Challenge PIF - Is Your Best Good Enough?!? - Closed!

[ewk]

Polsilver Challenge PIF - Is Your Best Good Enough?!?

It’s on.

The Polsilver blades arrived in today’s mail. I set the baseline for excellence tonight using a fresh Nacet in the Blackland Blackbird. This combo provides a reliable two pass efficient shave. Tonight was no exception. Two passes with light touchup on the jawline left a very satisfying shave.

 

[TheBigL]

I tried out a Polsilver blade this morning. I was running a little bit late and hastily chose a razor. Picked out a Merkur something... I don't remember which model, but it was the first DE razor I ever bought.

Now I hadn't shaved in about a week so there was a lot to go through. The Polsilver blade felt like it could mow down anything. The only place I could actually feel the blade was shaving my mustache area.

As I've gotten older and tried many different blades, I really notice some have a distinct tugging WTG but are good on any subsequent passes. The Polsilver was great right out of the box and left me a nice, irritation free shave.

 

[FarmerTan]

Lol! I did finally shave today. The surprise is this: instead of Arko! I used a grated puck of Williams that I soaked in a mix of vintage Brut 33 and Dollar Store brand Brut knockoff. Smells incredible, STILL, and I mixed it up about a year ago I think... Details and pictures tomorrow. Lol, I have to post a picture of the blade I chose because I'm hoping someone can identify it! It's a Personna that @dmshaver gave me! For the life of me I can't remember whether it's a red or a blue? I'm pretty sure it's vintage.

 

[fast shaver]

Lol! I did finally shave today. The surprise is this: instead of Arko! I used a grated puck of Williams that I soaked in a mix of vintage Brut 33 and Dollar Store brand Brut knockoff. Smells incredible, STILL, and I mixed it up about a year ago I think... Details and pictures tomorrow. Lol, I have to post a picture of the blade I chose because I'm hoping someone can identify it! It's a Personna that @dmshaver gave me! For the life of me I can't remember whether it's a red or a blue? I'm pretty sure it's vintage.

Its hard to believe you shaved with Williams Instead of Arko.
I think you lost all your Arko sticks when your War Bride cleaned out the bathroom closet.

 

[FarmerTan]

Its hard to believe you shaved with Williams Instead of Arko.
I think you lost all your Arko sticks when your War Bride cleaned out the bathroom closet.

She politely smelled my experimental Brut Puck, and absolutely loved the scent! No lie doggone!

Of course, she absolutely loves Arko as well!

Though she does say that she thinks they both smell like a cleaning solution.... maybe having Covid twice has affected her sense of smell?

 

[Grundi]

Challenge Shave - Wizamet Polsilver Blade 1 - Shave 2

TL;DR - another smooth, close shave, torque razor up 1 notch, got closer, but a weeper appeared

Equipment: Gillette Slim (on 5), Wizamet Polsilver (2), MEM Olive Cream

The Shave: Thought that I would kick the razor up a notch from 4 to 5 (an courageous move, to be sure) resulting in a closer shave. Shave #2 was very similar to Shave #1, the blade felt smooth and cut close, slightly closer than yesterday. Unfortunately, in a moment of distraction, I caught a weeper near the corner of my mouth (it closed quickly). MEM Olive is a great cream and provides slick lather that allows the blade to shine.

 

[fast shaver]

Wizamet Polsilver Blade #1 Shave # 2.
Tools: Henson Medium V2 Razor, Arko Soap & Plissoft brush.
Another good two pass shave this A.M. plus minor touch up.
No nicks or irritation noted.
In the next two shaves I will use the Statum blade made with Japanese steel.
The Statum blade usually gives me 10-15 great shaves.

 

[emwolf]

Shave 2, personal favorite blade PMP:
Same set up as yesterday even down to brush (I rarely use a brush 2 days in a row unless I'm traveling).
Razor: Timeless Ti .68 SB
Brush: Rudy Vey 2022 Contributor brush with a Shavemac 2band D01
Lather: Henri et Victoria Cognac & Cuban Cigars
Aftershave: Clubman Cognac Neat
So, brand new Personna Med Prep and I can say that while the Polsilver may have been delightful, this blade wasted no time in getting down to business. I don't think I felt the the blade as much as with the vintage Pol, but it did its job with remarkable efficiency. The back of my head is a difficult spot normally and the Pol did a decent job yesterday morning. This morning I didn't need the extra pass I used with the Pol for the same result. Today with the PMP is very nearly BBS with no sting from the aftershave. The top of the dome could be used as a skating rink it's so smooth.

Round 1 goes to the PMP. Tomorrow I'll be changing it up with a bit more aggressive razor and re-using the Pol and PMP in that to see if the feel is different.

 

[BradWorld]

Equipment: Gillette Slim (on 5)

I haven’t used a Slim on nothing but 9 in a couple of years. You should try it. No pressure. Ride it steep. Awesome shaves. I will have to break out the Slim next week for this blade challenge, as well as Vintage April.

 

[mikhou]

Razor: Henson AL13 V1+
Blade: Polsilver (1)
Soap: Arko
Brush: Generic badger that I bought off of Amazon (that I actually really like)
Aftershave: Aqua Velva Ice Blue followed by Nivea Sensitive balm

Excellent shave with the vintage Polsilver. Very sharp. Not the sharpest that I have ever used, but certainly sharp enough to mow down 2 days worth of growth. Also it was very smooth and cut very close. I can never tell when I have an extremely close shave if it's because I got the soap right, if the blade did its job, if the razor did its job, if I did my job, or if the stars all aligned. But whatever, it was a very good shave. I would definitely use these on a daily basis if I found a batch of 100 of them and the price was good. Now to test longevity.

First shave compared to other favorites:
-Vintage Schick - Sorry. But nothing beats the Schick from last year - especially in longevity. The Schick was just so smooooooth every single shave. The Polsilver was smooth, but not smooooooth like the Schick.
-KCG - I recall the KCG being very smooth and sharp, but I would say that this Polsilver was a sliver sharper. I'll use a KCG next time to compare the two.
-Tatra Platinum - I just binned a Tatra so I've got a recent baseline. Again, similar to the KCG the Polsilver was slightly sharper, but I find the Tatra to be sharp and smooth without degradation over 4 shaves. We'll keep comparing them as I get more shaves with the Polsilver.

 

[lancre]

Challenge Day 2

Blade: Personna Med Prep from Accutec
Razor: Post War NDC Gillette SuperSpeed
Soap: Stirling Scots Pine Sheep
Brush: Simpson Colonel X2L Best Badger
Humphrey's Grapefruit Toner WH
Nivea Men Sensitive PSB

Today's shave..The Gillette NDC SuperSpeed is one of my favorites. From the first stroke, this blade felt smooth and shaved close. One pass sufficed for my cheeks. On my neck my 1st pass was downward, 2nd upward, and 3rd right to left. That got me to the BBS/DFS border. A little clean-up buffing in a couple of stubborn areas finished the job.

Interestingly, during the final rinse in the shower today's shave seemed a little less close than yesterday's. So I chased the baby for a bit. By the time I had dried off, the situation had reversed and the PMP was closer. Baby caught.

Result: A BBS shave with no drama during or after the shave.
Round 1 goes to the Med Prep by a whisker. The next two days will show the second shave with each blade. Then I'll switch to other razors for comparison.

 

[AnimalCatcher]

Razor: Aristocrat 1948-1950
Blade: Vintage Polsilver
Bowl: Fine Accoutrements
Brush: AP Shave Co.
Soap: Macduff's - Royal Earl Grey
Aftershave: Macduff's - Royal Earl Grey

A very enjoyable shave using the vintage Polsilver. It's a relatively smooth and sharp blade out of the gate, which resulted in a nice, near BBS shave. I'll probably go with an Astra or Personna Red for tomorrows shave.

 

[EclipseRedRing]

Touchdown here in Wales! For my next shave I will start testing against my only vintage blades - 1970s Jewel Super Stainless, made in Sheffield England.

 

[FarmerTan]

Challenge Day 2

Blade: Personna Med Prep from Accutec
Razor: Post War NDC Gillette SuperSpeed
Soap: Stirling Scots Pine Sheep
Brush: Simpson Colonel X2L Best Badger
Humphrey's Grapefruit Toner WH
Nivea Men Sensitive PSB

Today's shave..The Gillette NDC SuperSpeed is one of my favorites. From the first stroke, this blade felt smooth and shaved close. One pass sufficed for my cheeks. On my neck my 1st pass was downward, 2nd upward, and 3rd right to left. That got me to the BBS/DFS border. A little clean-up buffing in a couple of stubborn areas finished the job.

Interestingly, during the final rinse in the shower today's shave seemed a little less close than yesterday's. So I chased the baby for a bit. By the time I had dried off, the situation had reversed and the PMP was closer. Baby caught.

Result: A BBS shave with no drama during or after the shave.
Round 1 goes to the Med Prep by a whisker. The next two days will show the second shave with each blade. Then I'll switch to other razors for comparison.

What do you think of the Stirling Scots Pine Sheep, particularly the smell, and do you have the aftershave?

 

[timetofly]

I haven’t used a Slim on nothing but 9 in a couple of years. You should try it. No pressure. Ride it steep. Awesome shaves. I will have to break out the Slim next week for this blade challenge, as well as Vintage April.

I used a Slim set at NINE. Posted the shave and somebody asked if I had piano wires for whiskers.

 

[fast shaver]

What do you think of the Stirling Scots Pine Sheep, particularly the smell, and do you have the aftershave?

Your better off sticking with Arko because you don't want your War Bride to think your a stray Sheep Dog.

 

[timetofly]

Challenge Day 3

Incumbent blade - Astra SP

Today's shave...

Razor: '64 Slim
Soap: LaToja
Brush: RR 400 Plissoft
AS: Pinaud

The Slim is set at "6" and is seldomly set at anything else.

The Polsilver took nicely to the Slim and delivered favorable results to one half of of my face.
The Astra did its usual job, and also delivered nice results to the other half.
But there was a difference! Negligible but it was still there.

I will tell you tomorrow.... ( @FarmerTan )

 

[AndyPanda]

TL;DR These blades didn't work for me. But I really appreciate the chance to try them!

I tried to be scientific but that quickly devolved into a haphazard free for all. Not sure if my report will be useful as I am going to be out in left field a bit with a different experience than what I'm reading in other's reports here.

I have really coarse whiskers that are very difficult to cut so I spent extra time with pre-shave prep. Essentially I wash my face with a badger brush and soap and I keep the face wet by spritzing or brushing more water on every couple of minutes while I catch up on email and stuff. I know this sounds extreme but it's really relaxing and I'm retired and nowhere I have to be so I just spend about 15 minutes keeping my beard wet before I even start getting my razor ready. I've also found, to my surprise, that I get the best shaves with cold water.

I get really smooth, close and irritation free shaves with a Feather or Nacet or Gillette Platinum or Perma-Sharp and those four all seem to be at the top of my list for sharpness as they all will slice thru my piano wire beard effortlessly. So, expecting great things from the Polsilver, I planned to pit it against one or all of my top blades - that was the plan anyway.

I started with the Polsilver in my '62 slim adjustable on 5. It felt a bit tuggy to me so after the first stroke, I pulled the blade out and put in a fresh Feather blade as a sanity check and "there it is" that crisp and delicate zing of the feather slicing thru my whiskers. So I pulled out the feather and put in a nacet with about 3 shaves on it already -- and again I felt and heard that crisp slice thru the whiskers. Put the Polsilver back in and again felt the slight tugging.

This little experiment really made me appreciate how cool the TTO is, so much easier and faster to swap blades than a 3 piece razor!

I felt like the feather and nacet were just in a whole different league so I went down a few notches and tried an Astra SP. This was sharper than the Polsilver but getting close to apples to apples. I tried a Wilkinson Sword (India) and it was sharper than the Astra IMO. So I tried a Tatra and that felt pretty close to the sharpness level I was experiencing with the Polsilver.

Next I grabbed my 'merica razor (essentially this is a Yates 921-M) to see if that made a difference. I took a few strokes with the Polsilver and then with the Tatra and then with the Astra and again that seemed to be a pretty close match in terms of sharpness vs tug. And all three felt nice and smooth/comfortable they just weren't slicing thru the whiskers as effortlessly as I like. So I went back to the Feather and "zing!" there it was slicing right thru the whiskers. I couldn't see any point in continuing the test so I finished a couple of passes with the 'merica and the feather.

Just for fun, I put the Polsilver in my '60s Tech and did some touchup to catch a few problem spots and I found it worked just fine and was very smooth/comfortable catching the trouble spots on my neck without any irritation.

@Grundi please let me know if there is anyone who wanted to try these blades but was too late to get in on it and I can mail them the remaining Polsilver blades so they can participate.

 

[timetofly]

TL;DR These blades didn't work for me. But I really appreciate the chance to try them!

I tried to be scientific but that quickly devolved into a haphazard free for all. Not sure if my report will be useful as I am going to be out in left field a bit with a different experience than what I'm reading in other's reports here.

I have really coarse whiskers that are very difficult to cut so I spent a extra time with pre-shave prep. Essentially I wash my face with a badger brush and soap and I keep the face wet by spritzing or brushing more water on every couple of minutes while I catch up on email and stuff. I know this sounds extreme but it's really relaxing and I'm retired and nowhere I have to be so I just spend about 15 minutes keeping my beard wet before I even start getting my razor ready. I've also found, to my surprise, that I get the best shaves with cold water.

I get really smooth, close and irritation free shaves with a Feather or Nacet or Gillette Platinum or Perma-Sharp and those four all seem to be at the top of my list for sharpness as they all will slice thru my piano wire beard effortlessly. So, expecting great things from the Polsilver, I planned to pit it against one or all of my top blades - that was the plan anyway.

I started with the Polsilver in my '62 slim adjustable on 5. It felt a bit tuggy to me so after the first stroke, I pulled the blade out and put in a fresh Feather blade as a sanity check and "there it is" that crisp and delicate zing of the feather slicing thru my whiskers. So I pulled out the feather and put in a nacet with about 3 shaves on it already -- and again I felt and heard that crisp slice thru the whiskers. Put the Polsilver back in and again felt the slight tugging.

This little experiment really made me appreciate how cool the TTO is, so much easier and faster to swap blades than a 3 piece razor!

I felt like the feather and nacet were just in a whole different league so I went down a few notches and tried an Astra SP. This was sharper than the Polsilver but getting close to apples to apples. I tried a Wilkinson Sword (India) and it was sharper than the Astra IMO. So I pulled out a Tatra and that felt pretty close to the sharpness level I was experiencing with the Polsilver.

Next I pulled out my 'merica razor (essentially this is a Yates 921-M) to see if that made a difference. I took a few strokes with the Polsilver and then with the Tatra and then with the Astra and again that seemed to be a pretty close match in terms of sharpness vs tug. And all three felt nice and smooth/comfortable they just weren't slicing thru the whiskers as effortlessly as I like. So I went back to the Feather and "zing!" there it was slicing right thru the whiskers. I couldn't see any point in continuing the test so I finished a couple of passes with the 'merica and the feather.

Just for fun, I put the Polsilver in my '60s Tech and did some touchup to catch a few problem spots and I found it worked just fine and was very smooth/comfortable catching the trouble spots on my neck without any irritation.

@Grundi please let me know if there is anyone who wanted to try these blades but was too late to get in on it and I can mail them the remaining Polsilver blades so they can participate.

View attachment 1629589

I know @gpjoe would have liked to get in on it.

 

[gpjoe]

I know @gpjoe would have liked to get in on it.

How very nice of you to think of me, thank you.

I was supposed to receive a couple of blades from another member but they haven't arrived yet, so I'm not sure what is happening - maybe a postal issue.

I see that I have a PM from @AndyPanda so maybe there is still hope. Thanks again.