Gillette Blue Extra

[dieselfuel79]

Ordered some of these about a month ago, and was saving them for a special occasion. My wife had been out of town for 2 weeks, and in the meanwhile I grew out my beard.
Anyhow, she got home, admired the beard all afternoon, and was then advised that she missed my "real face". So the beard had to go.

I was certain on which blade to use, but with what razor? So, I picked my favourite....the 39c.
When I took the blade out of the packaging, I have a weird habit of lightly pinching the sharp sides of the blade. This is just something I do to determine (in my mind) how sharp the blade was. It felt really dull. Uh-oh! Had I been waiting all this time to use these blades, only to be disappointed?

Anyhow, shower, prep and shave...boy I couldn't have been more wrong. The blade was very sharp, and extremely smooth to use. It made little work out of my 2 weeks of growth. (And my facial hair grows fast, and it medium in thickness.)

It'll be interesting to see how many shaves I can get out of them, but it was a BBS performance 1st go around.

View attachment 267882

Brad

 

[Searlands]

Top stuff. Never tried the Blues, but I'm a HUGE fan of the 7 o'clock yellows. My equal favourite with the Feather.

Sounds like it was a good decision saving them for special occasions.

 

[Obi Wan]

Congratulations! The GBE NOS blades are one of my favourites. I average 4 shaves per blade and like to think of a GBE blade as the razor tamer. They definitely work best for me in more aggressive razors YMMV, with a smoothness that many of the modern blades that are still in production just don't have. I can remember a reviewer summed them up nicely by saying they are very reliable blades, the blades you would use on your wedding day or that all important court date ahem.

 

[Rivguy]

They are excellent blades and are high in my top five blades. I find that I can get over six great shaves from them and in fact just completed ten shaves with one last week and they were great shaves. Enjoy!

Regards,

Doug

 

[Sledgehammer39]

The Gillette Bleue blades are excellent, to bad they don't make them anymore!

 

[jwilock]

The Gillette Bleue blades are excellent, to bad they don't make them anymore!

The NOS ones in the old style dispensers are long gone, but show up for sale every now and then. But they are still making the ones shown in this thread. There was another thread just a few days ago from someone who found them in lots of sores in France.

 

[freeze205]

The NOS ones in the old style dispensers are long gone, but show up for sale every now and then. But they are still making the ones shown in this thread. There was another thread just a few days ago from someone who found them in lots of sores in France.

Yep that would be me! I'm still in France on holiday and I can confirm you can find those in almost every supermarket. They are really cheap too, about 1,65 euros per 10.
Only difference is they come in a cardboard box, not in a dispenser. Once home I will try these blades!

 

[smalltank]

these blades are one of the few I have found that done "flex"..very stuff like an SE blade

 

[jaguar]

I have a good supply of NOS GBE. For me, they are excellent blades...not my top blade, but certainly in my top 8 blades.

 

[man00ver]

The old GBEs are an excellent balance of sharpness, smoothness, forgiveness, and longevity. They may not lead the pack in any particular category (except possibly smoothness), but they're reliably great to shave with! I'm very happy to own a sizable stash.

 

[Mitsimonsta]

Anyhow, shower, prep and shave...boy I couldn't have been more wrong. The blade was very sharp, and extremely smooth to use. It made little work out of my 2 weeks of growth. (And my facial hair grows fast, and it medium in thickness.)

Congrats, you have found some great blades. For many years they were plentiful yet I scooped up an insane number of them from the source and then there were no more in bulk. The last remaining 100-box lots sold out about 3 weeks later and it was only a few online sources like WCS and Dr Idiot that they remained available from in small quantities. Sounds like you got some of the last remaining from Dr Idiot.

I have a good supply of NOS GBE. For me, they are excellent blades...not my top blade, but certainly in my top 8 blades.

What constitutes 'good'? I think anyone with say 100-200 blades and using them in rotation would enjoy them each time they come around. Meantime I could shave with them all my life and I will have more than a few left over when I die - I'm 33 years of age.

And yes, I rate other blades higher but it is the all over balance of the NOS Bleues that really are something special - special mention to the feedback while shaving. I'd put the Czech-produced 7OC Blues ahead of them, as well the current 7OC Blacks, and most of the vintage Stainless blades like Spoilers, Schick Plus Platinum, Personna 74's etc.

The old GBEs are an excellent balance of sharpness, smoothness, forgiveness, and longevity. They may not lead the pack in any particular category (except possibly smoothness), but they're reliably great to shave with! I'm very happy to own a sizable stash.

John knows... they don't rate a 10 anywhere but they do at least an 8.5 in all areas. Balanced is the perfect word for it. And I never feel like I will ever nick myself with them - in fact I don't think I ever have drawn any blood with a GBE ever.

 

[nannahill]

Used one this morning in my EJ DE89. Very nice shave. For me they are on par with a Personna Red.

 

[Chester]

It's interesting how this blade fades back into the woodwork for awhile and then comes back into awareness as new people discover it. It's one of the "vintage" blades that's probably most accessible. It's an extremely reliable and pleasant blade to shave with. I was fortunate enough to snap up a several hundred before they faded away, and I have not revisited them in a long time, but I have nothing but pleasant memories of them. Oddly enough, this weekend I had my first go-round with the Gillette Silver Blues, and they reminded me of this blade in many ways.
-- Chet

 

[talibeard]

Yep that would be me! I'm still in France on holiday and I can confirm you can find those in almost every supermarket. They are really cheap too, about 1,65 euros per 10.
Only difference is they come in a cardboard box, not in a dispenser. Once home I will try these blades!

The ones found in France today are from Russia and I am not sure the NOS ones in the plastic dispencer are too. The logo is the same but that doesn't make it the same blade.

 

[tattewell]

I bought 100 of the french ones and Im very impressed. Never tried the NOS version, but the new ones are good quality. I would place them above Astra SP's right around Personna Red's and Rapira SS!

Look around a little more Freeze205, in March I was paying 1,25 Euro for 10. I think the Intermarche sells them for 1,35 usually (sorry for my spelling).

 

[dieselfuel79]

Update:

I am on shave # 5 with the same blade from my original post. (Been using my feather SS in between.) Figured it would be dull and time to change...nope. Just as sharp as when I started. I even nicked my index finger slightly while testing how sharp it was. I figure I'll get close to 8 shaves out of this thing. I am impressed.