I'm a blade-a-holic, so I've tried a bunch of em on my way towards the top which has left me with a stash of junkers. I have coaxed at least 3 other friends into DE shaving in the past year and I purposely give them Merkurs and other low end blades to start on. That helps me get rid of my stash while helping them appreciate a good blade when they find it. They are happier this way. So, sucky blades do serve a purpose.
The Worst Blade?
- Thread starter k2clones29
- Start date
Feather Crow carbon steel blades. Absolutely Horrendous. And I love the regular Feathers.
Feather "Crow" carbon blades
derbys
Dorco
Merkur, Derby Extra, Gillette 7'Oclock Green, Astra SP...in that order 
Topaz. They are even worse than Derbys (if you can imagine that).
Thanks,
Mike
Thanks,
Mike
Vidyut Zorrik. For smoothness I found them to be on par with a dull cheese grater.
Derby and Crystals
From all I have tried so far, MERKUR blades are the absolute worst. And that is on ALL aspects of DE shaving.
I will try them again later.
My nomination is the Ying Jili blades I got with a Weisi.
Gillette Super Blues from China. I only tried the once but they were tugging and just couldn't cut anything. Prior to that would probably be the SuperMax Stainless - I got a very close shave but also lots of irritation. I'll go back and retry both blades at some point in different razors to make sure it wasn't a single bad blade or just didn't do well in a specific razor.
Man, it's gotta be those Derbys. It looked like a got some serious sunburn on the... lower half of my face? Absolutely abysmal!
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For me it's Derby and Personna Red.
The Derbsters and the Merkurinators.
I wonder if so many of us dislike the Merkur blades because they were our first ones? Is it because we did most of our Merkur shaving as noobs and have deep seated memories of cutting ourselves to ribbons with our horrible technique and no decent prep?
I know there are some blind tests that have been done - so I presume there is more to it than that. Personally I am shying away from them but I know that my technique and prep have improved massively during this first year. I guess one of these days I'll have to fire up my Merkur 33C with a Merkur blade and see if it was all me or if it really is that horrible.
I know there are some blind tests that have been done - so I presume there is more to it than that. Personally I am shying away from them but I know that my technique and prep have improved massively during this first year. I guess one of these days I'll have to fire up my Merkur 33C with a Merkur blade and see if it was all me or if it really is that horrible.
Merkurs. They pull like an untrained retriever on leash near the duck pond.
EDIT: I should add that a Merkur pulls like a Fusion for me on my chin and above the lip. No other DE blade does that. I have sampled numerous Merkurs over a period of time, so it is not a prep or a dud blade thing.
EDIT: I should add that a Merkur pulls like a Fusion for me on my chin and above the lip. No other DE blade does that. I have sampled numerous Merkurs over a period of time, so it is not a prep or a dud blade thing.
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I have seen two statements here that I find absolutely correct:
1. You need to revisit any brand of blades you first started DE shaving with. I bought 100 Derby's for $8 when I returned to DE shaving and at first try I thought I wasted my money, but now find they are fine, not great, for at least one and possibly two good shaves.
2. Try to match blades with razors (I find especially types of razors), there is a difference when matching them. What I mean by types is modern OC vs CC vs slant vs adjustable razors (Futur in my case).
1. You need to revisit any brand of blades you first started DE shaving with. I bought 100 Derby's for $8 when I returned to DE shaving and at first try I thought I wasted my money, but now find they are fine, not great, for at least one and possibly two good shaves.
2. Try to match blades with razors (I find especially types of razors), there is a difference when matching them. What I mean by types is modern OC vs CC vs slant vs adjustable razors (Futur in my case).
