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, Van Der Hagen Luxury shave 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 it’s Shark Super Chrome. The venerable Shark Super Chrome (SSC) gets a lot of love on various forums and is well reviewed on a number of websites that sell them. The most consistent phrase found in reviews is the oft overused “sharp and smooth!” The SSC is manufactured by the Lord Company out of Egypt and is Chrome plated with some sort of polymer or wax coating. I was unable to find out what exactly the coating is despite scouring the vast recesses of the interwebz. If anyone is interested i’ll email Lord to get a straight answer, but rest assured it’s a coated blade.
The packaging is simple yellow with red script that says “Shark” over the entirety. The blade says “Super Chrome” on top and “Shark” underneath. Currently 100 blades is going for 10.89 which is pretty cheap. Cheap and well reviewed always strikes me as going against the “cheap, fast good” rule of the blade world. Which if it existed would be “cheap, sharp, smooth pick 2”. But we all know there ARE blades out there that are cheap, sharp and smooth so the question is really whether the SSC lives up to that high standard. Is it a face eating monster or does it perform swimmingly (see what i did there?) Well let’s find out...
First the sharpness. I’ve always found that sharpness is usually the easiest aspect of a blade to judge. Very seldom do people disagree as to whether a blade is sharp or not. So the claim that the SSC is a “sharp” blade are not unfounded. It removed stubble with little fuss but it’s not the sharpest blade i’ve ever used. I’d call it the midway point between average and very sharp. There is a problem with this level of sharp though, at least in my eyes. It’s sharp enough to do some damage to your face but not sharp enough to get super close without multiple passes. For me, this is a recipe for disaster. Which brings me to smoothness.
As i said above, the SSC lives in that realm of sharp enough to irritate easily, but not sharp enough to glide over your face and mow down hair evenly. The result for me was a blade that gave me more weepers than any other i’ve thus far tried. Partictularly on the first shave where i had weepers around both my neck and near the corners of my mouth. 3-4 in total. After each shave my face felt pretty raw and the shaves were not quite BBS. Smooth was not at all how i’d describe the SSC. It’s fairly uncommon for me to draw blood shaving, so these were unnerving blades to use. I managed at least one weeper per shave which no other blade has done thus far.
Consistancy was very good despite the irritating shaves. Shave one on both blades was the worst in terms of blood drawn, two on both blades was the best and shaves 3 and 4 declined in sharpness about evenly. In my opinion they have good quality control standards on the SSC.
Longevity i’d set at medium. The SSC at 4 shaves was noticeably duller, but still had about 2 more shaves in it before i’d toss it.
After 8 shaves, the SSC is a very hard blade for me to recommend. It’s too sharp and harsh for people with sensitive skin and not sharp enough for those who want a truly top tier sharp blade. I’ve shaved with worse blades but this one is definitely not one i’ll be trying again. Overall i’d rate it a 4 out of 10.
With my rating out of the way, i tried to think of why these are so popular and highly regarded (YMMV aside). I think first off they’re a bargain. Everyone loves saving $ and even if you already have 20,000 blades it’s still nice to get 100 on the cheap. Secondly, i really think a middle of the spectrum razor (which the van der hagen is in my opinion) is the worst possible razor for this blade. I thing a more agressive or less agressive razor would allow the blade to be that tad bit sharper or smoother and turn it from something that does nothing well (in my opinion) into a blade people like.
I strive to keep my routine consistant when reviewing blades, but generally i think blades don’t vary much from razor to razor. I do however think there are some blades whose deficiencies can be evened out by changing the agressivemess of the razor. To me the SSC is a candidate for that type of blade.
Next up Rockwell Razors namesake blade. Until then, happy shaving!
This month it’s Shark Super Chrome. The venerable Shark Super Chrome (SSC) gets a lot of love on various forums and is well reviewed on a number of websites that sell them. The most consistent phrase found in reviews is the oft overused “sharp and smooth!” The SSC is manufactured by the Lord Company out of Egypt and is Chrome plated with some sort of polymer or wax coating. I was unable to find out what exactly the coating is despite scouring the vast recesses of the interwebz. If anyone is interested i’ll email Lord to get a straight answer, but rest assured it’s a coated blade.
The packaging is simple yellow with red script that says “Shark” over the entirety. The blade says “Super Chrome” on top and “Shark” underneath. Currently 100 blades is going for 10.89 which is pretty cheap. Cheap and well reviewed always strikes me as going against the “cheap, fast good” rule of the blade world. Which if it existed would be “cheap, sharp, smooth pick 2”. But we all know there ARE blades out there that are cheap, sharp and smooth so the question is really whether the SSC lives up to that high standard. Is it a face eating monster or does it perform swimmingly (see what i did there?) Well let’s find out...
First the sharpness. I’ve always found that sharpness is usually the easiest aspect of a blade to judge. Very seldom do people disagree as to whether a blade is sharp or not. So the claim that the SSC is a “sharp” blade are not unfounded. It removed stubble with little fuss but it’s not the sharpest blade i’ve ever used. I’d call it the midway point between average and very sharp. There is a problem with this level of sharp though, at least in my eyes. It’s sharp enough to do some damage to your face but not sharp enough to get super close without multiple passes. For me, this is a recipe for disaster. Which brings me to smoothness.
As i said above, the SSC lives in that realm of sharp enough to irritate easily, but not sharp enough to glide over your face and mow down hair evenly. The result for me was a blade that gave me more weepers than any other i’ve thus far tried. Partictularly on the first shave where i had weepers around both my neck and near the corners of my mouth. 3-4 in total. After each shave my face felt pretty raw and the shaves were not quite BBS. Smooth was not at all how i’d describe the SSC. It’s fairly uncommon for me to draw blood shaving, so these were unnerving blades to use. I managed at least one weeper per shave which no other blade has done thus far.
Consistancy was very good despite the irritating shaves. Shave one on both blades was the worst in terms of blood drawn, two on both blades was the best and shaves 3 and 4 declined in sharpness about evenly. In my opinion they have good quality control standards on the SSC.
Longevity i’d set at medium. The SSC at 4 shaves was noticeably duller, but still had about 2 more shaves in it before i’d toss it.
After 8 shaves, the SSC is a very hard blade for me to recommend. It’s too sharp and harsh for people with sensitive skin and not sharp enough for those who want a truly top tier sharp blade. I’ve shaved with worse blades but this one is definitely not one i’ll be trying again. Overall i’d rate it a 4 out of 10.
With my rating out of the way, i tried to think of why these are so popular and highly regarded (YMMV aside). I think first off they’re a bargain. Everyone loves saving $ and even if you already have 20,000 blades it’s still nice to get 100 on the cheap. Secondly, i really think a middle of the spectrum razor (which the van der hagen is in my opinion) is the worst possible razor for this blade. I thing a more agressive or less agressive razor would allow the blade to be that tad bit sharper or smoother and turn it from something that does nothing well (in my opinion) into a blade people like.
I strive to keep my routine consistant when reviewing blades, but generally i think blades don’t vary much from razor to razor. I do however think there are some blades whose deficiencies can be evened out by changing the agressivemess of the razor. To me the SSC is a candidate for that type of blade.
Next up Rockwell Razors namesake blade. Until then, happy shaving!
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