Thread: Which blades to start with with my new DE razor

After I was finished with my initial sampler, Shark Chromes were my go to blades. They're still my favorite.

I've used Derby, Feather, Merkur, Bluebird, and Shark, and gotten fine shaves with all of them. I seem to have the best shaves on the second day of using any blade. I don't use any of them past four days. Days 2-3 are the sweet spot.

I tried merkur with my Merkur 39C but did not like it much, my favorite are Blue Bird.

flip a coin, roll the dice and try them in random order.

I find that if I work in pairs then A is better than B
then I move on to C and D, then E and F.

Once through the selection once you can enter a
double elimination. Perhaps a reverse double
elimination to find the one you dislike.

Do not believe your first impressions. I find
that I change my mind a couple times.

I wonder what an industrial engineer would say about all the different blades out there. If there are genuine differences in how they are manufactured, I'd be curious.

Without double-blind testing, all our subjective impressions are pretty limited, imho.

Ok. So far i have used quite a bit of the blades i got (1 of each) and have found the following:

Gillette 7 o'clock (green packaging): felt like i needed to go over the same area 2 or 3 times to get as close a shave as other blades. That was yesterday, but today, more than 12 hours after i shaved, I am still super smooth so i dont know what to make of these blades. More testing is needed lol

Gillette 7 o'clock (yellow packaging): really really smooth shave. Gave me my first perfect 3 pass shave. No nicks, no cuts, no little random blood dots on my neck. Awesome blade all around.

Personna (red packaging): Also as good as the yellow gillettes but some very minor nicks on my neck. May have just been me so not going to blame the blade.

Astra: Gave me the same kind of great shave as te Gillette 7 o'clock yellows. Very nice blade.

Shark super chrome: did not go so good with this blade. Nicks here and there would just appear out of nowhere. Had to change blades halfway through shave because i couldn't stand it anymore. May give it another try later.

And now the biggest surprise for last...

Feather hi-stainless: i was actually disappointed with these blades. I had used them before and figured te bad experience was my technjque so i decided to try them again now that i have more experience. I found that the shave did not go smoothly at all. Little nicks all over my face especially my neck. I don't know why i have such bad experiences with feathers, but i am thinking of trying something. I have recently found that waiting 3 or 4 days before i shave gets me a closer shave. So in 3 or 4 days when i shave again i will give the feathers another try. Hopefully that shave will go smoother than my previous feather shaves. I would hate to not be able to enjoy a blade that is held in such high esteem by many members here.

I also still have to try out lord, treet, and shark stainless so i may or may not find some more favorites. Will post more findings as soon as i can. Any advice, tips, etc. are always welcome :-)

KWood34
Sent from my DROIDX

Kerry,
I have been getting some pretty nice shaves from the Astra superior platinums in my Edwin Jagger DE89 also. I decided to stock up on them, as you can find some pretty good deals on these.

Im thinking that im not gonna get any better than the gillette yellows or the astras but we shall see. Ill probably end up stocking up on one of these two.

Sent from my DROIDX

I think you're going to find that the Feathers are the best of the lot. They are my absolute favorite, when I can find them.

It all depends on what works best for you. Everybody’s face and facial hair is different. What that being said you are on the right track. For the money I prefer the Derby blades. The feathers works the best for me.