Tuesday 6th April
French Pink Clay & Charcoal Face Soap
Wickham 1902 Garden Mint
Haryali Rosewood w/Blonde Boar 22mm
Yaqi Katana DLC w/Star Bakelite Handle
Gillette Wilkinson Sword (1) Made in India
Rose of Bulgaria
I have a little confession to make ...
I snapped both the Indian and the Chinese versions of these Gillette WIlkinson Sword blades and loaded them into their respective razors: Indian in the DLC and Chinese in the chome. I meant to start with the Indian, but shaved with the chrome one last night and then got confused and doubted which blade I put into which razor.
Looking at what is left in the respective sleeves, I can see a material difference between the MII and the MIC blades (the logo on the Indian is thicker) and so until after tonight's shave, I was actually blind as to which blade was in which razor. I've since had a look and now I know.
Comparisons between these two blades always seem to go down the line of one is sharper, one is smoother, by which I guess folks could also mean one is not as sharp as the other and one is not as smooth as the other. They're right! One is sharper, not as smooth; one is smooth, not as sharp as the other. I find the Indian smoother and the Chinese sharper. Moreover, I know which I prefer, but here's the kicker: I don't really like either.
I am going to run them through for a second shave on each, being in the single edge format should take me to the 2nd or 3rd, perhaps 4th shave in double edge format. For now, I find both to be preferable to the Russian Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Stainless (Green) and neither to be up to the Indian Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Stainless (Green). The Indian GWS while certainly smooth feels like one of the more dull SuperMax blades, say the new epoch Titanium, just not as super-forgiving. The Chinese GWS which certainly sharper did not necessarily cut with efficiency and I was left feeling a little raw and irritable.
What is for certain is that neither of these blades is the Gillette Winner Platinum, as had been suggested. The Gillette Winner Platinum is sharp AND smooth from the off, certainly sharper than the Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Platinum (Black), and smooths out to a lovely shave. Definitely a "winner". The Gillette Winner Stainless is made by Vertice/EuroMax and so neither of these blades either.