Any blades you won't buy again?

DE Convert said:
I bought 100 Voskhods off ebay seller unuta77. I have had these blades from different vendors in the past and loved them but these are rough on the first shave and completely unusable for a second.
Wouldn't discount the Voskhods but would advise staying away from this seller.
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I find it somewhat frustrating that blades from eBay seem be such a crapshoot. I've used the same seller a few times and they have excellent feedback. I found the same as you with my first Voskhod blade though. So I'm still none the wiser as to if it was a duff blade or that my face just doesn't like Voskhods. To make matters worse I used a Rapira Swedish Supersteel next and got similar results, as I understand them both to be mild blades. I won't do that again, use one unknown blade after another, without returning to a known fave inbetween. I don't plan on testing any more now really anyway as I've found a few that like my face.
 
Yesterday tried the feathers (yellow ones)! After few strokes I gave up counting the nicks! If I have used a shard to shave my head I can guarantee that would be smoother!
 
I don't like standard, British supermarket Wilkinson Swords. I find them scratchy and a bit irritating. Having said that, most blades feel better in my Rockwell 6S, I think the sheer solidity of the thing keeps most blades well damped and under control.
 
Blue Beards Revenge!!! I got them free with a razor I purchased as a new shaver I thought they were OK.... But a year later I used the last one... Oh my word... As 'scratachy' as 'scratachy' could be... I even went back to an Astra green on its 7th use and it was more comfortable.
Well the razor I got with them is also a bit of a dud too (if you have seen any other of my recent posts)
 
I bought some rubbish in tesco and sainsbury's branded by the supermarkets: Dorko and persona from memory. Both rough. Surprised to read german Wilkinson sword on here. Uninspiring but steady.
 
Bic Astor - had these in a sample pack and they were dreadful.
Feathers - just not prepared to pay the premium for a supposedly sharper (but rougher) blade.
Personna Lab Blue - normally I will happily get five shaves out of a blade, but these were rough and tugging by shave number 3.
 
Gillette Platinum - out of all my razors (8), I didnt have 1 decent shave with these blades. Was an absolute bloodbath with the Muhle R41, which was probably my worst shave in the 6 years Ive been wet shaving.

Im kinda tempted to sell them or trade them for something else
 
ZAZA blades are nothing special, but I bought 100 because I like the package design (reminiscent of some long-gone UK tobacco wrappers). SuperMax are as rough as the proverbial bear's a***e, German Wilkinsons as previously noted, and I have some Indians called Centwin, which I won't buy again because I can't now find any in the UK.
 
As a newbie I thought I would take a scientific approach and do a spreadsheet to see which blade got the most thumbs down so that I could avoid buying that brand. After a few pages I realised that this was a hopeless task with too mmany variables affecting the judgement of the user. In addition, it soon became apparent that what I had thought was an ok blade especially with a given razor that it would be on others 'never buy again' list, so the criteria for not buying that blade was different to my own.

With only a limited number of exceptions, am I right in thinking that a good performing blade is part of a three way partnership with the razor and soap being at least equal partners?

As I said, I have been DE shaving for three weeks and only used three blades and two razors in that time so I suspect that I have taken an approach that is too simplistic.
 
Vacumatic said:
As a newbie I thought I would take a scientific approach and do a spreadsheet to see which blade got the most thumbs down so that I could avoid buying that brand. After a few pages I realised that this was a hopeless task with too mmany variables affecting the judgement of the user. In addition, it soon became apparent that what I had thought was an ok blade especially with a given razor that it would be on others 'never buy again' list, so the criteria for not buying that blade was different to my own.

With only a limited number of exceptions, am I right in thinking that a good performing blade is part of a three way partnership with the razor and soap being at least equal partners?

As I said, I have been DE shaving for three weeks and only used three blades and two razors in that time so I suspect that I have taken an approach that is too simplistic.
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Your observations are very astute, and I agree with the points you have made.

I've been trying to compare a few blades recently, and I'd use two different blades over two consecutive days and keep all the other variables fixed (razor, soap, prep, amount of growth, number of passes etc) and works to examine a particular blade in a particular razor on the first day but it becomes nearly impossible to examine a blade after the first shave and personally my favourite blades seem to be at their best after a few shaves.
 
donnie_arko said:
Your observations are very astute, and I agree with the points you have made.

I've been trying to compare a few blades recently, and I'd use two different blades over two consecutive days and keep all the other variables fixed (razor, soap, prep, amount of growth, number of passes etc) and works to examine a particular blade in a particular razor on the first day but it becomes nearly impossible to examine a blade after the first shave and personally my favourite blades seem to be at their best after a few shaves.
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I also tried to make a pseudo-scientific comparison of blades, but got myself hopelessly flummoxed after a while. My problem is that I am rather over-provided with razors, which means a whole raft more of variables enter the equations. It's obviously easier to do comparisons with fewer razors and blades, but even then, the permutations start to multiply.

Totally agree about blades improving with age/use and it applies even more to AC and injector blades. I've tried all the usual pre-use blade-taming and preparatory stuff like corking and palm-stropping, and that's also a problem to compare. I suppose one method on DE would be to treat one edge and not the other and use accordingly.
 
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