laser blades ??

jon_hall said:
Ah but is that the laser from wilkos or the other lasers you can get?
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Wilko's. I have to add that I ended up having to wind the Gillette slim up a notch to get an acceptably close (for me and I'm a wuss) shave but still no burn, which is really why I'm here.


hunnymonster said:
There's nothing wrong with the Indian "Laser Ultra" - the Laser from Wilko was described by Vinny as being made of hardboard... damp hardboard if I recall correctly.

Marginally sharper than my arse.
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Remind me to never let you sit on my knee!:angel:
 
Greetings,

Thanks for the warning regarding these blades, very timely. I went to my nearest large town today and into Wilkies and saw them there at 40p a packet.

Were it not for this post heaven knows how many packets I would have bought! I stood looking at them and laughing; a couple of customers looked at me as if I were mad!

Regards
Dick
 
Blyth Spirit said:
Hands up anyone who will admit to have actually used one of these Wlikinson thingies...or is this mass condemnation just TSR forum groupthink?

I will admit to not having used them. I do love Merkurs though :shock: .
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Dragging up an old thread I know, but such was my experience today that I felt I needed to warn anyone who might think buying Laser blades is a good idea.

Was in desperate need of a pack of blades today, and all I could find were a 5 pack of Laser blades in Wilko for 40p. My (incorrect) thinking was "well at least they'll be better than trying to squeeze (yet) another shave out of the Wilkinson Sword blade I've currently got in my Classic"....WRONG!

Not sharp, yet were absolute agony to shave with. Dragging and irritation, you name it. Only a liberal application of balm has got me feeling anywhere near comfortable.

All this because I've been dilly-allying over what blades to buy...

Just a further thought, there could well be a number of people frustrated at the cost of cartridge shaving who decide to try a DE razor and end up buying blades like this. Not the best first impression...
 
I didn't mind them too much either. Tried them in EJDE89 and a Wilkinson Sword Classic, not the best but I prefer them to Derbys which I just can't seem to get along with. Quite like Supermax Stainless as well so maybe my face suits cheap blades!

Wouldn't rush out to buy them as I can get Astra Stainless at the same price in bulk.

Tried the 60p shave brush from Wilkinsons as well. Only used it a few times so far. It's quite small and I think it's boar (although I suppose it could be synthetic). Build quality looks awful although it feels solid in use. Because of the size it's takes more effort to build lather but it does work. Would be ok to take on holiday but don't rush out and buy one. Would be a poor choice for the new shaver as it is much harder to build a decent lather.
 
i bought one of those brushes about 20 years ago when i first got the romantic notion of old time shaving in my head - the newer ones are noticibly smaller and more ragged but i think they are ok to get started with or as a travel brush.

makes you appreciate the quality of the new forest brushes when you do upgrade!
 
I haven't tried the laser blades from Wilkinsons, but have tried them from a discount store, I suppose you get what you pay for, but for me these blades were really bad, dull, lots of little nicks, irritation and far from smooth. Although the Laser blades weren't for me, I suppose that there are probably some who will get on fine with them.
 
Found an old (10? 15? 20 years?) pack of Laser blades in the back of a drawer.
sotd_161.jpg

Not a bad shave, quite fine and close I should say.
Granted, I opted for the safest setup just in case.
 
When I did my SuperMax run through I also bought in all manner of other subcontinent blades and picked up a tuck of Laser Super Stainless, Super Platinum and Ultra. The Ultra are triple coated and gave a really smooth shave. I gave it a 7/10 which in my books is a "good shave" and placed it amongst blades like RK, Treet Silver or Gillette 365. The Ultra is the only one I've tried so far ...
 
pjgh said:
When I did my SuperMax run through I also bought in all manner of other subcontinent blades and picked up a tuck of Laser Super Stainless, Super Platinum and Ultra. The Ultra are triple coated and gave a really smooth shave. I gave it a 7/10 which in my books is a "good shave" and placed it amongst blades like RK, Treet Silver or Gillette 365. The Ultra is the only one I've tried so far ...
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The Laser Ultra Triple Coated blades are in an entirely different class of quality from the other Laser blades, in may outdated experience.

Note: The package will say it is made by Laser Shaving in Hyderabad, India.

I don't know if there are other manufacturers using the name "Laser" of "Lazer."

I tried some other Laser blades prior to the Ultras, and didn't like them.

When the Laser Ultra Triple Coated blades hit the market about 10 years ago, they blew away most of the other blades in India, in my experience. Yet they were so cheap it was hard to believe my whiskers. When I compared notes with shopkeepers, they concurred.

The Ultras seemed aimed at taking the market away from the P&G Gillette-Wilkinson blades, which were cheap and ubiquitous. Those G-W blades could last a week or two, if you didn't mind shaving with a blade that started out dull but was durable enough to stay dull that long, thanks to Swedish steel. But the G-W were actually "sharper" than most Indian blades, so they were popular. The Vidyut-Zorrick-Super-Max blades ranged from usable but over-priced, to atrocious and dirt cheap, to unpredictably bad, as in their most expensive Super-Max Titanium blades, which usually tanked after two shaves. If you jack up the price enough, it is amazing what you can sell to some gullible people. Super-Max did make some excellent cartridge razors, though, presumably using modern equipment.

As to Gillette 365 blades, they were one of the cheapest blades in India at the time, and certainly the cheapest P&G blade. They were also among the sharpest, if you were lucky. P&G only seemed sharpen one or two or maybe three edges. You could easily see with the naked eye which edges were sharpened. My assumption is they were quality control rejects, which they stamped the 365 label on. (Quality control in India is an inside joke that shopkeepers will tell you about, if you ask.) Maybe they've changed, but I am not about to find out.

The quality of the Laser Ultras, on the other hand, was absolutely consistently good. I still use them. Maybe a few times more recently I have not gotten a good shave, but it may not have been the blade's fault -- I'm not certain if their quality control is still so good, or not, as much of my stock is old. The razor and prep may affect your experience with these blades.

The key factor in choosing Ultras is price. I buy them on eBay directly from India, cheap. They are surprisingly sharp and smooth. And they are still better than the current Indian made Gillette-Wilkinson blades, which are nothing special, though not as good as the Chinese G-W version, which I used years ago, and were aggressively sharp. But they certainly are not as good as the Treet 7 Days Platinum, for example.

There are some razors where a super sharp, aggressive blade is not appropriate. And if you only shave once or twice a week, you should probably just use a blade once, and use one that is gentle on the skin. Laser Ultra might fit the bill for you.

As to the "triple" coating specifics, we can assume PTFE and the usual plastic protective coating. They don't feel like bare stainless, so I would assume some chrome or ceramic lies beneath these. Don't plan on getting more than two or three shaves, though I sometimes get more.

There are a lot of companies that make blades in a range of quality and price. In India, some consumers go for really inexpensive blades. And sometimes they make several labels so that distributors can sell them in competing stores in a neighborhood and offer different merchandise. And some consumers have never used a really good blade to compare them with. The result: There are a lot of garbage blades in the world.

Why garbage blades, such as the lesser Lasers, would show up in Europe, I cannot say for sure. Obviously, if an importer can buy them for a pittance and sell them for a pound, there is a profit to be had. Another possibility is expats will remain religiously loyal to brand names they know from their home country*. Some people just like a "bargain."

Talk to people from India or Pakistan or Korea or Japan or wherever and they will proudly brag about the blades from their home country being the best in the world!!! Sometimes they are. And sometimes they aren't.

- - -

*The most absurd example of this, in my travels, is seeing over-priced imported brands of white vinegar in shops. Wine vinegar, malt vinegar, cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, this I can understand. But WHITE vinegar is just diluted industrial acetic acid. Always, I'm not sure, but it sure smells like it, and that's what the label usually says. Acetic acid is the stuff used in developing film, so I know well what it smells like. And photographers know they could substitute white vinegar.

However, I've noticed that the expression "You are what you eat" takes on a whole new level for Asians abroad. For example, if a Korean doesn't eat almost exclusively Korean food and brands while abroad, when they return home people WILL KNOW, and you will no longer be considered Korean. (I am told fried chicken is allowed.) I've seen Chinese abroad with a similar obsession, and then rant about how the food at the Chinese restaurant is not real Chinese food. Oh, and a Korean went into a white hot rage, literally screaming while we waited online at the airport, when he found out the local Korean restaurant used Japanese brand of soy sauce (made in America)!!!

If you plan of moving abroad from the UK or EU or Australia, not to fear: You can buy your favorite brand of white vinegar courtesy of eBay and have it shipped around the globe if you are homesick enough to pay the price of a nice tin of pate de foie gras for something you could buy locally - absolutely identical tasting - for the price of a candy bar.

So using your native razor blade brand is essential, for some, to maintain your national identity.

However, sometimes having stuff shipped is in order. In China, the local mayonnaise (not salad dressing, which was commonly used in small eateries) was bizarrely inedible - it was so intensely sweet it cauterized my taste buds. However, on Taobao you could buy online some excellent mayonnaise from Russia with no import duty, cheaper than in stores. At least it had a Russian label. It was actually mayonnaise made in South Korea, in a virtually identical container, though written in Hangul in Korea. It tasted exactly like what I remember Hellman's/Best Mayonnaise used to taste like years ago, before the corporate takeovers and MBA cost cutters removed 90 percent of the flavor, a sliver at a time (now it is mostly white vinegar and sugar in vegetable oil and water, with an egg waved over it). So it is a safe bet that the U.S. military helped set up a Hellman's mayonnaise plant to supply the bases in Korea decades ago, and the Koreans never changed the recipe. Good for them! So I was able to buy fine American mayonnaise via a time warp, made in Korea, shipped to Russia and then trucked to me from within China and dumped on the sidewalk. Oh, and the Russian goose liver pate was cheap and tasty. It was nice while it lasted.
 
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