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.

Available in lots of 100 for as little as $4.50, this might be the cheapest blade on the market. For a 4¢ blade, the Zorrik Super Stainless certainly outperforms its price and many competitors in the cheap blade market. Like the other reviewers, I received a complimentary tuck with another blade order. Not expecting anything spectacular, the first shave was satisfactory. What amazed me was the longevity of the blade. I shaved with the first blade for over a week, losing track of the exact number of shaves, without any serious degradation of smoothness. For overall performance, these aren't in the same league as Feather or even Shark Chromes; but they don't cost anywhere near as much, and for an everyday work horse, they're not bad. When my current stock of blades is depleted, I'll give these blades serious consideration as a replacement.

The blades are double-wrapped in waxed paper (inside) and plain paper (outside). The paper is NOT held on by glue! So if you were looking for that blade without the gummy glue that mucks up your razor, consider the Zorrik.

I've used one that I got as a freebie from Shoebox. I was happy with it and now I have a full tuck of five waiting in the queue. It's amazing how much variety is out there and how irrelevant is the pricing!

This is a strange blade.

It shouldn't work particularly well...after all it's not all that sharp... and you can hear the blade cutting your whiskers as you shave, as if it has to struggle to do so.

But here's the thing...the darned blade works like a champ. Despite the noisy cutting action that feels like its dragging across your face, I am left with a close, smooth shave time after time, with very little irritation...and I have a pretty dense beard. My regular blades are the Gillette green (or yellow) 7'o clocks...two of the sharpest around....and still these Zorricks work well!

Again, as I said, they shouldn't work, but they do, at least for me.

Right, I finish my pack of Zorrik, time to review. I used them in my Gillette NEW with Bull Mastiff handle.

Price: Cheap I guess
Quality: I gave a 5 as I thought they were average
Sharpness: Now, they are sharp but not that sharp. I other Indian blades that were sharper such as Supermax and Gillette 7 o'clock.
Longevity: 2 shaves per blades, I can't get a third one out of it (3 passes shave)
Smoothness of shave: A bit rough but not the worse blade... They reminded me of a Merkur but 1-2 notch below
Packaging: Perfect packaging. No glue, carboard, recyclable!

Tried this in my Gillette 7 o'Clock Sterling with Cella. Worked good, no problem in getting a CCS.

I love these blades.
used in Merkur 39c I got a very close shave with my usual 3 passes.

I didn't like these much either. First pass was pretty rough going, almost painful. Things got a bit better on subsequent passes but overall the shave wasn't anything to write home about. I guess they will shave your stubble off eventually but not really in an enjoyable manner, especially with so many other alternatives out there. Not the worst blade ever but far from the best.

I did like the little recyclable cardboard case but of course there is no used blade bank as found on many brands with plastic packages.

My favorite blade is Feather, Personna (Red) and Derby are my best alternatives, Merkur is also acceptable. I've got tough beard, so whenever one variable in my regiment is below standard, I get bad results with a lot of cuts & nicks. The Zorrik (Vidyut) didn't do it for me. I got it as part of a blade sampler pack, and it wasn't sharp enough. I gave it 4 attempts, all with the same poor results. The blade might be a well-priced alternative if your beard is not tough. But for the same price you get red Personnas & Derbys.

I got a pack of 5 of these as a free gift when I bought other blades on ebay. I'd never heard of them, or almost never, and didn't expect much. But I was pleasantly surprised - pretty damn good blades! They've used the variables in an interesting way: these blades are softer in their spring, so, even though they project almost as much as a Feather (yes, you read right), they aren't rough at all - they seem to tighten down "farther", and I think this reduces/eliminates any "chattering", as well as tones down the aggression. I can say with almost complete certainty that you won't cut yourself with one of these - but the shave is nice, very safe and surprisingly "combative" within that. I used these in my Weishi, with Nivea Milde Rasier Creme for the 3 daily passes on my skull (wtg, xtg, atg), and was very pleased; please note I said "nice" shave, not great, but far from bad. This will sound ridiculous, but these blades are such as if a Dorco and a Feather had a love child LOL, or at least a Dorco and a Derby Low aggression but still good cutting. They're packed in my favorite way - all paper, two different kinds, recyclable and biodegradable. ('Hope the photos are okay, I wasn't too awake yet As I said, I got them for free, but if I remember some of my research, they can be had for $10 (or possibly less) for 100. I've used two of the five, for 3 days each, and while I may not buy these, I'll sure enjoy their uniqueness as I finish them up. I apologize there's no box in the photos (I'd already sent it to paper recycling); it's tan, with the logo you see on the unopened blade.