DORCO ST 300 Stainless blades

I didn't find these blades to be nearly as sharp as other reviewers here have reported. My understanding is that there is a distinct difference between the Dorco 300's and the Dorco 301's, so reviewers who compare these to Feather blades may be referring to the 301's.

I found the Dorco 300's to be a decent no frills blade. I would recommend these to a beginning shaver as they were relatively forgiving and gave roughly the same quality shave as a Mach 3. The Westcoast Shaving FAQ has correctly suggested trying these blades first.

I did experience some dragging and minor irritation that I don't encounter with either Derbys or Crystals, but I have a light beard and relatively sensitive skin compared to most users. I also encountered slightly better performance using these with soap than with cream.

I was pleasantly surprised by these blades. At first, I didn't buy them because they were so darn cheap, making me suspect that they were no good at all.

But when I ran out of my usual Gillettes, I thought I'd try a Dorco 300. And I'm happy that I did. Such a great smooth shave for the price. No burns, no nicks, no blood. Doesn't last as many shaves as the Gillette, but I'm not complaining.

This has become one of my favorite blades and is always in my rotation.

First, my setup:
C&E Best Badger
Merkur Classic
Cade L'Occitane cream

These blades are very cheap. I bought 10 for $2.50, so they are right down there in price with the Personnas I have seen at Wal-Mart.
Ultimately I got a good shave, but it took longer to get there than with my Merkur, Crystal, or Derby blades that I have tried thus far, and took much more touch up.
The blade skipped across my face, despite the slickness of my lather. I was in constant fear of nicking myself as a result, but I will at least give it credit for not nicking me. The packaging is a very generous 2 - paper wrapped blades (not wax paper) in a cardboard box. These blades are at the bottom of my list right now. I did get the job done with them, but I did not experience the joy I normally do with shaving. I like a blade that doesn't detract from my shave. I like to be able to enjoy scrubbing my face with a nice warm brush and smelling the wonderful smells of my various shave creams as I remove my facial hair. Here I had to worry about whether I would nick myself and how much irritation there would be.
In the end, I had no nicks, and no more irritation than usual. But I guess you have to ask yourself - if you can get from point A to point B in either a luxury sedan or a beat-up AMC Pacer with a really bad alignment equally safe, which would you prefer?
Having only spent $2.50, I'm not feeling any desire to "get my money's worth" out of the remaining blades in the pack.

Gents, these have become my standard blade. I have not had luck with Asian blades other than Feathers. I was really surprised when I tried them and found that they are quite forgiving but gives me a close shave.

I got mine from westcoastshaving.com at a great price. Give them a go and you will be pleasantly surprised.

I have not ordered the sampler's available yet, so my experience is limited to the usual blades at Walgreens, CVS, Dollar Store etc....of which I can say is abysmal. Pulling, cuts, burns are all their products are good for (ASR products from the packaging).

The DORCO's though have shown themselves to be very comfortable in my Gillette adjustable as a daily user. I do not get razor burn and they seem to degrade at a very consistent rate from blade to blade. I have used them at the 9 setting, but have dialed back to 3-6 range as my skill improves. I am getting 4 shaves without any difficulty.

They do not feel sharp on my face, but do cut very well and 4 passes present no distress. They seem to be very gentle.

I am finding them at the flea market, for 10 for $1. I have also tried the Indian Gillette blades (from the flea) and the Dorco are superior.

Even though I didn't really want to, I am growing to love these blades. When I first picked them up at my local stationary shop (yes....stationary shop) I expected them to be of middling quality, and below average overall, but have been more than pleasantly surprised.

The price is good, as I get them for about 13 cents a blade (and that is buying one 10-pack at a time), and the quality has impressed me. I expected them to vary greatly from blade to blade, but have always found each blade to be the same as the last. I just learned last night, from a man that worked at Dorco for nine years, that Dorco has spent a huge amount of money in retooling their factory and increasing quality control in the past five years. I don't know how good or bad the blades were before that, but whatever it is they have done has worked.

The sharpness on these rates just below a Feather for me. I have tested them head to head, so to speak, with all other blades. By that I mean I use one Dorco blade, switch to a different brand, and then back to the Dorco. This has given me a fairly good comparison I feel.

Longevity isn't too much of an issue for me as I do not try to scrape out as many shaves as possible from each blade. I give each blade three shaves, and then change. The Dorco probably has another shave or two in it, but they are so plentiful here in Korea I can pick them up anywhere.

I always cork my Dorco once, and I get incredibly smooth shaves time after time. No irritation, no nicks, nothing. It even does a great job on J-Hooking on the neck, something the Merkur and Derby give me problems with.

The packaging is just cardboard, but I have seen that they are now being offered in the standard plastic container. But, this might have only been rolled out in Korea thus far. I don't think they've made their way internationally yet. But, packaging is of no concern to me. As long as the blades are easily accessible, and clean, my standards are met.

Well just tried these blades out myself got them from a letterk sample pack .

Must admit they did an ok job but i would definitely not buy these blades again They dragged a lot very rough blades.


The set up
Mama Bear Rosemary Mint
AOS #3 fine badger
Originally I started with a shavette after a lot of drag I decided to switch to my HD since I am more comfortable with it to see if it was the blade or just my technique
turned out to be the blade the hole shave felt very rough . I will try and use these blades for the rest of the week so that I can make a better decision maybee they really need to be corked to smoothen them out I am not sure but I will keep you all posted after a week with these blades .


Nick

Price: I paid $1.00US for a pack of 10 blades in a Virginia dollar store (went back and got 4 more packs)

Quality: I rate these below Feather and Swedish Gillettes but above everything else.

Sharpness: Below Feather and Swedish Gillettes but above everything else. I require the same number of strokes as IP's which is to say one more than Feather or Swedes.

Longevity: 4 shaves; Feather and Swedes I get 4 shaves; with IP's I get 2 sometimes 3 shaves.

Smoothness of shave: This is where these blades really shine. I get absolutely no irritation from these blades. I don't consider myself to have sensitive skin but by the 3rd pass with a Swede or Feather I feel my face starting to burn. Not with these blades. I can go with a 4 pass shave followed by touch-ups and not feel the slightest irritation.

Packaging: I deducted a point because they come in cardboard box of 10. I guess I should have given them a 10 since they are double wrapped and come in some sort of package (unlike some others).

Bottom line: This is now my default blade. Why? NO IRRITATION. I can do a 3 pass shave with touch-ups and when I splash on Dominica Bay Rum I don't feel the burn (I do miss it) because my skin is not irritated. I only use it four times because I paid $1.00 for 10 of them. This is what every newbie should start with. One last point, if your face is feeling a little raw from using other blades, but you can't give your face a day off, try this blade, it's that smooth.

Got a Dorco PL-501 to reintroduce myself back to the using a system my long dead grandpa used. It came prepackaged with 2 Dorco DE razors.

These blades are a good introduction to using DE razors. Better than my old twin blade cartridges from Supermax or Gillette. I got a reall smooth shave from the Dorcos.

Got these from a Japanese store (Daiso) here in Singapore. SGD2.00 for a pack of 10.

Good and sharp blades. Quite rough compared to my trusty Euro Gillettes though. Not rough like Merkurs as these dorks (sorry - just couldn't resist ) are thinner and thus more flexible. For those without sensitive skin, I guess these blades could work just fine.
(For my fellow Belgians: Colruyt has rebranded them as 'Fresh' blades. Needless to say: they're very cheap)

First of all I have only tried the following blades,Italian Gillette (s..t),Derby extra (love em) and the object of this review Dorco so my judgement will be in comparison to the Derby:


DOngyang Razor COmpany has chosen the wrong letters to create their brand name,at least for the english speaking markets.
But if despite the unappealing brand name you try them you'll be heading for a pleasant surprise.
The packaging is just as cheap as possible,all cardboard and paper


So much for the luxury department,no plastic wrapping,no used blade compartment,nothing but the blades.You can have the blades in a plastic dispenser by asking for Dorco ST 301

No, these blades aren't Feather sharp ,but despite feeling quite dull they delivered 4 good shaves with no irritation and without cuts or nicks when loaded on my undated late 40's SuperSpeed.
To get a nice smooth shave they take more passes than the Derby's ,they seem to be less effective against the wiskers but they lose theyr sharpness more slowly and more gently than the Derby's so even if they need more passes they last as long and are gentler on my face.

I paid 9 euro for 100 blades delivered,that's about half of Derby and about one quarter of what the bad Gillette Platinum cost here in Italy (btw: Italian Gillette don't come from Sweden so don't bother buying them here,they probably are as bad as the american Gillette).

To sum it all up,if you want to be glass smooth with every shave these are not the right blades but if you want nice and inexpensive blades that deliver good shaves (and with some effort on your part great shaves) that can forgive some mistake without giving immediate punishment don't care about the name and try the DORCO shave!