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Revisiting the first (and dreaded) blade

When I began wetshaving I was lucky choosing my EJ89 – it’s my everyday shaver ever since. Back then I was only partially aware of the shaving world, and was looking at the blade provided with the razor with some suspicion: „Feather”. Why it must be some english or US brand I thought, but I did a quick search and found out that it’s Japanese. „Ok, Japanese are making fine knives and swords as well, let’s go with it!”

Surprisingly (in a hindsight) the first wetshaving didn’t end in a bloodbath, though the irritation was major, but compared to the old cartridge world the feels was overwhelming in terms of smoothness. Luckily (? 🙂 ), I got obsessed with wetshaving and also found my blade since then (good ol’ green Astra). However on the blade exploration journey I also ordered some Feathers, but never dared to use them again.

Fast forward a bit – I took the courage to revisit the Feathers sitting in the blade storage box.

To my pleasant surprise, no irritation, BBS shave and also no special attention or caution was needed to achieve this. It's also a nice feedback of my technique improving.

Though I won’t use them as daily blades, this is because of the price factor and not because of performance. (And it would be hard to find ANY blade that beats Astras…)



Bottom line: Revisit the blades you used while learning wetshaving, because might like them later!
 
This is very true! When first started wetshaving I made the mistake of buying a buying a sample pack with 20 different blades. As I diligently worked my way through each type of blade, I found that some were great and some left me a bloody irritated mess. Of course who knows if it was a ymmv thing with the blade or just my crappy technique...

Going through these same blade again I'm finding ones that were awful first time around (Nacet, Gillette Platinum) that I absolutely love now!
 
When I began wetshaving I was lucky choosing my EJ89 – it’s my everyday shaver ever since.

Bottom line: Revisit the blades you used while learning wetshaving, because might like them later!
I got lucky, too, in that my first razor, Merkur 20C, is my everyday shaver; however, the blade that came with the razor, a Merkur blade, was horrible to me. My son gave me a few Astra SP blades that helped me get started with more forgiving blades.

Since then, I've revisited the Merkur blade, and although they are no longer horrible, I still don't like shaving with them. Now the Astra SP blades have stood the test of time and, to me, are still good blades that give me a good shave.
 
Also keep in mind when revisiting blades, that soaps, creams and the razor itself can be a factor. I generally prefer a razor with a heavier shave head. They seem to shave me better than the razors with a lighter weight head. Some Shave soap/creams may offer a better layer of slickness that can smooth out a blade. For me a Bolzano blade that felt rough when I shaved with TOBS or Lucky Tiger seemed a little smoother when I shaved with Cremo. That's just a few things I have observed.
 
Bottom line: Revisit the blades you used while learning wetshaving, because might like them later!
I think this is true of anything related to shaving…razors, soaps, you name it. It’s why I hesitate to get rid of anything. I assume if I try something I don’t like now at some later date I may just like it then. I suppose there’s a limit to this logic though. If I try something enough times and still don’t like it then odds are I never will.
 
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