What's new

Please, read this.

Hello Gentlemen,

I would like to share something, a experience of mine, which i think is something that could really help other wetshavers everywhere. So please consider reading this to the end! I have been wetshaving for over two or maybe three years now, and fell in love with it from the very first time. My first real shaver was the King c Gillette and after that i got a beautiful Muhle R89. I always used the king c gillette blade and always had buttery smooth shaves. Then maybe half a year ago something happened at a frequent basis, not always but often enough for me to notice. All of a sudden my shaves became really rough and would really hurt me against the grain, then all of a sudden the next shave was completely fine again! First i thought that maybe it depends on the state of my skin, or maybe how much growth i had on that day, then i thought my prep is inconsistent and so on and so forth. But nothing i could do changed the fact that one shave would be nice and the next horrible rough. So you know what, i bought a mach 3 again! Even though the mach 3 would tugg trough my beard, i endet up with a passable shave without pain and irritation. Now, back then when i started, everything was better when shaving with my DE, so i couldn’t believe that! And after three weeks of mach 3 shaving i used my Muhle with the king c gilltte blade again. First stroke and there it was again, painful kind of scratchy feeling, i really thought my DE days are over and continued through that shave. Now when i came to the third pass, against the grain, it would not even go through my mustache area without pain! In that moment i stopped and thought to myself that this can not be normal and changed the blade to another king c gillette blade that i’ve used in a past shave, and which i remembered being a great smooth shave. And there it was, smooth! Right there and then i realized that all the time the king c gillette blade was the reason for all that trouble! Then it came to me that one pack would be sharp and smooth and the next would be dull and scratchy! I am completely convinced that there must be something going on with the quality control now, or they were much better produced when they first launched on the market. I have ordered a lot of diffrent blades online: Nacet, silver blue, rubi, feather, permasharp, 7 o’clock yellow and green, and went trough packs and packs of them and every single one was flawlessly amazing! My new favorite blade is the Nacet which is the best blade i’ve ever tried. Why am i telling you all of this? Bevor doubting yourself and your shaving skills, look at those blades man and try another, see if it solved the problem, it sure did for me!
 
Last edited:

Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker

Likes a fat handle in his hand
Hello Gentlemen,

I would like to share something, a experience of mine, which i think is something that could really help other wetshavers everywhere. So please consider reading this to the end! I have been wetshaving for over two or maybe three years now, and fell in love with it from the very first time. My first real shaver was the King c Gillette and after that i got a beautiful Muhle R89. I always used the king c gillette blade and always had buttery smooth shaves. Then maybe half a year ago something happened at a frequent basis, not always but often enough for me to notice. All of a sudden my shaves became really rough and would really hurt me against the grain, then all of a sudden the next shave was completely fine again! First i thought that maybe it depends on the state of my skin, or maybe how much growth i had on that day, then i thought my prep is inconsistent and so on and so forth. But nothing i could do changed the fact that one shave would be nice and the next horrible rough. So you know what, i bought a mach 3 again! Even though the mach 3 would tugg trough my beard, i endet up with a passable shave without pain and irritation. Now, back then when i started, everything was better when shaving with my DE, so i couldn’t believe that! And after three weeks of mach 3 shaving i used my Muhle with the king c gilltte blade again. First stroke and there it was again, painful kind of scratchy feeling, i really thought my DE days are over and continued through that shave. Now when i came to the third pass, against the grain, it would not even go through my mustache area without pain! In that moment i stopped and thought to myself that this can not be normal and changed the blade to another king c gillette blade that i’ve used in a past shave, and which i remembered being a great smooth shave. And there it was, smooth! Right there and then i realized that all the time the king c gillette blade was the reason for all that trouble! Then it came to me that one pack would be sharp and smooth and the next would be dull and scratchy! I am completely convinced that there must be something going on with the quality control now, or they were much better produced when they first launched on the market. I have ordered a lot of diffrent blades online: Nacet, silver blue, rubi, feather, permasharp, 7 o’clock yellow and green, and went trough packs and packs of them and every single one was flawlessly amazing! My new favorite blade is the Nacet which is the best blade i’ve ever tried. Why am i telling you all of this? Bevor doubting yourself and your shaving skills, look at those blades man and try another, see if it solved the problem, it sure did for me!

Believe it or not, you are not the only one to mention this. I was on Amazon reading reviews on the Feather blades, and I found it fascinating that some reviewers, were talking about how some of their blade packs were being shipped to them already dull from the factory.

At first I thought this was a planted review to badmouth Feather blades, as we all know, there are a lot of non-legit reviews on Amazon and other places. However, hearing you talk about this, I am beginning to think that there might be merit to this.

We all know that since the pandemic started, quality control went out the window from most brands. I've seen more reports of product defects then ever before since the pandemic started. I think companies are feeling pressure to spit out product as fast as possible, to keep up with demand.

This is also one of the reasons why I am not going to be buying more Feather blades next month, I got about 52 Feather blades left right now. But I am planning to buy a 100 pack of the Bic Platinum blades this month. Several have recommended them as being top notch blades.

I am happy to hear that the Nacet blades have been treating you well. Thanks for making your report, and bringing a light to this situation. I can only hope that other's will chime in, to confirm your findings. I think this is something that needs to be talked about.
 
I too enjoy the Nacet blades. But I also enjoy Feather. They take a more experienced hand IMO.

As a side note. I had to force myself to read your post. When making a long one please break it up in paragraphs a bit. It helps when reading. And to be honest, I'm the last one to complain about spelling or punctuation. Thank god for spell-check! Just try to break up a long post some.

And congrats. Blades can make or break a shave.
 

Messygoon

Abandoned By Gypsies.
look at those blades man and try another, see if it solved the problem, it sure did for me!

Well made point. Blade imperfections are undectable to the eye, yet occur with any brand and can wreck the shave. Your point made me realize something. I value certain attributes in a blade: smoothness (i.e., no tugging), mildness (i.e.,no bleeding), longevity, accessibility. Well, add consistency to that list.

There’s a brand for which I have a love/hate relationship due to varying quality. Yet I value inexpensive Astra blades in part because they are insanely consistent.
 
Something I only hear a little about, which surprises me, is that in all the talks on blades, inconsistent performance, the wide range of absolutely love/hate it...is fakes. People seem to get minutely into where it was made, or year it was produced, but if bought on Ebay or Amazon, but seldom whether it was counterfeit.

I've seen a number of reviews for other products (like phone cases) showing how to tell a counterfeit from a brand, and many of the counterfeits are quite well done, especially if you don't have minute knowledge of the product (for example, some here could know by glue dots, type face size and style, wrapper material, etc whether it was counterfeit, but the vast number of us wouldn't probably know).

Obviosly it doesn't account for differences in a pack, but between packs or batches, I've wondered.
 
Very good point. Because of our RADs, we tend to overstate the importance of a razor and understate the importance of a blade. One thing I never understood in our world is rotating blades. It doesn’t make sense to me.

Since I’ve switched exclusively to Gillette Platinums and (occasionally) Feather, I get fantastic shaves with less passes from what many here consider “mild” razors

I’ve used Nacets a lot. They are good, GSBs are great but the crème de La crème from Gillette St Petersburg is the Gillette Platinum, in my opinion of course
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
Yet I value inexpensive Astra blades in part because they are insanely consistent.

I get that. It's why I've been using the Astra SP almost exclusively for a few years now.

I also think Kai AC blades are pretty consistent, or at least the Mild Pink version is. They're consistent enough that I have pretty much settled on them for all my AC needs.

O.H.
 

Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker

Likes a fat handle in his hand
One of the many advantages of SR shaving is that you are in control of edge quality.

Makes sense! But from what I have also heard, it takes years to become proficient with both the use of a straight razor, and learning how to properly sharpen and hone a straight razor. Its basically the extreme levels of our shaving hobby, and not everybody is ready for that.

But your point does make sense to me. If you can put on and address your own edge, then you will always know its good. But I personally will stick to DE thank you very much lol.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Makes sense! But from what I have also heard, it takes years to become proficient with both the use of a straight razor, and learning how to properly sharpen and hone a straight razor. Its basically the extreme levels of our shaving hobby, and not everybody is ready for that.

But your point does make sense to me. If you can put on and address your own edge, then you will always know its good. But I personally will stick to DE thank you very much lol.
Not years, but it does take a couple of months of daily SR shaving to become really proficient at SR shaving and maintenance. Some enjoy and take pride in developing new skills. As such, it's definitely not everybody's cup of tea.

SR shaving is also not cheap. It can cost you about USD 150 or less to set yourself up.
 
Hello Gentlemen,

I would like to share something, a experience of mine, which i think is something that could really help other wetshavers everywhere. So please consider reading this to the end! I have been wetshaving for over two or maybe three years now, and fell in love with it from the very first time. My first real shaver was the King c Gillette and after that i got a beautiful Muhle R89. I always used the king c gillette blade and always had buttery smooth shaves. Then maybe half a year ago something happened at a frequent basis, not always but often enough for me to notice. All of a sudden my shaves became really rough and would really hurt me against the grain, then all of a sudden the next shave was completely fine again! First i thought that maybe it depends on the state of my skin, or maybe how much growth i had on that day, then i thought my prep is inconsistent and so on and so forth. But nothing i could do changed the fact that one shave would be nice and the next horrible rough. So you know what, i bought a mach 3 again! Even though the mach 3 would tugg trough my beard, i endet up with a passable shave without pain and irritation. Now, back then when i started, everything was better when shaving with my DE, so i couldn’t believe that! And after three weeks of mach 3 shaving i used my Muhle with the king c gilltte blade again. First stroke and there it was again, painful kind of scratchy feeling, i really thought my DE days are over and continued through that shave. Now when i came to the third pass, against the grain, it would not even go through my mustache area without pain! In that moment i stopped and thought to myself that this can not be normal and changed the blade to another king c gillette blade that i’ve used in a past shave, and which i remembered being a great smooth shave. And there it was, smooth! Right there and then i realized that all the time the king c gillette blade was the reason for all that trouble! Then it came to me that one pack would be sharp and smooth and the next would be dull and scratchy! I am completely convinced that there must be something going on with the quality control now, or they were much better produced when they first launched on the market. I have ordered a lot of diffrent blades online: Nacet, silver blue, rubi, feather, permasharp, 7 o’clock yellow and green, and went trough packs and packs of them and every single one was flawlessly amazing! My new favorite blade is the Nacet which is the best blade i’ve ever tried. Why am i telling you all of this? Bevor doubting yourself and your shaving skills, look at those blades man and try another, see if it solved the problem, it sure did for me!
I stuck with my first razor for 5 years following "it's nit the gear it's your tehnique" mantra...after acquiring Rockwell 6S my shaves improved enormously and instantly
 
Totally agree with this. Since i’ve started i’ve tried over 60 different blades (and counting!) and occasionally will hit a “dud” that’s absolutely awful. I’ve found the Lord brand to be the worst for this which, given their prices, isn’t all that surprising. King C Gillette blades are Russian made which have a great reputation for quality but given the timing of this post i’d hazard a guess that those blades were probably made during the pandemic which has caused all sorts of quality control issues across many industries. Thankfully DE blades are pretty cheap so the solution is as simple as just chucking the blade. Thanks for pointing this out though as it’s not often discussed but does happen!
 
Makes sense! But from what I have also heard, it takes years to become proficient with both the use of a straight razor, and learning how to properly sharpen and hone a straight razor. Its basically the extreme levels of our shaving hobby, and not everybody is ready for that.

But your point does make sense to me. If you can put on and address your own edge, then you will always know its good. But I personally will stick to DE thank you very much lol.
Oh, no no. It doesn’t take years. Just some practice. When your razor bites, there’s your experience…don’t do that again. I got two different grinds. The hollow grind took me longer to learn, because it was easier to cut myself than with the near wedge, which I found much easier at first. Now I can use the hollow grind easily without cutting myself. Of course, you have to pay attention to what you’re doing, since there’s no safety bar. As for honing, you can use the various methods (plenty of posts here to learn from), or you can send it off and spend $30 to let someone else do it for you. It’s not as difficult as it appears.
 
Very good point. Because of our RADs, we tend to overstate the importance of a razor and understate the importance of a blade. One thing I never understood in our world is rotating blades. It doesn’t make sense to me.

Since I’ve switched exclusively to Gillette Platinums and (occasionally) Feather, I get fantastic shaves with less passes from what many here consider “mild” razors

I’ve used Nacets a lot. They are good, GSBs are great but the crème de La crème from Gillette St Petersburg is the Gillette Platinum, in my opinion of course

I'm the same.

I use only two blades (Wizamet and BIC).
The BIC is technically my favorite but I keep the Wizamet because they are a little smoother than the BIC so when my skin is feeling a little sensitive, I pop in a Wizamet.

I don't change blades to suit razors, I change razors to suit these two blades. If the razor doesn't get on with them, it doesn't remain in my den.

Both these blades in the blackbird are heavenly!!
 

musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
Unfortunately, it's not all that unusual to find a poor edge. I purchased 800 PolSilver SI blades pre-pandemic and I occasionally find a "less than" edge. Not terrible - I don't feel like I'm making a Weasel Ripped My Flesh album cover - but clearly not up to normal standards.

I've always had the best luck with Feather and Med Prep, but I have not purchased either in the past 4 years.
 
Even back when I was using a Mach 3, I would notice the occasional rougher-than-normal one, fresh out of the box. With DE blades, I will get the occasional dull-rough blade, no matter what brand I use.

For what they cost though, I’ll just stop and change the blade mid-shave if it’s bad enough. Most of the time it’s just a mild annoyance though, as my lather is almost always on point and my razor is on the milder end of the spectrum.
 
Top Bottom