Best Razor/Blade combinations

[speedwell]

A number of years ago, I started tracking the performance of different blades for each of my razors, recording the results in one line note that includes 'qualitative rating', # of shaves, and brief comments. My method, while not scientific at all, has yielded almost eight years of results, which I refer to when deciding what equipment to use each morning and what blades to re-order when the supply runs low. Over the years, I had some curious results, many of which I've retested for confirmation.
Here are some of the takeaways, listing the razor and "best blade" I've discovered for each. Please keep in mind, these are my results, working with what I had on hand at the time. To arrive at these, I typically select a razor to be used for the month and randomly choose a blade from the cigar box where I keep them, shaving with that blade until it lost it's edge. Then I select another blade the same way keep going until the month is up, at which point I move on to another razor.

Here are some of my results listing the razors along with the top blades for each:
Merkur 34HD - Gillette Silver Blue, Astra SP, Merkur SP
Muhle R41 - Astra SP, Bolzano Superinox, Gillette Silver Blue
Mergress - Feather, Dorco New Platinum, Personna Platinum
iKon DLC Slant (work in progress) - Astra SP
Rocnel SE-G - GEM PTFE only
Rockwell 6S (Plate 3) - Derby Extra, Rockwell, Rapira
Rockwell 6S (Plate 4) - Merkur Super, Personna Lab Blue, Vokshod Teflon
OneBlade - Feather FHS-10, GEM PTFE


For those who have a similar process, what are some of your tried and tested razor combinations?

 

[BigAlVista]

Great idea for a thread. Here are mine, based on the following blades: Feather Hi stainless, BIC Chrome, PermaSharp, Nacet, 7 O'clock Black, Persona Lab Blue and Israeli Red, Astra SP, Gillette Platinum and GSB, RK (Henson), Rapira Platinum Luxe, Kai and Wizamet:

Blackbird OC or SB: Wizamet, Rapira Plat Luxe, Astra

Blackbird Lite: Personna Platinum (Israeli Reds) and Personna Lab Blue

Henson mild: Feather, BIC, Perma Sharp, 7 O'clock Black and Nacets

Henson medium: 7 O'clock Black, Nacet, Israeli Reds (?)

Merkur 39C: Wizamet, Rapira PL

Rex Konsul: Still working on this one: Need to try PermaSharp, Nacet, 7 O'clock Black, Israeli Reds and BICs (Start shave on 2, bump to 5 for cleanup)

Tatara Muramasa: Kai on 3.75

Timeless 95: Kai

Oneblade: Feather FHS10 (but, I've not tried Gem blades - too much work and I was able to get a whole bunch of FHS10 blades using points at Oneblade)

 

[BobbyB]

For me, IMO, my King C Gillette and Bic Chrome platinum blades work well together.

 

[BigJ]

Great thread!

For me, things have become much more settled in recent years. I am down to two razors, my ‘daily driver’ (Wolfman WR1) and my ‘travel’ razor (Lord L6).

While I enjoy trying ‘new’ (to me) blades, my ‘top tier’ options work well in both razors:
Personna lab (or med prep)
Personna red (Israeli)
Wizamet SI (or Polsilver)
GSB
Nacet

 

[Fatip101]

From some of the razors I currently own I find all of these to be great combos ..makes me wonder why I keep trying new combos !!

Edwin Jagger DE89 - Feather
Yaqi Final cut setting 4 - Wilkinson Sword German
Q shave Merkur Futur Clone - Voskhod
Lord L6- Lord Platinum

 

[DesertIguana]

Best is a personal thing it is like asking four guys in a Cigar Lounge their favorite Cigar. Chances are you will have 4 answers, all will be right, as we all have different taste.

What works great from one guy, don't work great for everyone. King Gillette made Razors & Blades that worked well for large cross section of population. Some people stuck with their old Straights, because they did not like Mr. Gillette product.

 

[WThomas0814]

While my opinions may be radically different from other gents, my preferences are:

Blackbird - Lab Blue
Vector - Feather AC Pro
Saber - Personna Gem PTFE
CX-Ti/Web - Astra SP (Russian)
SR - Feather AC ProGuard or Kai Protouch MG (still trying to decide)
Vintage Flare Tip - GSB (Russian)

Hmmm… this makes it glaringly obvious that I only have six shavers……

 

[Lockback]

There's no question that certain razor/blade combinations work better than others.
Example: of all the combinations I've tried in the past year, the one that has delivered both the smoothest and closest shave is my Pearl Flexi with a Gillette Perma-Sharp blade.
I assumed that since the Gillette Nacet is my other favorite blade, it would fare just as well in the Flexi. But the one time I tried it, the difference was noticeable. It wasn't nearly as smooth. Lesson learned.

 

[euro]

Fatip OC v1 - Feathers, Astra SP, Wizamet SI's, Fatip blades, Permasharps, Gillette London Bridge, BIC's, Nacets

 

[awk_m4]

I'm perfectly satisfied with my Henson razor.
Blades though....that's where I love variety.... Here is a list of favorites.

Wizamet SI, Feather, Astra SP, Kai.
Gillette: Sliver Blue, Platinum, Nacet, SharpEdge, and Perma-Sharp all pair quite nicely with my Henson.

 

[speedwell]

Great thread!

For me, things have become much more settled in recent years. I am down to two razors, my ‘daily driver’ (Wolfman WR1) and my ‘travel’ razor (Lord L6).

While I enjoy trying ‘new’ (to me) blades, my ‘top tier’ options work well in both razors:
Personna lab (or med prep)
Personna red (Israeli)
Wizamet SI (or Polsilver)
GSB
Nacet

Big J - I hear you and aspire to be where you are now one day. A couple of years back, I was going to keep one razor and PIF everything else to eliminate choices and simplify my life. And when the time came, I conveniently procrastinated.

 

[speedwell]

Best is a personal thing it is like asking four guys in a Cigar Lounge their favorite Cigar. Chances are you will have 4 answers, all will be right, as we all have different taste.

What works great from one guy, don't work great for everyone. King Gillette made Razors & Blades that worked well for large cross section of population. Some people stuck with their old Straights, because they did not like Mr. Gillette product.

DI-I agree and tried to acknowledge this in the original post. The idea here is really to share the information with others, who may do with it as they see fit. If you were to recommend a blade that you like very much in combination with a razor I own, I would sooner try your recommendation rather than try a random blade with that razor, or worse still, buy more blades with the hope that one is "the one". Sure there are a LOT of variables - including even quality of manufacturing (not all batches of Vokshods are created equal), but I thought it might at the very least be some sort of a starting point for many.

 

[speedwell]

Going the other way - the absolute worst combination I've ever suffered through - my Muhle R41 paired with a Derby blade. Thought I might bleed out and be discovered dead on the bathroom floor. The feeling felt more like slowly removing a band-aid than shaving. Rockwell 6S (Plate 3) and Big Ben SS are distant second least favorite combo.

 

[awk_m4]

Henson Razors paired with a variety of sharp blades work best for me.

 

[cranewarrior]

As a general formula, I like sharp blades with mild razors and mild blades with aggressive razors. This has produced combinations like a Gillette Nacet in a Gillette Tech which works great for me personally.

 

[Kristho]

I really like Gillette Perma-Sharp and Lord Silver Star in my Mühle R89.

I still need to experiment more with my Gillette Tech and Gillette Slim Twist.

 

[Juanmosey]

I really like Gillette Perma-Sharp and Lord Silver Star in my Mühle R89.

I still need to experiment more with my Gillette Tech and Gillette Slim Twist.

How would the Lord be in your Tech you think?

 

[Kristho]

How would the Lord be in your Tech you think?

Great question! I can try it tomorrow in my Palm(Olive) Sunday shave. I'll let you know.

 

[Kristho]

How would the Lord be in your Tech you think?

I tried it today - it's on par with Gillette Nacet in the Tech I think. Pretty good. But I like it better in the Mühle R89

 

[Quaznoid]

In the past I used Personna Lab Blues and found they worked well with every razor I had.

Nowadays, I use Lord family blades only. They also work well in every razor I own, from a mild Tech ( BBS) or Krona (DFS) to a more aggressive Yuma or Fatip Piccolo OC. I’m of the view that despite the myriad of names, they’re only 3 Lord blades. I buy whatever’s cheapest, right now a good stock of Lord Plats, Big Bens, Asco Reds and Rainbows