Polsilver Siper Iridium, now i am a believer

[fasa]

Hello folks,

After a long a long time looking for the right blade for my DE, i think i finally found the one for me, the Polsilver super Iridium. I really, really didn't want to like them because of their price. But I found the blade Sharp yet smooth from the first shave. It also degrades very nicely.

Before that I tried quite a few blades, to name a few others:

- PermaSharp Super
- Gillette 7 oclock yellow
- Feather
- Derby
- Shark SS
- Lord Platinum
- Voskhod
- Sputnik
- Rapira Super stainless
- Rapira Swedish super steel
- Dorco 301
- Dorco 300
- Flying eagle (They were a good surprise, the yeallow and pink label)
- Chinese Gillette bleue
- Chinese Rimei Blades
- Gillette Bleue Extra (Yeah the french version, like me )

- Wilkinson Black
- Personna stainless steel

It's been a long Journey but i finally found the one that works with me. I like it so much that i made my first bulk purchase... I went a bit overboard with 1000 blades. TBH I was pretty reluctant to buy PSI at first. I bought a few packs of Super iridium for a very good price and I have to say that I really enjoyed them.

The reason I didn't buy in bulk ? The price, 20 pounds for 100 seemed too high for my liking considering that there are so many blade i still had to try below 14 pound for 100.

And recently I saw an offer i could not miss 11 Pound for 100 PSI so pulled the trigger ... about 10 times and now i have enough PSI blade to last me a life time since I use DE, injectors, straights.

Now I can finally stop testing blade and sell them all and i ll keep only my gillette slim.






Who am i kidding ? I still have a lot blades i my stash to Test, can't wait to give them a run. The difference now ? I ll compare them to my PSI blades. The one still outstanding in my den:
- Astra SS
- Astra SP
- Rapira Lux platinum
- Ladas
- Personna platinum
- Shark SS
- Super max SS

 

[Tom Slick]

That is a tremendous price on the Polsilvers. I've got 100 coming from the Badger and Blade man in Varna, Bulgaria. I've never tried them, but the reviews say they are great.

 

[Silky Glide]

Definitely, if I had to pick one blade to use for the rest of my life, Super Iridium would be the one!

 

[Space_Cadet]

Polsilver is a very good blade, but in a more aggressive razors it's too sharp for me.

 

[fasa]

That is a tremendous price on the Polsilvers. I've got 100 coming from the Badger and Blade man in Varna, Bulgaria. I've never tried them, but the reviews say they are great.

As always YMMV let me know if they work for you. They are wonderfull blades for me. Now i am planning to redo some blade test but comparing them directly with PSI. I started with permasharp.

While permasharp is a good blade the psi is smoother. The permasharp smoothness degraded faster. PSI won for me

 

[keller]

Definitely, if I had to pick one blade to use for the rest of my life, Super Iridium would be the one!

+1 for me as well.

 

[OC513]

this is my desert island blade, the one blade I could not live without.

 

[rsilvers]

$27 per 100. Astra is $10 per 100. Are they really significantly better to want to pay that much more?

 

[Jaybeez]

$27 per 100. Astra is $10 per 100. Are they really significantly better to want to pay that much more?

I'd love to know the answer to this. Astras work well for me, so something that much more would have to be pretty special.

 

[keller]

$27 per 100. Astra is $10 per 100. Are they really significantly better to want to pay that much more?

I'd love to know the answer to this. Astras work well for me, so something that much more would have to be pretty special.

The Astra chops my face up. The Polsilver SI makes the razor skate on my face and I often can't believe there's even a blade in there. Of course, blades being the most YMMV thing there is, this may not apply to you but for me it certainly does. So, regardless of price point, it makes sense to me. I spend at least $10 on my morning coffee in any given week. I can stand to spend an extra 17 cents on a blade in any given week.

 

[rsilvers]

I would also pay it if that were my experience. I just don't know if I should bother trying more and more esoteric blades. I have Feather, Personna blue, and Astra and my intuition tells me there is diminishing returns to trying more types beyond those and I am worried abour being misguided by lot variation.

 

[Ahmaq]

It's my favourite blade as well, but I find Gillette Blacks to be as effective and less expensive, as they are readily available at the corner store.

 

[Dngolden]

A few thoughts
1. Astra. I have a fairly course beard. I like Astra's well enough and they are very forgiving. But I find that the Polsilvers cut much more cleanly and closely. No question the Polsilvers require more attention and are more $$ than Astras, but for me it's worth it. If you have a course or stiff beard, give the Polsilvers a try.
2. Gillette Blacks. I find these very close to the Polsilvers in smoothness, sharpness, and closeness. In fact, they are the two blades I've purchased in bulk and I often forget which blade is in the razor. I think the Blacks maybe a touch less smooth than the Polsilvers. Maybe

 

[NavyShave]

I love the polsilverSI, but I also like Astra, GSBs, Persona Labs, etc...many great blades out there. If money is an issue, Astra SP is hard to beat.

 

[rsilvers]

I think Personna should rename their product to be called Labs, though that may confuse the Walmart shoppers.

 

[fasa]

$27 per 100. Astra is $10 per 100. Are they really significantly better to want to pay that much more?

Value is a difficult thing. Someone just paid 1000$ for a red dot gillette fatboy. Do i think they are that much more better to justify the extra dollar? personnally no.

For me they are great blade and i would have stocked up on them like i did if i hadn't a found a great deal (i think that's a round 17$ / 100). Woul i be ready to pay 27 $ for 100 ? Yeah probably. My face tells me, they are significantly better then my old favourite permasharp super.

 

[fasa]

I would also pay it if that were my experience. I just don't know if I should bother trying more and more esoteric blades. I have Feather, Personna blue, and Astra and my intuition tells me there is diminishing returns to trying more types beyond those and I am worried abour being misguided by lot variation.

Hard to say, If you look at my list i have tried many blades. I did think that nothing would get better then the best blade I found. How wrong I was! Once you found the superior blade that works for you, you know it.

 

[keller]

Hard to say, If you look at my list i have tried many blades. I did think that nothing would get better then the best blade I found. How wrong I was! Once you found the superior blade that works for you, you know it.

+2, with the exception that i thought i had found the superior blade the first time... and then i ended up sampling 6 others, got burned by a couple and ultimately ended up finding "the one", which is miles ahead of what i thought was my superior blade previously. the sampling is half the fun. even though i bulked my #1, i still throw others i enjoy in the mix to keep my technique sharp and keep myself humble.

 

[fasa]

+2, with the exception that i thought i had found the superior blade the first time... and then i ended up sampling 6 others, got burned by a couple and ultimately ended up finding "the one", which is miles ahead of what i thought was my superior blade previously. the sampling is half the fun. even though i bulked my #1, i still throw others i enjoy in the mix to keep my technique sharp and keep myself humble.

Can you give us a few names ?

 

[keller]

Can you give us a few names ?

Of the ones I got burned by or just in general? Here's a bit of both - I've tried all of the ones in your outstanding list other than Shark. I have not bothered with any of the other Rapiras or any of the Chinese made blades. Other than Gillette 7o'clock yellows and Sputniks I've tried all the ones on your list.

Some that aren't on either list that I've tried:
- Red Pack (Israeli) Personna (this was my #1 for a long time, prior to PolSI)
- Gillette Silver Blues - tied for #2 with the blade below
- Gillette 7o'clock blacks - see above
- Personna "Lab" blues - quite a nice blade for me
- Personna "Med prep" - basically the same as the labs for me
- Supermax Titanium - ok but nothing to write home about
- Merkur (no idea which one) - plainly, it sucked for me

The one that burned me was Voskhod which was a surprise considering the rave reviews it gets on here. This is the only brand where I have only tried one blade so far so I suspect it may have been a dud... then again maybe not. YMMV!

So, based on the last month or so of sampling, I have displaced my Personna Reds by 3 positions and I do not regret it one bit.

1. Pol SI
2/3. GSB & Gillette 7o'clock black (hard to say which is better)
4. Red Pack Personna
5. I haven't had a need to decide

Notice, the often touted Astra SP is nowhere to be found here. Not for me. Notice Lab Blues are not in my top 5 but well received on B&B as well. Again, they left something to be desired for me, despite being quite nice.

Why do I always repeat "for me"? Because it's true that Y-M-M-V!

Edit: I also thought it would be worth adding that all of the 20ish blades that I've sampled were equipped in my Merkur 34C HD. I just had a 1904/1906 open comb come in two weeks ago and am already noticing that blades perform differently in it. The Personna Reds are actually quite poor in it and the Lab Blues are much better. Change one variable and the fun restarts . I'm keeping a log now with my 1904 to document how each of the blades performs although I won't be sampling as many blades, since many of the blades I disliked are now gone from my arsenal.