18 Blade survey

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

I thought some might be interested in this. Having been a staunch user of Wilkinson Sword blades nearly all my life, I decided a while ago that perhaps I needed to try other things. Initial mini trials weren't all that encouraging, since I like my blades to be not ultra-sharp and leave me cut to pieces, but to last without getting too blunt and tuggy too soon. The WS had fulfilled that purpose for years, and would be hard to beat in that respect. But nobody would argue that the modern German version is as good as its old British ancestor.

So I bought one of those sample packs from the 'bay. It contained 18 blades, and I've tried them all in sequence. It's taken a while, because of my love of economy, I've eked out the last bit of sharpness from all of them. So it's been about 17 months altogether. The results are in the table below.

Blade	Country	Shaves	Comments	Available from
Feather HI-Stainless	Japan	10	Very very sharp. Fatboy on 3, very light touch required. Very comfortable on days 3 and 4. A bit tuggy by day 10	18.4p / blade
Gillette 7 O'Clock Sharpedge (Yellow)	Russia	30+	Nice smooth feel the first day. Nowhere near as sharp as the Feather. Quite similar to a Wilkinson.	10.5p / blade
Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Stainless (Green)	Russia	15	Felt tuggy on day one. Not as good as the yellow.
Supermax Stainless	India	7	Very poor. Tuggy from the start. Tried honing it and that finished it off.	n/a
Supermax Blue Diamond	India	12	Much better than the Stainless but gives a bit of razor burn. May try it on a lower setting on the Fatboy. Not all that brilliant.	n/a
Astra Superior Platinum	Russia	40	Very smooth feel and lasted over a month. Best compromise of feel and longevity so far.	8p / blade
Wilkinson Sword - Solingen	Germany	~20	(away for 2 weeks on holiday using other kit, hence approximation). Never as sharp as some, but remains comfortable all the way through	10p / blade
Zorrik Super Platinum	India	<1	Awful! Just awful. Threw away without finishing a shave	n/a
Bic Chrome plated	Greece	25	Not as bad as the Zorrik, but not as good as a Wilkinson or Gilette. Perhaps similar to the Supermax Blue Diamond. Lasted well after a poor start.	12p/blade
Dorco Platinum ST-301	South Korea	8	Started rough but improved slightly. Never very sharp.	n/a
Treet Platinum super stainless	Russia	30	Quite nice feel to start, better than the last 2. Lasted quite well.	6.1p / blade
Shark Super Chrome	Egypt	14	Never that great. similar to Dorco.	n/a
Personna Platinum	Israel	24	Always felt as if there were dull spots on the edge	n/a
Shark Stainless	Egypt	12	Not bad. Not all that sharp, but fairly comfortable	10p / blade
Astra Superior Stainless	Russia	33	A joy from the start. Smooth and comfortable.	10.5p / blade
Derby	Turkey	25	Quite good. Started tuggy but improved before getting blunt and cutting me	n/a
Polsilver Super Iridium	Poland	34	Never incredibly sharp but lasted very well. A good solid blade.	11p / blade
Laser ultra Triple coated	India	5	Best of the Indian blades but a long way off being good. Never really sharp.	11p / blade

Notes:

1. The razor throughout was a Gillette Fatboy. My normal setting is either 3 or 4, sometimes changing from 3 to 4 later in the life of a blade.
2. The prices in the last column are in UK pence, from the 'bay, in the UK. YMMV.
3. Where a price has n/a in it, I either couldn't find them for sale, or couldn't be bothered looking, not being interested in buying that particular blade.

Conclusions:

The Russians make great blades
The Indians don't
The others are somewhere in between.

If I had to choose a top 5 they'd be:

1. Astra Superior Stainless - this was always a joy, but a tiny bit more expensive than No. 2
2. Astra Superior Platinum - awesome. Wonderful comfortable feel, and lasts and lasts.
3. Feather - impressive sharpness, but you have to be so careful, and it doesn't last all that well.
4th equal - Gillette 7 O'Clock yellow and Wilkinson (white packet, not the black) - both smooth and comfortable, but never ultra-sharp.

My cabinet now has 100 Astra Superior Platinum in it, alongside my stock of Wilkinsons. I expect to enjoy shaving much more, for a good while, starting tomorrow

Hope this is useful.

 

[cw62803]

Great post! Thank you for sharing it.

 

[Grundi]

So I bought one of those sample packs from the 'bay. It contained 18 blades, and I've tried them all in sequence. It's taken a while, because of my love of economy, I've eked out the last bit of sharpness from all of them. So it's been about 17 months altogether. The results are in the table below.

Well done, and an incredible effort keeping tracking of blade performance. The economy part wasn't the foremost reason that I DE shave; it was the variety, the choices, and that the razor didn't clog. My son convinced me (although he switched to DE shaving for economic reasons). 18 blades in nearly 18 months is very impressive. My experience has been similar - Russian blades have been excellent, and the Japanese Feather is at the top also; although I think I've had better experiences with the Israeli Personnas and Egyptian Sharks than what you've had.

 

[BigJoe]

Nicely done. Thank you.

 

[matwho]

Well done. I thank you for the information.

 

[troy]

Great post! A year and a half all wrapped up it one easy to read chart.

Of the blades I' ve tried on your chart my thoughts are pretty spot on with yours. Feather, Astra SP, and Derby. Although you were a little nicer to Shark Super Chrome than me.

If you like Russian blades you need to try GSBs.

 

[BSAGuy]

I agree. Nice thorough research and documentation.

Great post! Thank you for sharing it.

 

[BigJ]

Great post! Thanks for confirming my opinions about several of these top blades!

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

The one issue you will probably have noticed from perusal of the chart is that it's hard to remember back to the blade before last, so many of them are compared, favourably or otherwise, with their immediate predecessors. Luckily the bad ones fade quickest from the memory, and the good ones persist for the longest. Hence I was able to compile a top 5, but a bottom 5 would have been much harder.

Won't be going through that again!
[MENTION=102704]troy[/MENTION] - GSB? Gillette something? I have had some Gillette Rubis from Russia as well - they were great, although not long lasting.

 

[troy]

The one issue you will probably have noticed from perusal of the chart is that it's hard to remember back to the blade before last, so many of them are compared, favourably or otherwise, with their immediate predecessors. Luckily the bad ones fade quickest from the memory, and the good ones persist for the longest. Hence I was able to compile a top 5, but a bottom 5 would have been much harder.

Won't be going through that again!
@troy - GSB? Gillette something? I have had some Gillette Rubis from Russia as well - they were great, although not long lasting.

Gillette Silver Blue

 

[Jim B]

GSB? Gillette something? I have had some Gillette Rubis from Russia as well - they were great, although not long lasting.

Gillette Silver Blue, generally regarded as one of the better/best blades available.

I had the same experience with a Rubie. Third shave was decent, fourth was pretty bad.

Thanks for all the info you've posted.

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

First day of the new age - a lovely smooth shave with an ASP.

 

[wazabees]

Great overview! Gives me an idea how to evaluate the sampler pack I've got waiting for me.

 

[Kent Kimmons]

Try Viking's Sword (Israeli).

 

[fuzzball]

A Gillette 7 O'Clock Black might change your mind about Indian blades.

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

Fuzzball, it'd have to be orders of magnitude better than the others I tried to tempt me away from my Astra / WS combination I now have. They're also around 3x the price of Astras in small quantities, dropping to 2x for 100+.

I looked at GSB on UK 'bay, and they are around 5 times the price of the Astras. They'd have to be VERY good to justify that.

Once in a while I might buy a small pack to try new things, but the last year and a half have mostly just confirmed that there's a lot of very poor quality blades out there, so motivation to keep repeating that experience is low!