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Gillette Platinum (Swede), wow!

the WOW is back...

Thanks Vicco! 😄

This morning was a near perfect shave, the BPP gave useable blade feel but it was entirely "soft" with no harshness even in spots where I might have been a bit heavy handed, or on my chin where angle don't always stay spot on. Closeness was excellent and chasing the difficult spots in touch-up was comfortable and yielded the results I would expect of a blade with top ten sharpness.

I hereby pronounce these two Gillette Platinum blades entirely different from each other, those who think they're the same are either confused, or have such perfect technique that blades make no difference in their shave.

As mentioned before, I think the TCPP is much closer to the GSB, initially I thought that they felt smoother than GSBs, but at this point I think I need to do a head-to-head between those two as well (not that I'll be buying either instead of the BPP/Swede), it would be nice to know if the GSBs are worth the extra cost, for those who do prefer them.

@guitarslinger thanks for the link to RBC, I didn't know about them before your post.
This is the perfect place to check out those hard (or near impossible) to find blades you always wanted to... and I did!
 
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Today I went back that first Swede I started using a few weeks back (10+ shaves on it), this time in a Merkur OC (with Weber SS bulldog handle) to see how these blades perform once they're past peak. It was a smooth and decently close shave (RR Black Bay), which was objectively as good as I get from many blades on their second use, in fact the blade only feels "off" in comparison to fresh examples of above average DE blades. If it keeps up like this I could easily be happy with the shaves I'm getting... if it weren't for the fact that I know a fresh one is better in every way.
 
Hmm... at shave 3 the TCPP is closing the gap again, the Swede still feels sharper and definitely shaves closer, but on this shave (with Nanny's Silly Soap Mysore Sandalwood) the TCPP had the same amazing blade feel as the BPP did on its second outing. Fabulous performance from a blade that can be had for under $15/100 !
 
huh. it's getting more confusing, this morning the Swede/BPP definitely under performed compared to yesterdays TCPP shave... at last as far as smoothness, though it might have been a slightly closer shave??

I may have to retract the statement about these blades being totally different, though I reserve the right to flip-flop several times before this is all done 😝

B&M Seville was the soap of the day
 
In my experience the blade you call TCPP is very similar to GSB. The new BPP reminds me a lot the late Platinums in the white tuck that went out of production a few years ago (2009?)
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Have you noticed the laser etched arrows on the new blades? Hopefully they will eventually re-introduce a blade dispenser. I would love that.
 
So far the two Platinums seem closer to each other than to the GSB, I've never had that kind of soft gliding face feel from a GSB, though I have had great shaves from them.

The pack of non-Swede platinum blades I have is laser etched, like the Swede, not printed in black like examples I've seen before. PPI can be so confusing sometimes... there are definitely quite a few different blades coming out of that factory, but some *must* just be identical blades re-branded for different markets.

And yes, a blade dispenser would be a nice re-innovation, though it'll probably come with a significant price bump :(
 
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In my experience the blade you call TCPP is very similar to GSB. The new BPP reminds me a lot the late Platinums in the white tuck that went out of production a few years ago (2009?)
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Have you noticed the laser etched arrows on the new blades? Hopefully they will eventually re-introduce a blade dispenser. I would love that.


The Light Blue Box is the White Box...in a light blue box. Same EAN number. When all of the the other PPI blades got a minor make-over/updated packaging, the white box changed to light blue, about two years ago. More in-depth post here.
 
The Light Blue Box is the White Box...in a light blue box. Same EAN number. When all of the the other PPI blades got a minor make-over/updated packaging, the white box changed to light blue, about two years ago. More in-depth post here.

I'm glad to know they are the same blade, they felt very similar to me based on memory. I've used my last "white" Platinum a lot of time ago.
 
Yesterday was the last day on the TCPP, as it showed the first signs of harshness on this shave. On the up-side, it was still a very close shave and didn't leave me wincing from the AS.

Today I'm taking a break from Gillette Platinum and re-trying Treet New Steel blades.
 
The shave after the previous post was back to the Swede, very smooth, perhaps backing off in sharpness a bit from the first few shaves, but still very respectable and delivered an excellent result.

My next two shaves were a break from the Platinum deathmatch... I had previously tried and *not* enjoyed Treet "New Steel" blades, but decided I ought to give them a second chance. It turns out that they're actually quite decent performers, down the middle smoothness, slightly above average sharpness and both outings yielded solid DFS- shaves with a quick 2 pass and no touch-up.

They're definitely not going into regular rotation, but I'm glad I gave them a second chance.
 
As an additional observation on the Treet New Steel blades, when I removed the blade today there was a small trace of rust, but much less than I would expect from a Treet Silver or "black beauty". Anecdotally (since I haven't done a head-to-head yet) I'd say the shave was closer to the un-coated carbon steel Treet blades than to the Dura Sharp (PTFE coated). These specifically note that the blades are coated and should not be wiped...

The Wizamet SI that replaced the Treet was excellent as expected.
 
Yesterday was a Micromatic Thursday (yeah, I'm not very good at following rules...), but today was back on track to keep testing the Platinum blades. This shave with the Swede was a DFS++: the places where my whiskers swirl are also in spots where chasing them with additional passes is more challenging, so true 100% BBS pretty much never happens without a 3 pass plus touch-up and that only lasts for a few hours, so why bother when I can have a shave that's 97.3% as good for two passes plus minor touch-up?
Smoothness was undiminished and despite the feeling that peak sharpness has been passed, the results still kick many lesser blades' (YMMV!) butts.

I'll keep shaving with this one until comfort or performance drops noticeably, but at this point I think my judgement based on the two test blades is that the Blue Package Platinum variant is the better blade, mostly in durability, but having an ever so slight edge (pun intended) in sharpness and smoothness as well, over the Tri-Color Package Plat. Which in no sense takes anything away from that blades excellent performance, the TCPP is still a top-tier blade in my book and will join my list of regular rotation blades.

Soap today was Mondial Zagara, no AS.
 
I’ve got the TCPP version, use them regularly and like them. Today I got 100 of the BPP version and used one for the first time in a Blackbird sb, I got a fantastic bbs shave with no irritation. I haven’t done a side by side comparison but I think I like these new blades even more than the others, they’re sharp and VERY smooth.
 
This morning was a quick and easy SAS in one pass with the TCPP (didn't bin it after all), it's not quite dead yet.

It was still very smooth with RR Saturnia, but has definitely slipped from its A-game.
 
I just shaved with a BPP for the first time and have to say I’m underwhelmed. It’s not a bad blade, but it seems pretty much like the TCPP to me.

Lately I’ve been shaving exclusively with Wizamet SI’s, having switched after years of using GSB’s, and I found the BPP to be both less sharp and less smooth in my main razor than the Wizzies. I actually found the BPP tugging a bit and somewhat irritating my skin on the first pass, which really surprised me.

I’ll give ‘em a few more shaves and see what happens, but right now they aren’t even close to the Wizamets for my preferences.
 
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