Shave'n Blind Blade Test

Sorry to disappoint Joel. There are quite a few guys still taking the blind test.

How's this for a teaser: I am fairly certain that lucky NavyShave did not receive your blade 04. I'm sure you peaked at that exotic beauty, right?
 
Blade 10 shave #2 not as bad as 10-1 because I was extra careful. Only did WTG and ATG passes plus touch ups. Still got hamburger lip! Tomorrow WTG and XTG maybe. Will be very glad to finish this one. Hope 11 and 12 are decent!
 
Blade 10 shave 3 nearly uneventful. WTG and XTG only. Maybe that's all I need to do regularly.

That way, at least blade 10 was worth something as a learning experience. The school of sharp knocks, as it were.
 
I completed my 12th and final blade for the first round. Nice blade. I'll start the extended test straight away.

We must give all the guys who started in January a fair chance to complete the test before we discuss the blade brands. I expect that'll be around the end of the month. Although it's fine with me if you can keep discussion abstract without hinting nor mentioning blade brand names.

The extended test and guys who started in February are generally testing a different blade set.
 
I lost ground by missing a day or two, but onto the last blade tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be done by Thursday.

So far what I've learned is that none of the blades I've tried have surpassed the Personna med prep. A couple have been good, most have been OK, a couple have been dire.

I am also really, really tired of this razor, soap and brush.
 
The test already seemed to drag for me when I received a new straight for Christmas. Yet, I still found the DE blade test fascinating. It improved my technique and observational skills. I concentrated on making the prep consistent and perfect. The 'truth' of each unknown blade was exciting, attempting to keep the technique identical, while noting subtle deviations, trying to discern what was the blade or something about my environment, sleep, hydration, technique, food, whatever.

I could imagine reducing the test duration to maybe eight blades or eight weeks.

If you were persuaded to do another test again in the future, say next year, what do you think would be the ideal duration?
 
I think eight would be fine, it's only the last couple where it's really started to drag. Another thing that would help would be slotting in the odd shave with a free choice of razor and blade now and then, although that would of course not be part of the test.

I am looking forward to finding out what the blades were though.

It's been made worse because I've been using labs for about a year, one night my wife didn't have time to change my test blade, so I used my Weber with a med prep. I'd been getting lacklustre shaves with the Weber and blaming the razor, however with a med prep it was as good as I remembered. My faith in the Weber restored and my favourite blade rediscovered I've been really wanting to use it.
 
Tomorrow will be my third and final shave with blade 13/zero. Whew!

If I were to do such a test again, I would say it would be tolerable if perhaps one week per month, 3 shaves versus 3 shaves could be tolerated.
 
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