So i'm back with another monthly review! As before, each blade will be reviewed based on a 2 pass (plus touch up) shave using a Van Der Hagen long handled razor, Long Rifle 1776 soap and a generic Fento badger brush.
I run through 2 of each blade and use each 4 times; for a total of 8 shaves per brand. I'll be grading based on sharpness, smoothness, longevity and consistency. Price will be a factor but only of it's very cheap or expensive since most DE blades are pretty cheap comparatively.
This month our subject is the Gillette 7 o’clock Sharp Edge (aka the Gillette Yellow.) The packaging on the tucks is exactly the same as the 7 o’clock Super Platinum except yellow instead of black: A white burst of light against a yellow background and “Gillette 7 o’clock” taking up much of the foreground. The difference is, the Super Platinum blade wrapper has the same artwork as the tuck, but the Sharp Edge gets plain white wax paper packaging. The blade itself says Gillette 7 o’clock on the top and “Sharp Edge” underneath. The reason for the difference in wrappers will be clear to anyone who loves blades from the PPI plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. Most blades coming out of there get the same wax paper wrappers.
As a reminder, the 7 o’clock SP’s are now made in India but previously were made in Russia. Why the switch? Who knows. Either way despite sharing the 7 o’clock name, these are two entirely different blades. Confused yet? This is Gillette not Personna! It shouldn’t be this difficult! Well like all things DE blades it does tend to get mysterious. Are these actually Polsilvers in disguise and sold at a cheaper rate?! You heard the rumor here first...
So how do they shave? Well, not a lot like Polsilvers (there goes that rumor!) The first shave felt smooth but gave me some weepers in odd places and left my skin slightly irritated. The second shave seemed to be the sweet spot and i was able to get a BBS shave with no irritation which is always a win in my book. Third and fourth shaves we both much like the first where i had some weepers and post shave irritation, but overall weren’t terrible. By the end of shave 4 i could tell the blade was starting to dull up though i think it could’ve gone another shave or two.
Blade two performed exactly the same as blade one in that the second shave was excellent but shaves 1,3 and 4 left me with a few weepers in places i normally don’t get them and post shave irritation. The second blade also felt noticeably dull near the end of the 4th shave. Overall the sharpness was good trending on very good for both blades. Shave #2 felt the sharpest and had very nice glide through my stubble, but the others seemed on the high end of average.
Smoothness was the biggest miss with this blade. For me, smoothness is judged by how well the blade glides through my whiskers (i.e. how it feels shaving) as well as how my face feels after the fact. Though none of the shaves were rough, the random weepers, mild post shave irritation and slightly ho-hum sharpness on shaves 1,3 and 4 didn’t give me much of a reason to call this blade smooth. The outlier was shave 2 on both blades which was excellent; though not enough to call it a smooth blade overall.
Longevity was about average with the 4th shave starting to show signs that the blade was almost done. I find the best blades are still very fresh at shave 4 and the worst are toast by shave two. The Sharp Edge is obviously right in the middle and this seems the be the case for the majority of blades i’ve tried.
Consistency was was one quality where this blade excelled. Each blade performed exactly alike in all aspects. I’ve found that to be the case with all the blades i’ve tried that come out of the St. Petersburg factory so to me, they get top marks for quality control.
Price is decent at 12.95 per 100 on amazon. Not shark territory but right around what you’d pay for Personna’s.
What all this boils down to is embedded right in the name: Sharp Edge. Could you possibly have a more painfully obvious name for a razor blade? Sharp Edge. It’s like calling an airplane “Jet Engine.” Or a car “4 Wheels.” It honestly sounds like a literal Chinese translation of the word razor blade. Or someone trying to tell you not so subtly “this is as basic as it gets when it comes to shaving.” The results of the Sharp Edge were only slightly better than basic. Were it not for the two great shaves i had, this would be a solid middle of the road 5. But, those two convinced me that the Sharp Edge deserves a 6 out of 10 overall.
Don’t let my tirade on the name fool you though. This blade is not bad by any means. I just feel like most people would come away neither liking nor hating it. Solid mid-pack performance and a price that puts it on par with other, better blades makes this one difficult to recommend; but equally difficult to say stay away from.
So that’ll do it for this month. Next up is a special mini-review of the Gillette Platinum. Many thanks to @Atinofpeas who sent me one to try out! Until then, happy shaves!
I run through 2 of each blade and use each 4 times; for a total of 8 shaves per brand. I'll be grading based on sharpness, smoothness, longevity and consistency. Price will be a factor but only of it's very cheap or expensive since most DE blades are pretty cheap comparatively.
This month our subject is the Gillette 7 o’clock Sharp Edge (aka the Gillette Yellow.) The packaging on the tucks is exactly the same as the 7 o’clock Super Platinum except yellow instead of black: A white burst of light against a yellow background and “Gillette 7 o’clock” taking up much of the foreground. The difference is, the Super Platinum blade wrapper has the same artwork as the tuck, but the Sharp Edge gets plain white wax paper packaging. The blade itself says Gillette 7 o’clock on the top and “Sharp Edge” underneath. The reason for the difference in wrappers will be clear to anyone who loves blades from the PPI plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. Most blades coming out of there get the same wax paper wrappers.
As a reminder, the 7 o’clock SP’s are now made in India but previously were made in Russia. Why the switch? Who knows. Either way despite sharing the 7 o’clock name, these are two entirely different blades. Confused yet? This is Gillette not Personna! It shouldn’t be this difficult! Well like all things DE blades it does tend to get mysterious. Are these actually Polsilvers in disguise and sold at a cheaper rate?! You heard the rumor here first...
So how do they shave? Well, not a lot like Polsilvers (there goes that rumor!) The first shave felt smooth but gave me some weepers in odd places and left my skin slightly irritated. The second shave seemed to be the sweet spot and i was able to get a BBS shave with no irritation which is always a win in my book. Third and fourth shaves we both much like the first where i had some weepers and post shave irritation, but overall weren’t terrible. By the end of shave 4 i could tell the blade was starting to dull up though i think it could’ve gone another shave or two.
Blade two performed exactly the same as blade one in that the second shave was excellent but shaves 1,3 and 4 left me with a few weepers in places i normally don’t get them and post shave irritation. The second blade also felt noticeably dull near the end of the 4th shave. Overall the sharpness was good trending on very good for both blades. Shave #2 felt the sharpest and had very nice glide through my stubble, but the others seemed on the high end of average.
Smoothness was the biggest miss with this blade. For me, smoothness is judged by how well the blade glides through my whiskers (i.e. how it feels shaving) as well as how my face feels after the fact. Though none of the shaves were rough, the random weepers, mild post shave irritation and slightly ho-hum sharpness on shaves 1,3 and 4 didn’t give me much of a reason to call this blade smooth. The outlier was shave 2 on both blades which was excellent; though not enough to call it a smooth blade overall.
Longevity was about average with the 4th shave starting to show signs that the blade was almost done. I find the best blades are still very fresh at shave 4 and the worst are toast by shave two. The Sharp Edge is obviously right in the middle and this seems the be the case for the majority of blades i’ve tried.
Consistency was was one quality where this blade excelled. Each blade performed exactly alike in all aspects. I’ve found that to be the case with all the blades i’ve tried that come out of the St. Petersburg factory so to me, they get top marks for quality control.
Price is decent at 12.95 per 100 on amazon. Not shark territory but right around what you’d pay for Personna’s.
What all this boils down to is embedded right in the name: Sharp Edge. Could you possibly have a more painfully obvious name for a razor blade? Sharp Edge. It’s like calling an airplane “Jet Engine.” Or a car “4 Wheels.” It honestly sounds like a literal Chinese translation of the word razor blade. Or someone trying to tell you not so subtly “this is as basic as it gets when it comes to shaving.” The results of the Sharp Edge were only slightly better than basic. Were it not for the two great shaves i had, this would be a solid middle of the road 5. But, those two convinced me that the Sharp Edge deserves a 6 out of 10 overall.
Don’t let my tirade on the name fool you though. This blade is not bad by any means. I just feel like most people would come away neither liking nor hating it. Solid mid-pack performance and a price that puts it on par with other, better blades makes this one difficult to recommend; but equally difficult to say stay away from.
So that’ll do it for this month. Next up is a special mini-review of the Gillette Platinum. Many thanks to @Atinofpeas who sent me one to try out! Until then, happy shaves!
