This is my journal for an ultimate blade test. This might be boring reading until the end. I’ll be testing 63 different blades, and to be sure I give each blade a fair test, I am testing each blind — I won’t know the results until the very end. This way, I (hopefully) erase any subconscious bias based on reviews I may have read, or if I have a bias because I think a blade has a stupid name, etc.
Each blade is numbered, and my beautiful wife volunteered to administer the test. She will load the blades for me, record the number and date, keep the unused blades and discard the used ones, and I will use each blade not having a clue to which one it is each time. I’ll rate each blade and date as I use it, and at the end I’ll see which blade was what and see who the winners and losers are.
I did a similar test, must smaller in scale, and it gave very interesting results. Some blades that were highly touted didn’t do so good for me, and a couple others that don’t get good reviews actually did ok for me. Like we all say, YMMV.
YMMV is so true with blades. In the end, my results won’t matter to others but I hope to discover a few more blades that I like. I’ll just document here because it’s convenient and maybe others will try a similar experiment on their own.
Currently I only have three different Blades in my rotation that give me great results. I included those with this batch. I also included a couple that gave me a bad time when tested a couple years ago. It will be interesting to see how these stackup.
I‘ll use the same razor throughout and limit soaps to 2-3 that give me similar consistent performance. Just to limit variables.
Scoring System
Some way of keeping score is needed, so I came up with a crude point system broken in categories as below:
Effectiveness of 1st pass, 1-5 pts
Results after 3 passes, 1-5 pts
Alum Block Test, 1-5 pts
General Impression, 1-3pts
Amount of cleanup needed, 1-5pts
Post Shave Feel, 1-5 pts
Next day feel, 1-2 pts
Total score possible 7-30 pts
Here are the Blades to be tested, listed alphabetically:
Each blade is numbered, and my beautiful wife volunteered to administer the test. She will load the blades for me, record the number and date, keep the unused blades and discard the used ones, and I will use each blade not having a clue to which one it is each time. I’ll rate each blade and date as I use it, and at the end I’ll see which blade was what and see who the winners and losers are.
I did a similar test, must smaller in scale, and it gave very interesting results. Some blades that were highly touted didn’t do so good for me, and a couple others that don’t get good reviews actually did ok for me. Like we all say, YMMV.
YMMV is so true with blades. In the end, my results won’t matter to others but I hope to discover a few more blades that I like. I’ll just document here because it’s convenient and maybe others will try a similar experiment on their own.
Currently I only have three different Blades in my rotation that give me great results. I included those with this batch. I also included a couple that gave me a bad time when tested a couple years ago. It will be interesting to see how these stackup.
I‘ll use the same razor throughout and limit soaps to 2-3 that give me similar consistent performance. Just to limit variables.
Scoring System
Some way of keeping score is needed, so I came up with a crude point system broken in categories as below:
Effectiveness of 1st pass, 1-5 pts
Results after 3 passes, 1-5 pts
Alum Block Test, 1-5 pts
General Impression, 1-3pts
Amount of cleanup needed, 1-5pts
Post Shave Feel, 1-5 pts
Next day feel, 1-2 pts
Total score possible 7-30 pts
Here are the Blades to be tested, listed alphabetically: