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the "jade" brush is niceMy current best blade & razor pairing are the AC types...
I was lucky to be able to get my hand on 2 Yaqi AC razors very cheaply and with the Ac guarded blades...ohh my...all shaves have been silky smooth and very efficient!!
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Thanks!! The Yaqi 24mm Mountain Lake 2 Band Badger is a great brush. The handle is very comfortable in hand and the swirl inside the handle is beautiful. The brush knots are soft but with a good enough backbone. Very good for both face or bowl lathering. If patience enough it is cheap too...hahaha!the "jade" brush is nice
ive ordered a few packs of Chinese blades to try out, I'll stick them in at the end of experiment to see if their any goodView attachment 1252580View attachment 1252581View attachment 1252582View attachment 1252583
ive just had the 2 lots arrive so far, and i have a couple of tucks of Apache from a previous purchase a while back, but still not got round to trying them yetHave you gotten them yet?
Do the Baili blades still say "Made in America" in Chinese on the tucks? They are/were Personna/ASR made blades. The Baili Platinum+ were the best of the three Baili tiers. One notch up from Chinese Cloud blades in sharpness.
I bought a tuck of the Gillette blades in the supermarket, now and then, to see if they had improved yet. They are sharper than the Chinese old brand Rhino blades, but about 5x the price.
The Ming Shi blades are sharp, and I've got the scars to prove it from trying to use them with Futur clone they were included with. I never could find a razor they worked well with, or a reason to use them over my other blades. "Smoother shaver" are the last words I would use to describe them. But my opinion might change if I tried them again.
The Chinese blades I have the most respect for are Ri Mei blades. This is a big, old company. I got some of their blades with their inexpensive three-piece razors and they were very good -- sharp, smooth and well-mannered -- even though they weren't the top of the line. The blades were very hard to find.
BTW, if you are ever tempted to try the Chinese Schick DE blade, don't bother. It is only one notch above Chinese Super Gillette Blue Blades. I didn't bring any of either blades back with me - space problem.
Apache is one of Personna's labels in China. Their titanium DE blade, made in America, was a big disappointment, fairly dull and relatively rough. However, I did buy some Chinese Personna DE blades online, made in America, and they were smooth and sharp.
On the other hand, I got triple blade orange Apache cartridges, made in America, and they were amazingly good, and easily lasted a month. They said they were ceramic coated. But the more expensive Apache and Schick cartridges, made in America, were lousy, in my opinion. Go figure.
My theory is that many Chinese are afraid of cutting themselves with DE blades -- just look at the illustrations for their razors. So Gillette made sure they made their made in China blade one that would never cut anyone.
Of course, it's always possible these might have improved recently. But keep in mind that most Chinese who are not impoverished sunburned peasants toiling in fields or wizened grandfathers who learned to shave with a DE razor before the Revolution would die of shame if anyone saw them using a DE razor. Most people I knew used an electric razor now and then; they have rechargeable ones that cost $3 that work fine for them.
Of course, China is a big, relatively diverse country, and some men do need to shave daily. They most likely use cartridges. I rarely saw DE blades or razors for sale in stores, except ones with foreign customers. I might see a Ri Mei razor for $1.50 or tuck of Rhino blades in a small shop; the big supermarkets would have a few Schick, Apache and Gillette tucks among the cartridges, even in cities of 5 million or more.
China can make good razor blades if they want to. But I don't think you are likely to find anything special there.
But it is always nice to see someone willing to experiment in the name of science. Please let us know what you learn.