Thread: How sharp are Merkur DE platinum blades?

I started out just over a year ago with a shavette and Merkur blades. While I felt some tug, I attributed that to my underdeveloped technique. Later on, I switched to straight razors and used my shavette sporadically, with Feather, Astra and Derby blades. Each of those gave me great shaves and far less tug than any of my straights.

About a month ago, my father took me to a barber, who told us we have rock-hard Viking beards. This morning, I decided to give the Merkurs another go, alongside a straight. I was surprised to find they tug about as much! This led to a couple of questions:

- What are other people's experiences with Merkur blades? They appear to be the dullest blades I ever tried.
- What could explain the difference? I figured perhaps the Merkurs are not covered with teflon, which is reflected in the HHT. New Merkur blades grab a hair easily, whereas a hair just glides off a new Feather/Astra blade's edge.
- What hone could take my straights beyond this tuggish level? I have the Shapton 1/4/8/16K, but cannot afford a 30K. Rather, I am thinking the Shuobudani from JNS, but have no personal experience with it (nor am I knowledgeable on the Jnat subject).


Thank you in advance for your help!

Agree that the Merkur blades are not what you would expect them to be. Their small Mustache blade is even worse!

Hate Merkur blades and Derby's equally. Perhaps spend a bit more time stropping your cut-throat. It might smooth out some more for you. I don't know what you do at the moment so just take that as a suggestion.


Mick

I suppose that you could say they are "razor sharp" but I do not like them and I do not know many people that do. Stick with the feathers or whichever one you like.

Merkur makes a great DE razor though.

Will N.

There are duller blades out there but in the continuum the Mercs aren't exactly up there. I prefer the Feathers and the Gillette 7 o clock yellows are a close second. The original iridium's are great too.

Sharpy sharp to sharpish.

I've only used the Merkurs a few times and found them to be a very mild blade and wasn't overly impressed. Haven't tried the Feathers but the Gillette blades perform much better for less IMO.

To avoid echoing what everyone else has said I will put it this way: once my pack of Merkurs is gone they will not be replaced.

When I got back into DE shaving in '06 a friend recommended Feathers and Gillette Swedes so that is what I got at the time. I eventually tried a handful of other blades including Merkurs. While I didn't find Merkurs as sharp/smooth as Feathers by a longshot, I liked them alright. Israeli Personnas (red label) were good too, but not up to the level of the Feathers or the Swedes (the best were the Swedes IMO)

I hated Derbys the first few times I used them but learned to like them. Dorkos were, AFAIC, not fit to open boxes let alone shave faces. So I was shocked when in a thread one 'what is your favorite blade' or something like that a handful of guys hated Merkurs and some even didn't like Feathers ! What really slayed me was the guys who loved Dorkos.

It's been said before, but i'll repeat it: how can a company that makes such great razors make such a blade!? Some of them were barely shaveable & some couldn't be used. Much prefer Feathers for the odd DE shave.