Which blade

H

heroblob

Messages
814
Morning all. Having read so many posts on here regarding certain blades in certain razors, i have a couple of questions.
What is it that makes one blade more or less aggressive than another. i can understand that some blades are sharper than others, But i would have thought that the sharpest blade would naturally give the smoothest and most comfortable shave as it is not having to work hard to cut the beard. This appears not to be the case though. some not quite so sharp blades give a smoother shave in the same razor than some very sharp blades. Why is it that some sharp blades appear to snag and jump on their first outing and then improve as they begin to blunt slightly.
Secondly i have read many posts regarding the 1950 American super speeds being very mild and may need a more aggressive blade to give a good shave,or do the shim mod to change the blade geometry to something nearer the design geometry using the thicker carbon steel blades. I currently use red Personna's in a merkur 38. I have recently purchased a 1956 FT SS and was wondering what sort of blade to use in it to give a similar result. I previously tried a 7 o clock yellow in the 38R and found it to give more irritation and not as close shave as the Personna. i was told this may have been due to the yellow being a bit too aggressive for my skill level at the moment. Would you expect to be able to use a more aggressive blade in the FT SS and the razor then reduce it's aggression.
This is all black magic to me. I had previously thought a blade is a blade is a blade. How wrong i was.
 
Many people have tried to approach this scientifically - measuring the width of blade (and therefore how far the cutting edge is exposed), the thickness, examining the grinding of the cutting edge etc.

It seems to me that empirical experiment is the only way to find the right blade for you and the right blade for the right razor.
 
Echo that.
There is no simple answer - if there were these boards would be empty.
As it is this (and other) boards are full of posts in which people tell of this and that blade which gave a dreadful shave until transferred to another razor/tried another prep/another soap. cream etc. and then the clouds parted and the sun came out!
As to the question of sharp blades in mild razors (that is to say razors that were calibrated for thicker blades) this can be a problem.
This is because of the mildness of the razor one inadvertently applies more pressure than is needed - hence razor burn. So shim up or back off!
Experiment, my boy - experiment.
 
Nah..it's not black magic but you seem to be mixing up "razor aggression" with blade sharpness. Razor aggression can be a combination of many factors...blade gap, exposure, head profile, weight/balance etc but there is no set formula, some shavers find some blades work more effectively for them in certain razors, you just need to find out which combination works best for you, just be systematic.
 
I am a blade heretic :eek:

I am still a relative newbie and might have a 'blade epiphany' and change my mind but I doubt it. So far I've been unable to discern any significant difference in the dozen-ish different blades I have tried apart from how many shaves they last before becoming blunt. All have been sharp enough to shave with without any pulling or difficulty. I do like the variety in the blade wrappers though!
 
bean said:
I am a blade heretic :eek:

I am still a relative newbie and might have a 'blade epiphany' and change my mind but I doubt it. So far I've been unable to discern any significant difference in the dozen-ish different blades I have tried apart from how many shaves they last before becoming blunt. All have been sharp enough to shave with without any pulling or difficulty. I do like the variety in the blade wrappers though!
Click to expand...
In which case your prep. and lather must be impeccable!
 
Apart from the red Personna i have only tried a 7 0 clock yellow. and found it didn't seem to shave as close but caused more irritation. I only tried it once and then went back to the personna. the closeness may well have been that the irritation stopped me from doing as many passes as i can with the personna. This i do agree is most likely due to inexperience so haven't written them off just yet. But it has stopped me from trying any others just yet. I changed just one thing this morning. I used the ToBS instead of the Palmolive, and would say it wasn't as nice. It seems to dry out much more than the Palmolive and thus gave less protection. This may also be due to lack of lathering experience and may need to change the consistency with the ToBS, it may need to start a little wetter than the Palmolive. Has anyone else found the ToBS's to be like this and if so what do you do about it or if its my face that doesn't suit the cream what can anyone recommend. I do use a pre shave, either proraso or trumpers skin food.
 
SirPrize said:
Echo that.
There is no simple answer - if there were these boards would be empty.
As it is this (and other) boards are full of posts in which people tell of this and that blade which gave a dreadful shave until transferred to another razor/tried another prep/another soap. cream etc. and then the clouds parted and the sun came out!
As to the question of sharp blades in mild razors (that is to say razors that were calibrated for thicker blades) this can be a problem.
This is because of the mildness of the razor one inadvertently applies more pressure than is needed - hence razor burn. So shim up or back off!
Experiment, my boy - experiment.
Click to expand...

Hi Sirprize, are you still experimenting with the shimming and do you still just use an old modified blade. Did you manage to get any super thins to see if they made any difference as a shim, and if so where they an improvement. I had followed this thread with great interest.
 
heroblob said:
Hi Sirprize, are you still experimenting with the shimming and do you still just use an old modified blade. Did you manage to get any super thins to see if they made any difference as a shim, and if so where they an improvement. I had followed this thread with great interest.
Click to expand...
Yes, Hunnymonster donated some of his used Super Thins to help me push back the frontiers of science, and once subjected to the attentions of my knife-grinder they were safe enough to use as shims.
My SS's now perform as the designers intended, although I imagine a super-thin and a 7o'clock yellow combined may be a wee bit thicker than a pre-sixties carbon steel blade, so prudence has to be exercised (and doesn't she love it!)
The SS has always been light, nimble and easy to drive and now gives a proper shave providing one bears in mind that the blade-gap is now fractionally wider than before.
i.e. ok on the straight but be careful on the bends.
Thank you for your interest :)
 
SirPrize said:
heroblob said:
Hi Sirprize, are you still experimenting with the shimming and do you still just use an old modified blade. Did you manage to get any super thins to see if they made any difference as a shim, and if so where they an improvement. I had followed this thread with great interest.
Click to expand...
Yes, Hunnymonster donated some of his used Super Thins to help me push back the frontiers of science, and once subjected to the attentions of my knife-grinder they were safe enough to use as shims.
My SS's now perform as the designers intended, although I imagine a super-thin and a 7o'clock yellow combined may be a wee bit thicker than a pre-sixties carbon steel blade, so prudence has to be exercised (and doesn't she love it!)
The SS has always been light, nimble and easy to drive and now gives a proper shave providing one bears in mind that the blade-gap is now fractionally wider than before.
i.e. ok on the straight but be careful on the bends.
Thank you for your interest :)
Click to expand...

Just as a matter of interest what is your blade of choice in the SS with the super thin shim. And is this choice any thing to do with the thickness of the cutting blade.
 
My plan is to start with the personna's i've been using, so that the only change is the razor. Then i will give perhaps a 7 o clock yellow a go and see what happens. Just wondered how others had found it. Always happy to take advice from more experienced guys.
 
For what it's worth H/Blobster, I've always got on well with Feathers & Astra Keramics. That's in all the DEs I've tried. Which makes me feel that possibly those blades are just suited to my own shaving style as much as they are to the varied Gillettes, Merkurs & Muehle in which they've been used. Which may also go a wee way to explain why some TSR chatters get on well with, for instance, Merkur blades, which just do little for me. Just pretty much a learning curve for us all I guess.

Keep the Faith.

JohnnyO. ;)
 
heroblob said:
Just as a matter of interest what is your blade of choice in the SS with the super thin shim. And is this choice any thing to do with the thickness of the cutting blade.
Click to expand...
I can't answer that yet because I only have 7o'clock Yellows and Treet Dura-Sharp in stock and I have only used the Yellows so far in the shimmed SS.
So far as I understand all modern blades are much the same thickness and are narrower than the carbon steel blades for which the pre-sixties razors where calibrated for.
Consequently I would choose a modern blade for a modern razor, and a thicker blade for an earlier razor, and if such were available I would not have to bugger about with all this shimming!
 
heroblob said:
I used the ToBS instead of the Palmolive, and would say it wasn't as nice. It seems to dry out much more than the Palmolive and thus gave less protection. This may also be due to lack of lathering experience and may need to change the consistency with the ToBS, it may need to start a little wetter than the Palmolive. Has anyone else found the ToBS's to be like this and if so what do you do about it or if its my face that doesn't suit the cream what can anyone recommend. I do use a pre shave, either proraso or trumpers skin food.
Click to expand...

I found exactly the same thing. I bought 4 tubes - Avacado, Mr Taylors, Rose and Lavender and found them all to be dry with barely any lubrication and no slippery residue left over for buffing or a water pass (I think I've read someone refer to this property as after-slip). I liked the scents though.

You could try combining some ToBS and some other soap or cream. If you combined it with something with little scent, you might get the ToBS scent and the lubrication from whatever you combined it with. (I couldn't be bothered with that and swapped two of my ToBS creams and haven't used the other two after a couple of attempts. I'll probably look to swap them as well at some point.)

If it is your (and my) face, I can recommend the Body Shop Creams (Original if you can get it or Maca Root). Both lather up a storm and stay moist and slippy for ages on my face.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom