Zorrik (Vidyut) Super Stainless

I generally like the products of SuperMax. Zorrick is one of their cheaper offerings so I was a bit leery. Funny. The blade wasn't particularly sharp, nor did it feel particularly smooth. But nonetheless it delivered a very smooth 2 pass shave, with no nicks, irritation or stubble. What more could you ask?

This just may be the worst blade I have ever shaved with. It did not work with my face at all but as in all things YMMV. It felt rough and tugged and pulled through the entire shave. It left large patches of hair seemingly untouched. I made it through a WTG and XTG shave with a whole lot of touch up and still only managed a SAS.

The next day I was feeling foolish and decided to attempt a second shave with it. Two small strokes on my cheek convinced me not to continue and I finished my shave with a different blade.

Vidyut's marketing strategy is a bit of a puzzle, as with other razor blade companies in India. They have three brands, from bottom to top in quality: Vidyut, Zorrick, and Super Max. Then within each brand there is the stainless and the coated blades. My experience with Vidyut is bad; I think they are the blades that fail quality control for the other two brands. Yet there is, or was, only a small price difference between Vidyut and Zorrick, though the Zorrick blades have increased in price recently.

As to the Zorrick stainless, for a half-rupee more you could get a tuck of the platinum coated Zorrick blades for 7 rupees, which are far superior to the stainless Zorricks. However, the platinum Zorricks have recently gone up to 10 rupees per tuck, which is still dirt cheap, of course. I don't know whether the quality has improved, as the only place I can buy them is a wholesaler who only sells them by the box, and I am not that interested. Heck, the only way I could buy the platinum Zorricks were packaged with a cheapo plastic razor. The vendors were all selling stainless Zorricks, and when I tried explaining that they should sell the platinum Zorricks for a half-rupee more, they didn't get it. Apparently, they had never heard of "platinum" and did not know this was a super-expensive metal; or perhaps they were jaded by the meaningless marketing terms applied in India, especially to razor blades. So, after using the platinum Zorricks, which seemed similar in quality to the better Gillette blades, I tried the stainless Zorricks, and found them surprisingly dull. The platinum gives it a sharper, smoother, longer lived edge.

The question remains how the Zorricks compare to the Super Max blades, which are significantly more expensive. Several Indians told me the Vidyut, Zorrick and Super Max blades are all the same, just different packages. But this is obviously not the case. However, all I can find here are stainless Super Max blades, and I am not impressed. I think the Zorrick platinum are better than the Super Max stainless, and half the price. I did find some old Super Max titanium blades, and was amazed by them. But they are gone, and new ones are not to be found, perhaps because none of the vendors has a clue what the word "titanium" means.

I should add that a local barber swears by the Zorrick platinum, and has used them for years. They break them in half, put them into a faux straight razor, and use them only once, for health reasons, and I think the government requires this. While they are probably supposed to throw them away, I see half blades littering the street sometimes, so I guess they sell the used blades to the locals, who have bought a cheap barber razor. Even with this health precaution, I am to going to use a local barber because you still risk a blood infection without any sterilization of the brush or razor.

So, the bottom line: I do not recommend the Zorrick stainless, but do recommend you try the Zorrick platinum, if the price is right. And if you like the Zorrick stainless, try upgrading. I give the Zorrick stainless a 5 rating because it is about average for India, certainly a usable blade, and there are worse blades, as well as much better blades available. I also recommend the Zorrick platinum over the Super Max stainless. I suspect the Super Max platinum are also superior, but have not found any to try.