Journey to 100 blades (journal)

[Abz88]

Shave 2 with the Rapira Super Stainless blace. I just had time for a single pass shave today but I still got a close enough and an irritation free shave from the blade. The blade was feeling sharper on one side than the other today, but I think that is due to me misaligning the FaTip.

 

[Abz88]

Shave 3 with the Rapira Super Stainless blade. The blade didn't feel quite as sharp or as smooth today and I could feel a slight tug in places. Shave also wasn't as close as the shaves with the Stainless Chrome but still close enough and no sign of irritation or ingrowns.

 

[Abz88]

Fourth and final shave with the Rapira Super Stainless today and a very similar shave to shave 3 in terms of sharpness and smoothness. A close enough shave with one spot of very minor irritation (which dissappeared not long after shaving). Overall the Super Stainless was better than the Ladas and the Voskhod blades in this razor but behind the Stainless Chrome and Sharp Star blades from Rapira. A solid mid-tier blade for me.

 

[Abz88]

Blade 43: Rapira Swedish Super Steel

Shave 1 with the Rapira Swedish Supersteel today and it didn't have the best of starts! The blade felt smooth but quite dull and not as sharp as the other Rapira blades (potentially duller than even the Ladas). I didn't get the closest of shaves (and had to go over a few areas multiple times) and I ended up with some ingrowns, Alum sting and some and irritation appeared almost straight away.

 

[thombrogan]

Please heal quickly

 

[Abz88]

Shave 2 with the Rapira Swedish Supersteel and it was a very similar experience to shave 1 (unfortunately!) The blade felt about the same in terms lf smoothness (very smooth) and sharpness (pretty dull) and the end result was another shave that wasn't overly close and left some irritation and ingrowns. I don't think I'll bother with a third shave and will move onto retrying a Voskhod in this razor before finishing up with the Platinum Lux.

 

[flask28]

Shave 2 with the Rapira Swedish Supersteel and it was a very similar experience to shave 1 (unfortunately!) The blade felt about the same in terms lf smoothness (very smooth) and sharpness (pretty dull) and the end result was another shave that wasn't overly close and left some irritation and ingrowns. I don't think I'll bother with a third shave and will move onto retrying a Voskhod in this razor before finishing up with the Platinum Lux.

I'm with you my man. I tried a Rapira superstainless and it was pretty much the exact same experience

 

[Abz88]

I'm with you my man. I tried a Rapira superstainless and it was pretty much the exact same experience

I got better shaves with a Rapira Super Stainless than the Swedish Super Steel but I found both to be below the Stainless Chrome and Sharp Star. I'm planning on trying the Voskhod again as I think the poor shaves with the last blade were more done to the slant being new to me and not being lined up properly.

 

[Abz88]

Blade 44: Rapira Platinum Lux

The final blade of the currently available Mostochlegmash factory blades got it's first run out today, again in the FaTip Gentile Slant. Shave 1 was a very nice shave. It preformed similar to my revisit of the Sharp Star in this razor (revisited once I had improved my blade line up in this razor!), its sharp (not quite BIC/Feather/Nacet sharp, but sharp enough to work well for me) and very smooth. The end result was a close and irritation free shave with no Alum feedback.

 

[Abz88]

Shave 2 with the Platinum Lux and another pleasant shave. I think my blade alignment was a touch off today, but the blade still felt sharper than shave 1 and still smooth. Another close shave with no irritation or Alum feedback.

 

[Abz88]

Shave 3 with the Platinum Lux and I managed to line it up properly again today. The blade is still feeling nice and sharp and nice and smooth. Another close and irritation free shave.

 

[Abz88]

Shave 4 with the Platinum Lux today and another properly lined up blade resulted in another impressive outing. Just a single pass today but it still felt nice and sharp, nice and smooth and provided a close enough shave to look presentable while out and about! Overall it has been a very good blade, very similar to the Rapira Sharp Star and shares top spot with it out of all the Mostochlegmash factory blades.

 

[Abz88]

Blade 45: KAI Stainless Steel

I decided to try out the other major Japanese blade today with the KAI Stainless Steal which is also a bit of an oddity in the blade world as it is slightly wider than any (I think?) other blade. To stick with the Japan theme, I loaded into my AS-D2 and was pleasantly surprised by the slight jump in aggressiveness and blade that the wider blade gives it.
It wasn't the sharpest of blades, but it seemed to provide a close enough shave with only some minor irritation (disappeared by lunch) and some alum sting both of which I assume are due to the wider blade throwing me off at first.
Overall, a pretty good first outing but I am looking forward to it sharpening up over the next few shaves.

 

[Abz88]

Shave 2 with the KAI Stainless Steel today and the blade felt sharper but just as smooth. Although it's in the mid-sharp tier of blades for me, the extra width seems to make it pretty efficient in this razor. I ended up with a close shave but again some Alum feedback and a very small patch of irritation.

 

[Abz88]

Shave 3 with the KAI today and again the shave felt sharp (sharper again today) and smooth and was a close shave, however, today there was almost no Alum sting and no new irritation or flare up. So either I've gotten used to the wider blade, or it's a blade that isn't quite sharp enough for me until it's third outing! Definitely one that I'll need to try in a different razor at some point.

 

[Abz88]

Shave 4 with the KAI and a similar experience to shave 3. The blade felt as sharp as it did on shave 3 and it was still very smooth. The end result was a close shave with no Alum sting and no irritation today.
I'm still not sure about the KAI blade, the last two shaves were very good so I am wondering if the first two were just a learning curve for the wider blade. Definitely a blade I'll need to try again at some point.

 

[Abz88]

Blade 46: Dorco Stainless ST-301

Trying out some Dorco blades in my Karve CB and up first is the ST-301 using the D Plate on my Karve. I wasn't expecting much from this blade as it seems to be one of the lower rated Dorco blades on the board, however, the shave wasn't that bad. It didn't feel overly sharp but it was smooth enough and gave a close enough shave (could have been closer). Just some light irritation and alum feedback around one section of my neck but that seems to have disappeared by the evening.

 

[Abz88]

Shave 2 with the Dorco ST-301 today and an improvement on shave 1. The blade has sharpened up, verging on mid-sharp, and was also smoother today. The end result was a closer shave but there was some flare up of the previous shaves irritation (again, settled down by the evening).

 

[Abz88]

Shave 3 with the Dorco ST-301 today and a very similar shave to shave 2. Still verging on mid-sharp but pretty smooth and providing a close enough (but could be closer shave). No irritation today and there also doesn't appear to be any flare up of the shave 1 irritation.

 

[Abz88]

Shave 4 with the ST-301 today and back to a similar experience to shave 1. It's still smooth but not as sharp as on shaves 2 and 3. The end result was a shave that wasn't quite as close as the last two and the touch of irritation that I got after shave 1 has returned. Overall it wasn't the worst blade I've used, but I won't be in a rush to use another!