Tesco Stainless Blades

Although I've been shaving for 35 years, I've only recently discovered de shaving. It's actually now a pleasure!
I've tried a few different blades over the last few months, some better than others. I started with Wilkinson classics - they were ok, but I knew there was something better for me. I got a sampler pack from ebay of Astras, Feather, Supermax's and Shark SS. Not been brave enough to try the Feather yet, but I liked the Shark.
It was here that I first heard of the Tesco own brand blades. I would never even have considered them otherwise. I was dubious at first, but trusted those of you here who seem to know better. They only come in 10's, so it would have been a bit wasteful if they didn't suit me.
Wow!!! I couldn't believe how good they are! I first used them in my EJ Barley, which was nice, but not quite there. Then I tried them in my Gillette adjustable, dialed it up to 7 and went for it. Absolutely fantastic!
They work out at twice the price of Sharks per 100, but considering 1 blade lasts a week, that's just £20 for a 2 year supply.
I'm now working out a way to make my EJ a little more aggressive.

Above average blade which are very well priced as well, when i was on my first try of de shaving i did not get on with these but after reading some good reviews here decided to have another go with them and have just finished using them as a rotation pack with my samples and actually found them good, i dont know if i am getting better at shaving or the blades have improved but i was pleasantly suprised and will pick up another pack over the weekend.

My experience in the HD is exactly the same as trewornan.

Used in an HD I find these just don't produce the goods. They feel comfortable and smooth enough shaving but even a four pass shave left me with significant stubble. A derby will give me a much closer shave in two passes and is cheaper as well. Most of the pack went in the bin.

Conclusion: A good blade, but not as sharp as a Feather, and not as smooth as a Swedish Gillette.

My first run-in with the Tesco was from the Tesco Train (Thanks Ron). I wasn't impressed at all, and thought I might have had a bad blade. I recently received a full pack and my initial results were repeated.

Price: Probably great in Europe, not so good in the USA. But we're used to that for such blades as the Swedish Gillette.

Quality: Even though it's a department store brand, it's certainly a quality item. This isn't a US Personna here.

Sharpness: This is a very sharp blade. It's up there in the Feather/Swedish Gillette group. Probably closer to the Swedish Gillette than the ultimate sharp Feather.

Longevity. For me, this blade didn't change characterists until the 5th shave. About normal for most blades on me.

Smoothness of Shave: Ugh. It's like a Feather on my face with a slight amount of burn. The real thing that gets my goat with this blade is that I get an unusually high number of missed hairs. My total number of passes has to increase, which may be why I'm getting more burn. It's like the blade just decides to skip random hairs. It's really rather weird.

Packaging: Eh...nothing terribly impressing, but nothing horrible either.

Overall, not really interested in this blade. If you live in Europe and enjoy Feathers, by all means this blade should be on your list of options. But If you live in the US and Feathers are your blade, just stick with the Feathers. Personally, if I'm paying to import a blade, I'd choose the Swedish Gillette any day. It's super sharp, but WAY smoother.

I've had a chance to try my blade from the Tesco Train, but I wasn't too pleased. I seem to be the first!

Price is a difficult factor to measure, as they're hard to obtain in the US. They are, however, not cheap. Compared to the cheap quality of Derby blades, it's tough to compete in this category!

Quality - Not a bad blade overall, but it doesn't stand out. About as well-made as a Merkur. To me, that means that they tried just hard enough to make it useable, but not enough to make anything stand out. See below rankings for the reasoning behind this.

Sharpness - ugh. This sucker dragged on my face, and couldn't cut whiskers easily no matter what prep they had. I tried 6 different combinations of preshaves, soaps, and creams, and nothing got the Tesco blade to cut as well as other blades. I'd rank them around the same level as a Merkur or Wilkinson for sharpness. It's easy to do better in this category.

Longevity - I didn't have any trouble with longevity, but when the experience wasn't good to start with, it's hard to tell when the blade is done.

Smoothness of Shave - Not bad. If the blade had been a bit sharper, I can tell that it would have been a pretty smooth shave. Not as smooth as an Israeli or Derby, but smoother than a Feather or Swede. (On my face, of course.)

Packaging - No comment: I received my sample blade repackaged for the Tesco train. I gave this a 7 to match the highest of the other scores, so that it's not unfairly punished for something I can't rate.

Overall - not something I'd buy.

When I was gathering supplies for my first DE shave I picked up a packet of Tesco's own brand blades in case I couldn't find anything better and promptly forgot about them. Reading about the "Tesco train" and other escapades prompted a frantic search through my coat pockets for the legendary blades.

What can I say? They're OK. They definitely seem a bit sharper than the Wilkinsons I've used, but also flimsier--as if the sharpness comes from the thinness of the steel rather than anything else. You do get a good shave with them though, but you need to pay attention to what you're doing. Longevity isn't such an issue with me, as I'm new to this and happy to ditch blades after two or three shaves rather than risk facial damage.

A word of warning: Tesco is a huge and powerful retailer over here and known for playing extreme hardball with its suppliers. I wouldn't bank on them having a single source for these or sticking with any supplier long term.

Not a bad blade.
The price is middle of the road, no more or less expensive than Gillette Super Silver, Personnas, Wilkinson Swords.
The sharpness is up there. Out of the blades mentioned above they do excel IMHO.
Longevity... Hmm. I'm finding it hard to get more than three shaves out of these. Though I may swap razors to test them in another context.
Smoothness of Shave is great on first shave but after three they get a bit bumpy and lumpy which causes all sorts of neck redness.
Packaging. Nothing to write home about. Does the job, has a place for used blades as most packs do.

I'll continue to use these as they have proved to be a gem on the UK highstreet. However, they haven't been put up against some other blades yet which will be an interesting experience as and when it comes.

I’d like to chip in something really different about these blades, but I believe previous reports have pretty well hit the target with the reviews so far. Like others, I wasn’t expecting much from the sample blade, but I was pleasantly surprised. The word that kept coming to mind was “comfortable.” Using this blade was very comfortable on my face.

Now, to be fair, I guess I need to qualify the status of my beard. I’m not someone who could clean your barbecue grill with his face, but I’m way beyond the peach fuzz stage. My beard is not the heaviest – the 5 o’clock shadow doesn’t show because I’m blond, but the next morning, my face needs to be scraped. So if your situation is similar, you should expect similar results.

I’ve always been under the impression that the sharper and therefore smoother a blade is, the easier it is on your face. The Tesco blade certainly filled the bill. I gave up on the Merkurs long ago, and latched onto Derbys – turned out to be a very big improvement. But the Tesco has the Derby by a mile! I’ve never used a Feather, but I’d be willing to bet the Tesco isn’t far behind in sharpness and quality.

I was impressed to get a full seven shaves with the Tesco and found it maintained its sharpness (or shall we say, its comfort) clear through the last session. While my face could tell a little difference days six and seven, even those were better than the Derbys.

If the Tesco blades are ever available in the U.S. and the price is competitive, I’d buy them in a New York minute. I liked this blade!

Larry: Good report. I have a Tesco from Ron that I will start using for one week on Sunday. I will use it in my Edwin Jagger HD, and that is used for my beard reduction passes. I will be able to see if it is smooth. I will then switch over to the slant bar and see how it does as a touchup blade. I tend to judge everything by a Feather, and when Cotton Blossom crafts has those at $24 per 100, I think that is a great price for the Feathers

Well, I have tried them. Meant to edit my post to remove the zeros but somehow it could not do it. If anyone can fix it, feel free to do so.

I just assumed some things, like price and packaging. I have used it one week and it was definitely smoother than an Isreali Personna and a Derby, and it has been so long since I used a Merkur that I can not compare it to a Merkur. I still think the Feather is sharper and smoother. One key area that I will test next week is to use the Tesco in a touch up with the slant bar. This past week, I used it in an Edwin Jagger HD razor for what I call my beard reduction passes. I would be hard-pressed to tell it apart from the Feather except on where my hollows of my neck leave stubble. If I used a Feather and concentrated, it would cut slightly closer.

Thank you to Ron for allowing me to test this blade. If the price were competitve with the Israeli Personna or Derby blades, I would say pick the Tesco blades over those two.

Sam

I was fortunate enough to be on the Tesco train for tryout of these blades. Ron (Guenron) was kind enough to coordinate the train and I was first on the schedule for the westbound train. So far in my DE experiences, I have tried Derby, Swede Gillette, Merkur, and Israeli Personna (my favorite up to now) blades. I wasn't expecting a whole lot from the Tesco (being a generic supermarket type of blade) when I loaded it up in my Merkur HD and cranked up some mantic superlather (Nancy Boy cream plus Classic Shaving soap). Three passes later (N-S, W-E, and S-N) and OH WOW! BBS on just about all my face (small stubble on neck, but much less than usual) and absolutely no nicks or weepers. The alum bar stung less than usual, which told me this was a great shave. I was blown away.

The second shave was even better than the first. BBS all the way, thanks to a little blade buffing and touch up. Again, no nicks, no cuts, minimal irritation. Third shave was as good as the first two. By now, I was dreading the end of this experience, because this was nirvana to me. The fourth and fifth shaves weren't quite as good as the first 3, but still better than I had gotten with the IP's with still no cuts or nicks. I love these blades.

Price - My understanding is that these are reasonably priced in the UK, but I don't know how much they would be if they could be bought in bulk and shipped to the US, so I only awarded an 8.

Quality - Couldn't be better in my opinion. Best blade for my face.

Sharpness - I haven't used a Feather blade yet, so the only thing I could compare the Tesco to is a Swede Gillette, and the Tesco seemed sharper to me. No pulling until the 5th shave and only a little bit then that I can probably attribute that to lackluster lathermaking on my part. Just good cutting with this blade.

Longevity - If I can get at least 5 good/great shaves out of a blade, I'm happy with it. I think I can stretch it to a week's worth (6 shaves for me).

Smoothness - I had no nicks, no cuts, and less irritation than with any other blade. It seemed like a hot knife through butta on the first 3 shaves.

Packaging - Came in a standard plastic pack and the blade was wrapped in plain wax paper. The blade itself had absolutely no writing on it of any type. I have no problem with the presentation. Utility works best for me. Extra points added for Ron's imaginative use of a DVD case for shipping it to the participants.


In conclusion, I love this blade. I want more NOW!!! I'm going to load in a Feather now to see how it compares to this lovely, but I'm betting I will still prefer the Tesco. You lucky guys in the UK have it good, I'm tellin' you.