I have shaved with some of the Soviet made blades back in the days. Even the Stainless steel ones that were made for shaving were pretty bad. The carbons like Нева (Neva) were terrible, even though they were made for shaving. Still have a couple of 80s Voskhods, but don't want to shave with them. Nowhere near the modern production of MOSTOCHLEGMASH.
Review: Gillette NEW Improved
- Thread starter Guido75
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- #22
No worries my friend! - I think if I had used them I would have noticed after the first stroke. I was tempted to use them later on, but with this info by Ivan I think I will pass
.Guido
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- #23
You made me realise that I have never tried those blades - neither Voskod nor Rapiera.
Guido
3 models of Rapira, 1 Voskhod and 1 Ladas is the current production of Mostochlegmash. I bet at least 1 of those 5 will be to your liking. They are made with the idea to cover different tastes.
Great review of an EXCELLENT razor!! 
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- #26
That is Cyrillic. The first letter is not П (= Latin P). It is Л (=Latin L) No brand on those blades. ЛЕЗВИЯ just means BLADES. They are manufactured by the former Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) plant that was bought in the 90s by Gillette. The same that manufactured Sputniks during Soviet times.
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- #28
All on my translation skills! I installed the Russian keyboard on my iPhone just for translating the package - I typed it incorrectly. I could make out some of the other letters by what I know from Cyrillic - but I need to study harder.
Thanks Ivan.
Guido.
Ps: you know you are now my go-to source for shaving related Cyrillic questions, right?!
lasta
Blade Biter
More from the box that the blades came in if you want to do some digging.
I recognized the round symbol from a soviet blade collector website, but I can't find that page anymore!
I think the address is Stalingrad (Krupskaya street?), not Leningrad.
I recognized the round symbol from a soviet blade collector website, but I can't find that page anymore!
I think the address is Stalingrad (Krupskaya street?), not Leningrad.
Attachments
Sorry, but you are completely wrong. You can't read Cyrillic, right?
It says there Ленинград (Leningrad). Please read post #27. They are made in the late 80s.
FYI Stalingrad has been renamed to Volgograd in 1961
I saw this post, used my new improved and cursed a bit.
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- #32
Sadly no. I’ve gotten too used to my mild razors and being careless. Need to work on my technique with open combs again.
Thanks for the detailed review. It's a beautiful razor! 
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- #35
You’re welcome Frank. She shaves like a charm as well.Thanks for the detailed review. It's a beautiful razor!
Guido
Glad to see some love being shown for the New Improved series of razors. I'm a big fan as well, and if it wasn't for the fact that there aren't as many in use/circulation, I believe they'd be held in as high regard as the "New" razors. I have two; a (mostly) gold wash "Bostonian" style 3 piece and a Silver Tuckaway in the case that gets used for my birthday shaves as it's in such nice condition that I'm afraid to use it on a regular basis out of fear of dropping/damaging it. Well, mostly because my gold NI somehow got "knocked off of its stand and onto the floor" by someone not me a day after I decided to send it for a replate... (which isn't happening now because who wants to spend $ replating a razor w/bent teeth?). Despite the malformed tooth, the gold NI gets used a lot -- works well will vintage Wilkinson Sword blades and vintage carbon Gillette Thins (the face feel afterwards is like a carbon straight razor shave for odd reasons).
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- #37
Thanks your lordship.
I think I read somewhere that Chris from BRG also does repairs to razors, but I could be wrong. I feel your pain at least, but how great you have more than one! This morning's shave was glorious again. I used a Timor blade on its third run. Worked like a charm.
Enjoy!
Guido.
Looks like my Bostonian. Is that gold plating on the twist knob or just brass? I'm taking mine for a spin this week. I think the rest of the handle and head are silver plated. Mine was all black when I got it.Today was the first shave with my new NEW Improved courtesy of the immensely generous @lasta.
The NEW Improved (or more specifically the one I now have) is a two piece razor. This is my first two piece and I assembled/disassembled the razor a number of times to get a good understanding of what I needed to do. Not that it is at all difficult or anything, I just wanted to make sure that I treated her with respect and not overtighten for example.
Using Mr Razors website I can pinpoint this razor to 1922 based on the pictures I saw of other gold plated NEW Improved-s.
Top to bottom she measures 82mm and the cap’s width is 40mm. The weight including blade is 76 grams. Eyeing the cap and baseplate the blade gap is small. I would say similar to the NEW LC or Flat Bottom. It appears to be more than my Fatip Piccolo. That said I do notice that cap and baseplate are more aligned to each other and the cap provides the blade with just a bit more curvature as opposed to my NEW Flat Bottom for example. I think this contributes to the smoothness of the shave although the teeth are actually more forward.
Loading the blade is easy. I used a Gillette 7 o’clock black on its third run. There is quite a bit of overhang on the side so something to be mindful of when shaving near the ear or going across on the neck.
My impression is that this is a very smooth and mild razor. It is an open comb with hardly any blade feel if any at all. It is intuitive and nimble, light weight in the hand with good balance and excellent grip.
But do not let the niceties and smoothness fool you into thinking this is a tame razor! It is very effective and it took me just two passes with a little bit of jawline touch up to get a nice BBS end result. I will definitely try other blades as well obviously, but the black certainly delivered and so did the razor.
I think it’sa looker too! The kneeling on the handle, the finish and ease of use all make it a great addition to my collection. So Razor Rotation Anxiety can roar once more!
I have already tagged you numerous times and I don’t want to tag you to death, but as this is only the day after@lasta thank you again for sending me this amazing gift and razor. One really happy camper signing off!
Have a great weekend everyone.
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- Thread starter
- #39
Truth be told I do not know for sure, but I think it’s all brass (currently). I like shiny so it has received a couple of hand polishes.
Enjoy, because it’s a great razor!
Guido
Thought about replating mine but it is so expensive! Your razor appears to be in pretty good shape plating wise. My handle has some dark tiny spots around those diamond patterned shapes on the handle, which I believe are plate loss. The razor cap and base-plate are still heavily plated silver. My base-plate has very small cracks on the end where the cap contacts the baseplate, probably caused by previous over tightening of the twist knob. Mine is a 1925 vintage. I really like the solid feel of this razor, and the fine shaves I can get. It also came in the Bostonian Case which is kinda unique.
