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My (YMMV) comparison of different blades

Well that's more like it.

shark shave one. Three pass, very nice result. Dfs, near bbs. Some minor irritation but nothing compared to previous in this thread. One area of irritation on the neck but otherwise approaching normal again.

I think default may be one shave per blade for these. I will revisit more than one shave in a while. They are cheap and it is essentially costing me 10c per shave plus soap.
 
Shark shave one. Very similar to yesterday. For some reason the sound during the first pass was not as loud.

i could attribute this to 1 varied technique. 2 less growth than normal (close shave yesterday). 3 variance in blade. I am inclined to go with 2.
 
Shark shave one. Back to the normal sound on the first pass. The whole Shave experience is starting to feel normal again.

gave myself a rotten nick on the lip. I do that ever 3 or 4 months just from a lack of attention when lining up against the grain strokes around the mouth.

I am am going to do single blade per shave a couple more times, then I am going to attempt two.

Then I will get back to the regular scheduled program of trying out other blades...
 
Shark shave one. Same good close shave. Low level but consistent irritation - nothing lasting after the alum.

i'll try a second shave with the same blade tomorrow - I was able to do it before but I will see if I can detect a difference.
 
Shark shave two.

I decided to change my method very very slightly. I upped the angle of the first class slightly further away from with the grain, and the second pass slightly closer to against the grain. Still a good shave, more hair removed on these two passes, less needed for the touch up pass. Less overall irritation.

No issue being the second shave with the same blade, less noise during the first pass.
 
Shark shave two.

I decided to change my method very very slightly. I upped the angle of the first class slightly further away from with the grain, and the second pass slightly closer to against the grain. Still a good shave, more hair removed on these two passes, less needed for the touch up pass. Less overall irritation.

No issue being the second shave with the same blade, less noise during the first pass.

PS, I would have written this report last night but I was exhausted.

I saved the last couple of days worth of one shave blades, so I will do a few days of second shave blade shaves. That should be an interesting comparison. I know with some (other) blades I have used in the past the second shave has been superior to the first.
 
Shark shave two (reusing previous blade).

Very similar shave again. Very smooth dfs (close to bbs) except for the neck as usual. Again some irritation from the alum but fine afterwards.

I think that I am fine with two shaves from a shark blade. I am going to do one more second shave and then have three days of shave three and see if there is a difference.
 
Shark shave two.

last blade that I kept for a second shave.

Compared to the previous two second shaves this one for some unknown reason required more work for the same level of shave.

All up still a good shave but slightly more irritation than previous.

i am not willing to take this specific blade to a third shave. I will work on that at a later date. Right now I am champing at the bit to try another blade. Opinions with the following to choose from:

derby (I expect to hate)
voskhod (have never had good results)
rapira chrome
rapira platinum lux
rapira Swedish super steal
ladas
nacet (only have 5 of these)
gillette 7oclock yellow (last one).
 
Try the Derby. Might work for you, although I'm betting you will find it to feel very dull but give a good shave as I did. Get it out of your system, eh?

Then one of the Rapira's.

Peter
 
Try the Derby. Might work for you, although I'm betting you will find it to feel very dull but give a good shave as I did. Get it out of your system, eh?

Then one of the Rapira's.

Peter

I should state that I have never had a good experience with derby in earlier shaves. It does need revisiting.
 
Ok, I tried 2 more blades:

Gillette 7'oclock green stainless: Moderate sharpness, moderate smoothness. I can't seeing paying more than I pay for Gillette Nacet for these

Gillette 7'o clock black: Sharp, less smooth than the green stainless but still smooth. I like these better than the green stainless.
 
Thanks for sharing your journey. I have not started a search for my favorite blades, I've used nothing but astra sp, for almost a year, mainly because i bought them as a package deal with my razor. They work well but I am excited to jump into the blade realm. I like how you have a "normal shave" to base all others to.
 
Great hearing your journey so far. I am a newbie to this and I have yet to get a 3 pass shave in without irritation on my neck. I have decided that on most days a 2 pass is pretty fricken great, no irritation at all, compared to when I was using a 3-5 blade razor. I could never get a good close shave with those!!
 
I'd be happy with Astra SP blades forever, but will cycle through some others just for fun. Not using them up very fast though.

Peter
 
Thanks for sharing your journey. I have not started a search for my favorite blades, I've used nothing but astra sp, for almost a year, mainly because i bought them as a package deal with my razor. They work well but I am excited to jump into the blade realm. I like how you have a "normal shave" to base all others to.

Thank you.

I have actually had a really difficult time with the search. Based on the favourable reviews that astra gets you may have a similar problem that your current go to maybe your final choice.

anyway.

Sweedish super steel shave one.

i was exhausted last night so have ended up with a sunday morning rather than a Saturday night shave. Day and a half growth is probably not strictly a fair comparison, but general views anyway.

These felt somewhere between shark and voskhod. Quieter than sharks, didn't seem to be as sharp as sharks. Three passes aren't as close as normal but not very much irritation either. As mentioned, not really a fair comparison.

i'll see tonight whether I do an extra (half day growth) shave or do another day and a half shave. Either way by Tuesday night I will have normal length shaves to compare.
 
Yes sir, that is probably what will happen, I will just end up where I started haha. Well maybe I'll just sit on the shore and dip my toes in the vast pool once in a while. I picked up some of the shark ss today. Gonna venture into the moody lane.
 
Great hearing your journey so far. I am a newbie to this and I have yet to get a 3 pass shave in without irritation on my neck. I have decided that on most days a 2 pass is pretty fricken great, no irritation at all, compared to when I was using a 3-5 blade razor. I could never get a good close shave with those!!

i still can't do three passes on my neck. I just do two passes, leave a light growth on my neck and call it good. It's the rest of the face that I try to get smoother.
 
Swedish super steel shave two

less than a day since last shave. Full three passes, I think my last shave was not as close as normal. This one was closer with a fair bit of irritation. Didn't feel like the blade was at fault though. Irritation less than some of the shaves I have already described so not really horrible.

tomorrow I will try to get a better view of the blade as normal - and I will start with shave one of another blade.
 
Swedish super steel shave three.

Back to normal timing at least. Shave was just a little bit harsh / tuggy and a few bits of higher irritation than normal on apply the alum.

However, no lasting damage after the alum was washed off and nice and close. I did get a weeper on my right cheek which really doesn't happen often.

I'm going to call it a day on this blade and start another tomorrow.
 
whoops, just realised that I had said I would start another blade, obviously I didn't.

Shave one of new blade tomorrow.
 
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