Blade suggestions for EJ DE89L?

chrisbell

chrisbell

Joined
Saturday January 15, 2011
Location
Norfolk, England
Evening chaps. As many of you will know, I recently bought a DE89L, partly out of mild dissatisfaction with the plating and variable blade gaps of my Merkur 34c. It had its first outing today, loaded with a NOS Gillette Bleue Extra, the choice of blade being due to the fact that I purchased them specifically for the Merkur, and, had they worked well in the EJ, I would have sold the Merkur. As it happened, the first pass was awful, so I swapped the Bleue for an Astra SP, which was a vast improvement; however I'm not convinced that the Astra is the ideal blade for me in that razor.

Obviously, I'm plenty experienced enough to know that what works brilliantly for one shaver may well be useless for another, but I was wondering if as many DE89/DE89L users as possible could post their favoured blades for that model, thinking that a few types might emerge as popular choices, thus giving me somewhere to base my experimentation.

Cheers in advance.:icon_cool:
 
Northam Saint said:
In my 89 I'm always happy with a Yellow 7 o'clock or a Green Astra.
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Cheers Northam Saint. As I said, I switched to the Astra and it was a huge improvement, but I'm looking for something as close to perfect in that razor as is possible. I was thinking about the Gillette Yellow.

Garbe - that was another type I was going to try.
 
Feathers for preference but superthins or 7 O'clock yellows also good. Oddly enough had some great shaves with Lord Cool blades which are cheap and smooth but not especially sharp.
 
Gingerpose said:
Chris, I've had excellent results with Polsilvers and Gillette Super Thins in my de89. The Bleue Extra (NOS) also worked well for me, as did Feathers.
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Ah yes, Superthins - I think you sent me one as part of a selection, but I understand production shifted from Thailand to China resulting in a loss of quality.
 
I really like the super thins in my R89 which is basically the same, I found the yellows a bit harsh on my skin. I get the same closeness out of the super thins as I do out of yellows but without the red neck!
 
I use 7 o'clock yellow sharpedge, superthins or feathers in my DE89. I am due to 're-stock' in the next week and maybe get some Rapiras, see what they are like. The trouble is a just got a PAL razor off ebay for £4 and it gives an amazing smooth shave so I'm back to trying different blades out again! Need to sort through and PIF the ones I never use.
 
I hate to say it (because I'm sure I'll be scoffed at) but I get great shaves with derby blades and an EJ 89. It doesn't matter what blade I use, I always need an ATG pass and so a mild, smooth blade works really well for me. Very sharp blades often cause irritation with the EJ.

Rapiras are good too.
 
Top of the pile for me: Tiger - popped one in my DE89 yesterday and it has that elusive combination of sharpness and smoothness.

Med Preps get an honourable mention too.
 
personna personna and yet more personna.

I've tried almost every popular blade you can imagine in my Edwin jagger based razor. The feathers were sharp but too rough in this head, the gillette superthins and 7 o clocks were ok, smoother but still left me a little raw on occasion. The derby's were plain useless, as were the lords.

But the personnas were smooth, sharp, and give me possibly the best shave i've ever had. No irritation, no nicks no rash. Just a great shave.

YMMV though :)
 
Thanks chaps - I've just loaded a Red Personna in it, though I won't be using it for tomorrow's shave, as I'm going to be experimenting with using sodium bicarb as a water softening agent when using the Trumpers' Coconut Oil cream which was superb on holiday in Suffolk where I bought it, but was problematic with our extra-hard water when I used it last week.
 
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