Kai Stainless Steel Blades - PIF Free Samples

You are welcome, glad you got them safely.

I have used about 10 in total since Rev's group buy and today was the first time I pushed it with a 4rth shave which seemed ok for a quick shave. I was in a rush and just grabbed and half way through could feel a slight pulling which reminded me I forgot to change it but I was half done I completed the shave and it was fine.

I like em.
 
These are great blades, my favourite.

Proper bit of kit -- no fancy packaging just a damn good tool.

Hope you all like em as much as I do.
 
Just got home to find my excellently packaged parcel on the doormat.
Had a damn-fine-shave this morning so cannot really shave tonight. Kai blade going in the Merkur for tomorrow morning.

I concur with PigCat the blade packaging is neat and tidy.
 
Packet arrived today and have just finished first shave.
Standard procedure when testing a new blade - lube up with face-armour (Tabac), load into HD and using one side only ghost the blade over the face for three passes.
Result excellent shave in safe areas but still some stubble left in "bandit country" i.e. just under the chin and a rogue patch to the right of my Adam's apple.
Tomorrow I will lube with cream and load the blade into the Slant and have at it with normal pressure and see how the stubble likes that!
Thank you for the opportunity to test these blades.
 
You are more than welcome.

I am just glad they made it OK, I wasn’t sure if the cardboard slip was sufficient enough protection but it seems to have done the intended job.

I have just finished a week of Kai' blades in a red tip, I used one for three shaves and one for four. Nice combination although in the red tip the very first day I was a bit over aggressive and had a bit of a rash, not layer of skin lost kind of rash but enough to annoy me for an hour or so afterwards.

I was interested to hear you adopt the approach of using face-armour Tabac with an unknown blade. I take that same approach with all new shave items. Any new element in the shave means I retreat to known safe items on the other two. The consistency of taking the same approach each time allows for good evaluation of each new element.

Tomorrow I intend to evaluate a new soap so I will be retreating to a known safe blade and razor.
 
Rev-O said:
These are great blades, my favourite.

Proper bit of kit -- no fancy packaging just a damn good tool.

Hope you all like em as much as I do.
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Nice to hear from you Rev,

If were not for yourself I would probably never have bought these blades so I am very grateful you introduced me to them. After your group buy I used them in rotation but I have so many good blades it took a few rotations for me to really appreciate just how good they are.

On another thread someone (Paul I think) mentioned that Kai's have ceased production :shock: This was part of my reason for picking up some more, I do like these enough to have them in my permanent rotation of blades, Buying 400 worked out at around 80p per pack of 5 blades delivered to my door.
 
Yikes!

I need an urgent product recall on that group buy: return all Kai's to me asap!

Help help!

Thanks for the tip on the discontinuation -- I shall try and stock up.
 
Indeed Rev I thought I might be giving you a bum steer but I found it again on this thread 7 posts down;

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pdmayhew said:
Look after your Kai blade stocks as these are no longer in production.
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That made some alarm bells ring in my head, never fear for dridiot is a member here and I think there is still plenty stock, however given what Paul said I would not rest on your laurels.
 
I decided to test a Kai blade this morning.

Kent BK4
TOBS Eton College - not really sure about the scent on this one - same great TOBS lather though.
Gillette New (or 'Miss August' if you will)
Fresh Kai.

Day 1
A comfortable shave with a very slight feeling of drag; not uncomfortable like tugging though. The shave isn't as close as with a Feather although my face feels good. I find the Feather/New combo can leave my face a little tender if I'm not careful.

Intial impression is that a Kai is > than a Derby but < a Feather.

I'm curious as to whether I can get 3 shave out of it though.

Day 2
Face lathered with Cella today. The resulting shave was relatively comfortable. The alum test (also perfoemd yesterday) confirmed that. Just that pleasing little soupcon of a sting you get with a good shave - no screaming or rawness.

Day 3
Bowl lathered today with T&H 1805. The blade was starting to feel a little dull today but the shave was acceptable with no discomfort. As The Shamen asked in their song 'Phorward', "Can you pass the alum test?" I can truthfully answer yes.

I was satisified with 3 good shaves from this blade; it isn't going to replace the Feather for me however it's a decent alternative.

Rik.
 
You hit the nail on the head Rik,

In terms of price they are also > than a Derby but < a Feather but closer to a Feather than a Derby

I also experience a bit of rawness with Feathers on day 1, particulary if used in open combs or a slant. Unless you have been going for it I would expect that you will notice a slight dulling of the Kai blades on day 3, I eventually tried shave 4 and it was fine for a quick two pass shave but I would not make a habit of it (I was in a rush and couldn't be bothered changing it). Still worth a try but I'd have a spare blade handy in case you do find it too dull.
 
I was one of the earlier guys who got a PIF sample from Audiolab and finally got round to testing these blades.

I tried to follow the same routine as before although I can't say I've been shaving all that long with a DE:

Shower/scrub/wash
Ingrams shave cream
Hand strop the blade (twice on each side and flip, twice again), load Merkur 34C HD & Kai blade
During shave, I do a WTG, XTG then ATG.
Rinse, then some kind of moisturiser once dry

I've so far tried some no-name Israeli blades, Gillete Super Nacet* and a Topaz blade*!

First use:

Some drag, but the blade actually feels like it's doing a lot of cutting. No noticeable tugging or discomfort. I noticed that I was pretty happy after just 2 passes (WTG followed by XTG) and would've been quite happy to stop there but I kept going for the final pass. The results were certainly very impressive and much better than any previous blades I've used before. No noticeable irritation after shaving.

Second Use:

I was curious about being able to use the same blade again as only the noname Israeli's have managed to give a 2nd shave (and that's with some noticeable degradation in performance). I'm pleased to report that the 2nd shave went very smoothly indeed, almost as good as the first and very little degradation in performance. I'm very curious to see if they will last for a 3rd or even a 4th. I added a slight change to my routine on this shave since I received an Alum block (again from Audiolab) and so I used it for the first time ever after my shave. It stung just a little, nothing serious and I was pleased with the results.

Overall I'm very impressed with these and must give my thanks to Audiolab for his generosity (for the blades and the alum block). I also received some feathers through the post the other day (same day as I got the Kai's) but I've thus far resisted the temptation to use them as I wanted to see how the Kai's fair first. Certainly, I think at this present moment in time (pre-feather experience) I'd have no qualms about sticking to these blades as my 'regular' blade and would be very happy to do so since my name is actually 'Kai' :D

*Note: I'm not sure these last two can be classed as 'blades'! Even with my limited experience I can tell that they aren't good at all. The Gillete give acceptable results, but causes irritation when growing back - I don't experience this with the Israelis. It also only lasts for one shave (3 passes). The Topaz blades are even worse and I'll leave it at that.
 
Good to hear Kai, that is exactly what I was hoping to achieve by the PIF and you are very welcome. Not every blade will suite every face but these seem quite well received by most who try them. I think the Feathers are a little sharper (even with stropping) sometimes too sharp for me, in the wrong Razor they can leave me a little raw but the Feathers are great, so geat I bought 100 for my stash.

The Kai blades are a little cheaper than Feathers and for me they give me what I want from a blade, three good comfortable shaves.

I think we would all like our own named razors blade, pretty cool.
 
Just a quick update - I've just had a 3rd shave with the blade and I'd day that it was a good effort, a passable shave but I'm not sure that I'll go with a 4th shave. The alum block gave more of a kick this time round ;)

Next up are the feathers that I have just bought.
 
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