Blade journey

[mgweatherly]

At some point, I'll need you to drop your AC blade wisdom on me. I have one AC razor, My RR Hawk V2. I've used it only twice, both times with a Schick Proline blade. I have just received some KAI MG Pink blades with the guard, but I've not yet tried them. This journey intervened.

 

[mgweatherly]

I'm pausing the Blade Journey for one shave with this new arrival:

 

[Guido75]

If you snap a DE blade in two, it becomes a SE blade to use with your new toy! And continue your journey

Guido

 

[mgweatherly]

If you snap a DE blade in two, it becomes a SE blade to use with your new toy! And continue your journey

Guido

I'm loading it with one of the USA made Personna blades that came with it. I've only used vintage versions of this blade. I'm actually very excited to see how the blade and razor shaves.

 

[Phoenixkh]

At some point, I'll need you to drop your AC blade wisdom on me. I have one AC razor, My RR Hawk V2. I've used it only twice, both times with a Schick Proline blade. I have just received some KAI MG Pink blades with the guard, but I've not yet tried them. This journey intervened.

I don't have that much wisdom but I tested all the AC blades as I mentioned. For my face and whiskers, the Kai Titan Pink Protouch MG guarded blades came out on top in every trial. The Feather ProGuards are so close to them, I'm not sure I could tell the difference in a double blind test.

I didn't have any luck with the Schick Prolines in either the Claymore Evolution or the ATT X1 AC Slant. @LRod bought the two 30 blade packages I had, with a few missing out of one of them. He loves them as do many people here. Some of these blade issues are hard for me to figure out. Larry and I have a couple razors in common that we both like a lot and some of our blade choices match perfectly. I can't figure out why one blade works for him but doesn't for me in the AC razors. It doesn't make any logical sense to me.

 

[Phoenixkh]

I'm loading it with one of the USA made Personna blades that came with it. I've only used vintage versions of this blade. I'm actually very excited to see how the blade and razor shaves.

I used a USA Personna Lab blue in my Rocnel Elite yesterday and loved it. I'm glad because I bought quite a few of them to get the cost down to $14 per 100. I was relieved when I discovered, they are smooth and comfortable for me.

 

[mgweatherly]

Impressions of my first shave with the High Proof Razor are found HERE. It worked great! The Shaverboy will have to wait until Saturday .

 

[lasta]

I'm pausing the Blade Journey for one shave with this new arrival:

View attachment 1572544View attachment 1572545

You are just delaying the inevitable. Sooner or later you will have to face Shaverboy! No way around it.

 

[dmshaver]

Well done documenting your blade journey. I’ve continued to follow this thread with interest. Your data not only helps you, but others too. That’s what’s great about B & B, this community freely sharing with each other!

 

[mgweatherly]

This one is a little long. For my PIF'd Blade Journey shave #10 (rated 7.5/10), I used the following setup:

• Razor: Birth year 1961 G4 Tech with custom stainless handle by @Rosseforp
• Blade: Shaverboy Super Stainless
• Brush: Semogue 820 Boar (superb)
• Preshave: Noxema dwell before rinsing (value pre-shave)
• Soap: Speick shaving stick, tallow-based (very good)
• After shave: Thayer's unscented Witch Hazel splash followed by La Toja balm

As followers of this thread know, I had very low expectations for the Shaverboy Super Stainless. It is sold for US$5.82/100 and branded by a Canadian company called…Shaverboy. I tried to get a sense of shipping cost by starting a purchase, but the company tells me that “shipping not available” to my address. I’m not terribly disappointed . I have no idea who actually makes them or where they are made. The website describes the blades as made from “Superior Premium Stainless Steel,” that provide “Smooth shaving every time!” with “Outstanding Blade Longevity.” Actually, and to my sincere surprise, I can vouch for the former; the shave was indeed very smooth. As for the “outstanding blade longevity,” I’m skeptical. Let me explain.

The first pass was very smooth indeed with no tugging whatsoever and encouragingly efficient, wow. I started wondering how I was going to apologize to the Shaverboy nation (not to be confused with GeoFatboy’s Shave Nation) for prejudging the beloved Shaverboy Super Stainless blade.

The second pass was still very smooth except for a hint of tugging on my toughest whiskers on my chin. But the second pass left more stubble than I expected. No problem, I started my third pass.

On pass three, the blade, while still smooth, was really struggling to achieve the BBS finish that I’ve been able to get with every other blade in this test so far. I buffed and buffed some more, but had to stop at what I would describe as BBS-, even on my cheeks where BBS is pretty easy to achieve.

Either this blade wasn’t as sharp as I thought after the first pass or it started losing its edge a bit during the shave. The only way to get a better idea would be to use it again (“Outstanding Blade Longevity” right?). Um, maybe. Life is short. Frankly, I am highly skeptical that the second shave with this blade would be better than the first.

The post-shave witch hazel and balm did not sound any alarms of irritation, but my face is a little red, especially my neck, which is the most sensitive part of my beard. But, my face felt fine immediately after the shave. Two hours after my shave, I felt no irritation. At 12 hours, I had a CCS+ finish and felt no irritation, but I do have some irritation bumps at both corners of my jawline next to my ears. I believe these bumps were caused by too much buffing trying to achieve a BBS finish. For future "Journey" shaves, I will likely give up reaching for a 100% BBS if I have to buff too much to achieve it. I don't like these bumps. Numerically, this shave is heavily influenced by my award of a 10 for smoothness, but I cannot deny that the shave felt very smooth throughout all three passes.

I put the Speick stick in a ShaveNation stick container, which allows me to bloom the end of the soap by filling the cap with water and screwing it back on while holding the container upside down. This trick softened the end stick nicely and made it very easy to apply the soap to my face. The Speick lather works well, with more slickness than cushion, which is a little unusual in my experiences with tallow-based soaps. The fragrance is subtle and pleasing. I think this stick does a nice, but not outstanding, job. The La Toja balm was fantastic as always. It's one of my favorites (surpassed recently by the Stirling balm).

Summary sheet of my PIF'd Blade Journey is HERE.

Next up is the vaunted NACET! I’ve never actually used a Russian NACET, but I have some great shaves with a vintage British NACET (and still have a few of them). This is one of my most anticipated shaves on the journey because I want to see how the modern Russian version compares with the vintage British version.

 

[APBinNCA]

Oh boy, oh boy, it's shaver Boy Time!

Commentary: it sounds like a low quality steel, they loose their sharpness almost immediately. I have never experienced that with razor blades as even the Indian manufacturers are importing Sandvik roles(Swedish Steel). Kind of a shame that they coated it for smoothness, but couldn't even pick a cheap steel that would last one shave.

 

[Guido75]

Very odd - when I click on items on their website I get rerouted to a non existing / available domain name website. They carry a steel and brass razor too.

Wording to their website Aaron, it is premium quality stainless steel. That doesn’t sound cheap at all!

Anyway, kudos Mitch for taking over for the team. Sounds like a one not even done and done blade. Better shave ahead with the Nacet, which gets a lot of love here on the forum. I have shaved 4-5 shaves with a Nacet so far (not retired yet but I have other blades in rotation at the moment) and found them good shaves. Not raving smooth but definitely a good blade.

Enjoy!

Guido

 

[mgweatherly]

I don't have a ton of experience interpreting magnified photos of blade edges, but I could not resist looking at the Shaverboy edge with my very crude USB microscope, which I believe has a magnification range of about 5x-200x. Here are a couple photos I took at the extreme ends of that range AFTER I shaved once with the blade. One thing that I "think" I'm seeing is noticeable variation in the "width" (thickness?) of the primary bevel. The transition from the unground steel to the bevel looks wavy to me. The blade also looks like it has one shallow bevel and one steeper micro-bevel on the cutting edge. Light reflections may be creating an appearance of three bevels in the more magnified photo. If there actually are three bevels, then the intermediate bevel looks super inconsistent to my untrained eye.

I've only looked at a few different types of blades with my microscope, but I've never seen one that looks like the mighty Shaverboy . I'd love to get the thoughts of those more experienced at reading photos like these.

 

[APBinNCA]

I think your interpretation is right, but I would have tried to get a similar picture of each edge to compare. I have seen wavy grinds like this before and I usually interpret that as the machine not being setup well and probably reflected in the quality of the edge not that the waves themselves matter. That does seem like a short bevel and combined with a micro bevel, it might not be very sharp to start with. Maybe the coating was making it seem more capable than it really was and once it wore off, the tugging began. I mean, the micro bevel looks pretty even itself so maybe this blade didn't actually loose sharpness. There is a paper that I can't link to that talks about cut hairs sticking to metal and that the smoothness from the coating is because it prevents this like eggs in a teflon skillet sort of(protein binding I think).

 

[Guido75]

If my memory serves me correctly I believe that @South Dakota Guy is the microscopic master when it comes to photographing blade edges.

So paging SDG here.

Cheers,

Guido

 

[mgweatherly]

We're at the halfway point of the Blade Journey, and I have enjoyed it immensely so far. The interim results are HERE.

Here's a photo of my "staging area" for the rest of the Journey. Sometimes I take my 1944/45 Regent Tech into the shower with me (where I shave) as a backup when I'm using a "sketchy" blade (no names). The Regent is loaded with a very nice vintage Personna blade that already has one shave on it. So far, I haven't had to use my Regent back up. I don't know why I keep the $1.25 Dollar Tree TTO (back right) so close at hand. I've never used it and don't feel especially compelled to try it. I'm sure I will at some point (with one of the 5 blades that came with it) just to say I have. Am I a glutton for punishment? My other razors are definitely feeling neglected .

I'm genuinely looking forward to using every one of the blades left in the lineup. Believe it or not, I have never used any of the remaining types. I've been tipped that I should especially enjoy trying the NACET (next!) and the Israeli Personna X-series blade. I've also read good things about the 7 O'clock SharpEdge and the Rapira. Is the 7 O'clock SharpEdge the Yellow or the Black? I do not have the outer wrapper for my blade.

I'm also curious about the Vietnamese-made DORCO ST300 to see whether it can better the rather lackluster performance of its Korean-made twin brother. Lastly, I am curious about the blades made by Lord in Egypt, which I understand to include the Big Ben, Crown, Shark, and ASCO blades, but strangely NOT the LORD Super Razor Blade made in Turkey. Apparently, LORD was/is originally a Turkish blade company who also makes blades called "Zaza" and is a different company from the Egyptian company that is now more widely known. The Turkish company needs a better trademark attorney.

 

[APBinNCA]

Is the 7 O'clock SharpEdge the Yellow or the Black?

Yellow

 

[lasta]

I don't have a ton of experience interpreting magnified photos of blade edges, but I could not resist looking at the Shaverboy edge with my very crude USB microscope, which I believe has a magnification range of about 5x-200x. Here are a couple photos I took at the extreme ends of that range AFTER I shaved once with the blade. One thing that I "think" I'm seeing is noticeable variation in the "width" (thickness?) of the primary bevel. The transition from the unground steel to the bevel looks wavy to me. The blade also looks like it has one shallow bevel and one steeper micro-bevel on the cutting edge. Light reflections may be creating an appearance of three bevels in the more magnified photo. If there actually are three bevels, then the intermediate bevel looks super inconsistent to my untrained eye.

I've only looked at a few different types of blades with my microscope, but I've never seen one that looks like the mighty Shaverboy . I'd love to get the thoughts of those more experienced at reading photos like these.

View attachment 1574142View attachment 1574143

I don't think the waviness is from grinding so much as the applied coating.

You ought to shave with it a few more times, then check if the wave is still there.

 

[mgweatherly]

I don't think the waviness is from grinding so much as the applied coating.

You ought to shave with it a few more times, then check if the wave is still there.

Are you trying to kill me? LOL

 

[lasta]

Are you trying to kill me? LOL

Well, now that you've survived the first bout with Shaverboy, I don't think anything could kill you.

Speaking of which, in order to extend the blade journey, I'd like to supply you with the next 20 varieties from my modest little collection.

I wouldn't dare to compare curio size, but I do have access to some lesser known varieties.

Some of my favorites, some I know you will like, and a few far out experiences.

Let me know!