Had a great shave today!

Tried an Astra blade from the sampler pack I bought on Amazon,.

Prepped my face with a HOT shower, applied some AOS pre shave oil and set about making my uberlather (AOS Lavender cream, L'Occitane soap and glycerin)

3 passes with my Progress and the Astra blade and I was BBS, Rubbed alum on with only slight sting, witch hazel, cold water then AOS Lavender balm made my face feel nice :)


Thoughts:

The astra blades require me to keep the razor set more aggressive then I do with other blades, with my feathers I can get a BBS with it set to a 3 - 4, with the Astra I needed to be at a 6. But I feel the shave is a bit smoother however required more "effort" to do....


Going to try my Derby's next after 3 shaves with the Astra to see how that compares

So far, the review (my inexperienced review anyway) is:

Merkur Blades: OK in a pinch, but not my favorite, 2 shaves max before I need to swap blades

Feather Black (Platinum?) VERY smooth shave, need to dial the aggressiveness of my Progress back a bit but just glides over the face...3 - 4 shaves max

Astra Blade: Needs a bit more aggressiveness but overall does a decent job, doesn't glide as smoothly as the feathers but a comfortable blade nonetheless

All I've been using are Astra blades. I like them. They last a good 4-5 shaves, and they seem to be sharper/more aggressive than Merkur blades.

I've gotten a lot more shaves out of Merkur blades than 2. I think I get 6 or 7 shaves out of them; they last a while. The problem is that they're not smooth shaving blades from the beginning, for whatever reason.

Let us know how the Derbys compare to Astra blades. I've been thinking about getting a pack of those, too.

I just picked up some wilkenson Sword blades at Bed Bath and Beyond...gonna see how they do :)

Tried a Gilette 7'Oclock Platnium this morning,

was surprised at how smooth a shave I got, still seem to prefer the feathers, but I think I got a closer shave with the 7O'Clock's then I did even with the Astras....

You are already on the right path to finding the right blade for you. When you find the right blade, turn the progress down slightly and work on your angle. In my experience, once you find the right angle of the razor for you, you may not need it to be too aggressive to get bbs shaves with 3-4 passes.
good luck

This afternoon I also had a great shave using my new EJ Ivory Chatsworth loaded with a Personna Red Israeli blade. Lather was nice and warm throughout. Finished up with a little Nivia Extreme Comfort balm.

I get the Wilkenson's cheap at Walmart: $1.50/10 blades. They work fine for me; just a little harsh.

Yeah I bought some of those too, Didn't really like them I know what you mean by harsh...I figure if I want a harsh shave I can go back to my Mach POS..

Been using the SR's more lately tho, however I still enjoy the DE :)

Keep in mind that blades are a very personal thing - a combo that works for one may not work well at all for someone else. They also perform differently in different razors.

IME Astras are very underrated. I'd rank them slightly below Crystal, which is one of my favs. I find they have a good balance of smoothness and sharpness, not Feather-sharp but enough for a comfortable shave. I don't recall having to use additional pressure or effort with them, but YMMV. I think you'll find Astras sharp when compared to Derby blades, which are smooth but are somewhat lacking in the sharpness department.

My blade preference are the feathers...However, when I want to get a very fast shave, I use astras. I have actually never tried Crystal. My second fav is Blue Birds. Another thing you should remember that though you like one blade the best, it might not work as well with different razors. For example, I prefer feather blades in my Merkur slant, pils and feather stainless steel razor. However, I prefer Astras in Merkur progress and mergress razors.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jbtusa

I get the Wilkenson's cheap at Walmart: $1.50/10 blades. They work fine for me; just a little harsh.

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My Target no name DE blades -- about the same price have been
giving me rather nice shaves. A good shave soap helps.
The nice thing is that the dispenser has room for about twice
maybe three times more used blades then it comes with.
Tag team it is....

Blades are definitely YMMV. I find Feather's way to sharp. Astra's are my favorite blade: sharp, smooth, and long-lasting. I can usually get 10+ shaves from an Astra. Derby blades are good, but I can only get 5-7 shaves out of them and they are not near as sharp as Astras. Sharks are in-between the two for me.

I think, if I tried every DE blade out there by the time I finished I wouldn't remember which worked the best. I've come to the conclusion among the ones I've tried (probably 10 or so) feathers are the sharpest and the best and if I alter my shave technique a bit from razor to razor with those blades I have the best of all worlds. Of course I don't have that many razors just the EJ Chatsworth, the feather,the fatboy and a Muhle open comb.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I think, if I tried every DE blade out there by the time I finished I wouldn't remember which worked the best.

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Actually, to combat that very issue I started a spreadsheet, ranking various aspects of razor/blade combos on a scale of 1-10. Silly, I suppose, but effective. Similar to a honing journal, perhaps.