Fat Boy, SuperSpeed, and Aristocrat. I get about 4 good shaves out of one-got a 100 pack on Amazon for 7 and change.

There are lots of excellent blades available. Some of the usual candidates has already been mentioned. However, I want to add a few lesser known blades to the list of blades worth trying. I like my blades both very sharp and very smooth, so I like blades like Rapira Platinum Lux, Personna Israeli Reds, Gillette Nacets, 7 O'Clock Super Platinum Black, BIC Chrome Platinum, German Wilkinson Swords, Gillette PermaSharp, and Astra Superior Stainless Blue. The blades below are inexpensive, but compete will with the blades mentioned.

Dorco Prime Platinum STP301 blades are made in Vietnam on state of the art equipment. I find them to be excellent. These are different from the Dorco ST300 and ST301 blades, so make sure you get the Prime blades.

SuperMax Blue Diamond Platinum blades are excellent as well.

Shark Platinum blades are a huge step up from the Shark Super Chrome and Super Stainless blades which are not nearly sharp enough for my beard. I really like the Shark Platinums. The blades are made by Lord in Egypt. There is also a Lord Platinum blade. I do not know if the Sharks are different blades or the same as the Lord blades in a different wrapper.

Went back and played with the Voskhod and Gillette Nacet blades. Both are still nice, I just don't get the same closeness as the Feather and Silver blue blades. I think a more aggressive razor than the super speed I'm using might work well with the Voskhod and Nacet (sounds like an excuse to get another razor ).

Based on your feedback I ordered up some Derby Extra, Bic Chrome Platinum, Wilkinson Sword, and Gillette 7 o'clock super platinum black blades.

I'll let you know how they work out.

Finally worked my way through the four new blades. The Derby and Bic Chrome were nice ,but they were kinda like the Voskhod and Nacet blades for me. Comfortable, but not as close as Feather and Silver blue. The Wilkinson Sword and Gillette 7 o'clock black however are in the "I really like these pile".

I'll play around with my four favorites till I decide which is my go to.

Thanks for all the input. It was really helpful.

Interesting, but the truth is everybody’s face and beard are different and everyone’s techniques vary. You’ve hit 2 of My favorites, and 2 I’m not fond of. One I can’t use, period. That’s how YMMV became so prevalent a shortcut on SRP��

Totally agree. Way to many variables to try and accurately predict how any particular blade will work for you. But the collective information was helpful to kind of narrow down my choices. I may take a flyer here and there in the search for "better" but I feel like I've got some solid options going forward.

Of course if I get a different razor...

That's just it. A different razor can change everything. I played this game too, and in the end came down to one blade that worked for my face at the time, in whatever razor I put it in. It took a lot of testing. Then bought a hundred pack. So enjoy the fun of trying blades. after a while you just have to give up and settle.