Participation PIF - Czech Out These Blades

[k2clones29]

Tiger Blade #1, Shave #3

I tried like heck to shave yesterday with 2 days growth to no avail. I even considered shaving at 11:00 at night, which is already past my bedtime, because I had been looking forward to my next shave. As I had affected my fine motor skills through the consumption of intoxicating substances, I had sufficient good judgment to wait the night. Boy, it was worth the wait!

My pre-shave included a hot shower, QED Australian Red Facial Soap, and Proraso Pre-Shave. My setup was Mystic Waters Bergamont, Cedarwood and Juniper soap, Simpsons Colonel X2L brush, 1950s Gillette SS razor, and alum block and Proraso AS post-shave.

The shave was excellent! The blade scraped my three day growth with no drama. It was smooth and efficient. I got a DFS with ease. To make things sweeter, the alum block and AS had no burn at all. My last shave wit the Tiger was poor, but I hypothesized it was due to being one day growth and it not being sharp enough to handle my rough stubble. I believe my hypothesis to be the case since this shave was so smooth and close. It's a great blade to tackle more than one day's growth, but not sharp enough for that tough stubble. That's OK with me, though, because not many blades are sharp enough to handle my stubble.

This excellent DFS borders on a BBS shave and will result in faceturbation for the rest of the day. This shave gets a 9! These are turning out to be great blades. I am glad to be participating in this PIF as I probably never would have tried them but for it despite their cool packaging and sharp etching.

 

[gvw755]

Second shave with the Tatra, this time in a vintage bakelite slant. I initially had trouble loading the blade because for some reason, it did not want to fully seat in the cap of the slant, which bows the blade significantly. I did finally get it in and started my shave. Like last night, WTG pass was extremely smooth and efficient. ATG was effortless and I did not experience the blade feel or noise from last night, I was already at a two pass BBS, but since I lathered with my favorite soap and did not want to waste it, I did an XTG pass under my chin and along my jawline. The shave was excellent. Unlike the Tiger, I am extremely impressed with the Tatra.

 

[stone and strop]

6Th shave with the Tatra
Usual cast,
Tabac
Universal full blade shavette
H&V C&CC


Pretty good shave overall. I could feel the blade a bit for the first time but for the most part - pretty damn good, feeling great for the most part.
A 9 I suppose.
I think I would call it quits on this blade if I had a stack of 100 but maybe one more.
I will try 1 more shave with the same blade to see how far it is gone and if it becomes uncomfortable or just at its limits for my beard.
Six is a very good number of shaves from one side of a blade for me. I would definitely buy them based on what I have already experienced.
I may do a straight shave before trying the Tiger. I miss my straights.

 

[PlutoViola]

Tatra #1 - Shave 3
Gillette slim on 6
Fine Fresh Vetiver soap

Today's shave was not bad, not great. I had zero irritation but I felt like I had to go over many spots quite a few times to get a decent shave. The result was not especially close, but not especially bad either. The blade still felt very smooth, but it didnt really feel like it was as efficient as yesterday, which puts it real close to the range of ineffective. It's still feeling ok so I will use the same blade tomorrow. If I had bought a bunch of these I would probably pitch this blade already, no big deal.

Sent from my SM-A102U using Tapatalk

 

[Ted A]

Tiger #1 shaves 4 & 5
Gillette Slim on 3 & 4
Shave 4 had a lot of tugging and a bit of post shave irritation. The blade didn’t feel like it was cutting very well. I thought that it might have been poor lather so on shave 5 I used Stirling Island Man. I got a very nice lather, but on the 5th shave I got a couple of nicks. That might have been inattention on my part. But 2 unpleasant shaves in a row made me give up on that blade. I’ll shave a couple of times with the Tatar and then give the Tiger another chance.

 

[Balthier]

Tatra Shave #5
Razor: maggard V3A with MR5 handle.
Soap: Proraso Red
Brush: Yaqi Purple Haze

Hot shower prep. Wanted to see how this did a more aggressive head since it lost some sharpness I thought so decided to try the V3A. This was a good choice WTG, XTG, and ATG still smooth, no cuts, or irritation. I wanted to do some extra touch up ATG and thought I might get irritation, but I didn't.

 

[Weean]

Tiger Stainless, Edge 1 shave 4, Wilkinson Sword Classic (plastic),Palmolive stick.

As a reminder, this is the old yellow pack stainless, not the new red pack superior stainless New Tiger Superior Stainless blade - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/new-tiger-superior-stainless-blade.588582/

If that new blade is superior to this one I'll be very impressed. Today's shave saw the blade slowing down noticeably with some gentle tugging, but the end result is still superb. Where I'm willing to give the Tiger Platinum a fifth shave with some reservations, this blade will be getting a fifth in the full expectation of another good one.

 

[BigJ]

Are these the same blades in different packaging?
​

Thanks for the chance to try some blades that are new to me! So I have no preconceptions whatsoever.

PURPOSE. To give each option a fair trial, answer the question and pick a favorite.

METHODS.

Prep: Hot shower then CereVe face wash.

Razor: Wolfman WR1/WRH2 handle.

Brush: 2 or 3-band badger from my rotation.

Soap: Cella for blade 1, then assorted Fine options for blade 2.

After: Floid vigoroso for blade 1, then La Toja splash for blade 2.

Rating: My usual 10 point system after each shave.

RESULTS.

TATRA blade 1
Shave #1: 8
Shave #2: 8.5
Shave #3: 8.5
Shave #4: 8.5
Shave #5: 8.5
Shave #6: 8.5
Shave #7: 8.5
average: 8.4

Tiger blade 1
Shave #1: 7.5
Shave #2: 8
Shave #3: 7.5
Shave #4: 7.5
Shave #5: 7.5

 

[cw62803]

Blade Wars - Shave 5
Four days growth.

On the first pass, silver pricked on my cheek and tugged on my chin. Black tugged pretty evenly throughout and felt ilike it was irritating my neck.

On the second pass, silver had even resistance throughout. Black felt similar to silver on the second pass, except the irriation on my neck was more pronounced.

This shave concludes the blade war. Silver is the winner. It provided irritation-free shaves throughout, despite the fact that I had 3 or 4 days growth on almost every shave.




Reveal: The winning blade is silver....





........wait for it....







Tatra

 

[BigJ]

Blade Wars - Shave 5
Four days growth.

On the first pass, silver pricked on my cheek and tugged on my chin. Black tugged pretty evenly throughout and felt ilike it was irritating my neck.

On the second pass, silver had even resistance throughout. Black felt similar to silver on the second pass, except the irriation on my neck was more pronounced.

This shave concludes the blade war. Silver is the winner. It provided irritation-free shaves throughout, despite the fact that I had 3 or 4 days growth on almost every shave.




Reveal: The winning blade is silver....





........wait for it....







Tatra

Congratulations!! Nice to have a clear winner!!

 

[PlutoViola]

Tatra #1 shave 4
Gillette Slim on 6
Speick Stick

This morning was a strange shave. Normally for me when a blade wears out it will cut my beard less and my skin more. This blade seems to be cutting my beard less each day, but it remains very smooth. I got a little bit of tugging on my chin but nothing that concerned me (and I am typically not ok with any tugging at all). It was not a great shave, but I still had zero irritation.

I should say, I am typically a single pass XTG daily shaver. If I were doing more than one pass my experience with this blade would likely be very different. Maybe I would like it more. At the moment I am finding I am a bit annoyed with it being so odd - not cutting very well, but not irritating my skin. This is a new and strange experience for me. When I try another Tatra in another razor I may try a 2nd pass just to see how the experience changes.

I have not yet decided if I am going to use this blade a 5th time. Will I give in to annoyance and pitch it? Or will I keep going with it and see what it does since it's not doing any damage? Dunno.

Sent from my SM-A102U using Tapatalk

 

[Grundi]

Blade Wars - Shave 5
Four days growth.

On the first pass, silver pricked on my cheek and tugged on my chin. Black tugged pretty evenly throughout and felt ilike it was irritating my neck.

On the second pass, silver had even resistance throughout. Black felt similar to silver on the second pass, except the irriation on my neck was more pronounced.

This shave concludes the blade war. Silver is the winner. It provided irritation-free shaves throughout, despite the fact that I had 3 or 4 days growth on almost every shave.




Reveal: The winning blade is silver....





........wait for it....







Tatra

Very nice blade war...bummer that I picked the wrong one...

 

[gvw755]

Third shave with the Tatra blade. I just received an Otto Roth this afternoon and decided to test the razor and the blade together. I am very familiar with the New LC and so I expect the Otto Roth to shave the same. WTG pass was extremely smooth with no blade feel. I noticed that it left a little more stubble than the past two nights, however that is the nature of a New LC, giving up some efficiency for a smooth shave. ATG went well and picked up most of the stubble left over from the first pass. I did have to do an XTG along the jawline and under the chin, however it did need a little more touch up after that. The shave was comfortable throughout. It could be the nature of a New LC or that the blade is beginning to lose efficiency (or both). The shaves I am getting from the Tatra still impresses me.

 

[dezmil]

Second shave with each blade
Tiger Shave #2 - Tuesday AM
Tatra Shave #2 - Wednesday AM

Razor: Rockwell 6S (R5)

After the second shave, I would give a slight edge to the Tatra. As expected, these shaves were both a bit more efficient and slightly more aggressive than the first time with these blades (Rockwell 6S R3). That said the results were still acceptable and DFS. I would rate the closeness of the shave the same for both blades, but the Tatra was slightly more comfortable.

 

[cw62803]

Love this thread, @Grundi! The participation PIF is a great idea. Thank you for including me.

 

[Ukrainian]

TATRA blade 1

How do you compare Tatra to GSB, Personna platinum, Astra platinum? Thanks

 

[xiletero]

Tatara 5
RR Gamechanger 0.84 OC
N400 synthetic
RR Aqua
3 pass shave, smooth , efficient.
AS: Old Spice
AB Nivea

Another good shave. I almost never use blades this much.....
I retire them for a one pass shavette (the sharp ones) usually after 2-3....

 

[Demolition]

I've noticed folks picking winners and losers. Are we at that stage, already?

If so, then my hands-down winner is the Tatra, of course. I've shaved eleven (11) times with each blade. All eleven with the Tatra have been exceptionally smooth and I see no reason not to keep using it for many more shaves.

Meanwhile, the two Tigers that I've tried have performed almost identically over their combined eleven (11) total shaves: generally rough and inconsistent from shave to shave. They feel sharp and my shaves been close. However, their overall unpredictability makes shaving a joyless chore.

Anyway...


Eleventh shave with Tatra Platinum Blade #1

May 19: I don't think that I mentioned my setup. For all tests involving the Tatras and Tigers, I've used the same razor, brush, and soap: Maggard V3, Yaqi 26mm Tuxedo, Williams Mug Soap... until today when I used a Simpsons Special S1 Best Badger. On with the shave...

No perceptible decline in performance. Today's shave felt extremely close. I'm going to take this one to 25 shaves and see if it can hold up.

Addendum: I shaved this morning at 7:30 am (gotta look pretty for a videoconference). At 6:45 pm, my cheeks are still surprisingly smooth, while there is only light stubble along my jawline and above my Adam's apple.

Impressive!


Fourth shave with Tiger Platinum Blade #2

May 20: Maggard V3.

Similar performance to previous shave; very close, but still rough and unrefined. The ATG pass was especially rough with some skipping.

The one positive thing that I can say about the two Tiger blades that I've tried is that I haven't suffered many (any?) nicks or cuts, despite the feeling of acute sharpness. The ever-present roughness continues to cause plenty of irritation, though.

 

[epipeman]

Kit: Rockwell 6c R6 , Tiger (3) , Arko, Omega S10083 S-Brush Pro.

A DFS today - comfortable, efficient shave.

 

[BigJ]

How do you compare Tatra to GSB, Personna platinum, Astra platinum? Thanks

Great question!!

I am still working that out. I have used tons of GSBs, Personnas and Astras but have only tried 1 TATRA. I plan to use at least one more on this challenge. So stay tuned!