Best and worse blades you've used?

Gairdner said:
SmallBeard said:
I quite fancy the Rapiras, seen them cheap on eBay too, not sure what ones they are though. I've heard good things about them though!

Thanks for all your replies.
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These are the 'Swedes' and the seller is great to do business with.

Here are the Super Stainless which are also good as is the seller from whom I have purchased several times although I note is away till 15Feb13.

The Swedes are excellent (no not you Mikael!) :icon_lol:
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The stainless were the ones I'd seen, but I'll probably try both out at some point now as I hadn't come across the others before. Thanks very much!
 
Absolute best:
Rapira Super Steel (not tried the Swedes, but I will)
Permasharps... close second

Absolute worst:
Timor... the only one I've had to give up on halfway through a shave

Derbys? I wouldn't get them again, but I buggered on with them for a couple of months while I was learning to shave.. they were OK at the time.
 
Best: Tie between NOS (pre-2000) Gillette Bleue Extras and the Voskhod I tried the other day, with several others (Turkish Perma-Sharp, Gillette greens, Feathers, Indian Wilkinson Swords and one or two others) close behind.

Worst: Again, a tie between Merkur (wanted to go sideways more than it did forwards, which I found most unsettling), and Treet Platinum (I think I'd get a more comfortable shave from a broken bottle). Honourable mention to Derbys (just blunt) and Treet Carbon (similar to the Platinum version but not quite as awful).
 
These are the only Perma-Sharp blades I can find. Made in Russia but often sold in Turkey, I believe. Good, eh? Must try the Voskhods as well. G-G-G-Granville likes He-Ho-Ha-Hunga-garian blades the best. ;)
 
Gairdner said:
These are the only Perma-Sharp blades I can find. Made in Russia but often sold in Turkey, I believe. Good, eh? Must try the Voskhods as well. G-G-G-Granville likes He-Ho-Ha-Hunga-garian blades the best. ;)
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There are green packet Gillette 7 o'clock Permasharps made in India and the gold and maroon non-Gillette branded Permasharps, plus atr least one vintage one in a plastic white dispenser with black inlay card titled "Permasharp Supreme". These non-7 o'clock ones are in my blades spreadsheet mentioned earlier (thanks for the feedback on it). I've never tried the 7 o'clock Permasharp greens and have only found a few testimonials but have heard not-so-great things about those.

No point me saying my best or worst blades given the mention of the spreadsheet but I will say that now that I've tried a good few I am less bothered about the price aspect in my ratings than I was when I started it.
 
Carl, your guide has become a sort of 'bible' for helping with blade choice. As always, its horses for courses or blades for faces but in general your spreadsheet is a hell of a guide and much appreciated by myself and many others, I'm sure. Cheers, mate! :D
 
Gairdner said:
Carl, your guide has become a sort of 'bible' for helping with blade choice. As always, its horses for courses or blades for faces but in general your spreadsheet is a hell of a guide and much appreciated by myself and many others, I'm sure. Cheers, mate! :D
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Agreed!
 
I've become slightly obsessed with blades and have tried loads. So far these are my thoughts:

The best blades I've tried are:
Bolzano
Astra SP (and SS for that matter)
Feather
Personna Platinum chrome (red IP)
Gillette 7'o'clock sharpedge

I can't justify the cost of the Feather and Bolzanos but the Gillette's at £10.99 from Shave shack are well worth it and I've bulk bought Astra and Personna and will try one of the Lab blades at some point.

Intermediates - nice and good enough and cheap enough for a bulk buy, some of these are great for just 2 shaves but are chea enough to justify the bulk purchase
Supermax platinum
Supermax stainless
Racer
Trig
Treet durasharps - my fave in the R41

No chance of EVER trying again :
Derby

I've tried all the Lord brands and some work well in one razor but not the other so stuck with Racer as I like them in all my razors.

As the moment the ONLY blade I've tried in all 3 razors that I've hated is Derby. the only blade to give me razor burn (in the R41 and Fatip - worse razor burn I've ever head including when I was electric) and the only blade in my EJ that cuts me up. Awful blade for my face but mates have taken my free packs off me and love them but I don't get it, I really don't.
 
Yeah the Derbies I started out with, like a lot of people, long before finding this forum. I found them sharp but they gave me a lot of irritation. I was using a ferociously sharp razor at the time - Parker 91R; not quite an R41 but a long long way from a Tech. These days I favour a smooth blade over a sharp blade and a mild to medium-aggression razor. I used the R41 once thanks to a lend from Lose The Beard and although I got a good shave it felt like shaving without a base plate might. I kept thinking I would try it again but I just didn't fancy it.

I quite like the Trig, Treet Platinum and the Indian Gillette Wilkinson Swords but they aren't really sharp enough for me - I know, I want it both ways, don't I?!!
 
I think the problem with Derby is that so many give them away free - My EJ, R41 and Shavette all came with them as free blades so when you start off you just use them. My first 3 weeks was great shaving with a DE but there was a lot of blood and nicks, moved to a Racer balde and all of a sudden smooth, nick free shaves.

I kept the last blade from that pack and used it a fwe months after in the Fatip and it was a dreadful shave. The razor burn was as bad, if not worse, than any I've ever had and even after apply a splash, then a balm and then even later using a moisturiser nothing worked. The rest of the Derby blades went to my mates.

I've got blades like Shark, Lord Super and Lord SC which I hate in the R41, just so uncomfortbale, and yet they are actually very nice in the EJ so they got kept and used when I was starting but I've now decided that only a blade which i like in all 3 razors are worth buying.

the Trig were a very pleasant surprise. Bought 50 as they were cheap and took me in to free p+p so worth doing it and they have been a very popular blade since doing so. I've just bought another 100 as I gave a mate a pack as he was short. Anything to justify more blades (ahem)
 
I had 200 trigsd at one point (and 200 Treet Platinums). used quite a few and traded the rest, save for a couple of partially opened packs left for when the fancy takes me. I think if I hadn't discovered Trigs, after trying the Derbies and a few Merkurs, I might not have stuck with DE shaving. I thought the more expensive ones might be better but I wanted cheap and easy to use at first and that's exactly what they are. I just find that if I shave at 7am I can feel a fair bit of stubble coming back by about 1pm, whereas I finished my Fat Tech + Tiger Superior Stainless shave at 7:20 this morning and apart from the very base of the neck and a small patch around the chin there is almost no 'feelable' stubble even ATG. I guess the Trigs are the best pain-free two-shaves-a-day blades!
 
I think it's fair to say that if I had stuck with Derby I may have given up as well.

Some silly so and so had put a big spreadsheet on some forum which highlighted how many blades there are out there and what they thought of them. Quite useful it was as well :)
 
What a bar steward!
I wouldn't listen to him - some self-appointed "expert" with nothing better to do :-D

I've ordered some Rainbow super stainless as part of a small order for my birthday (a few weeks premature but I have man flu and this cheered me up). I am trying to buy no shaving stuff all year except for birthday and xmas you see - I need to get though the 60+ lines of soaps and creams and 3,500 DE blades I have - they take up enough space!
 
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