What do you consider to be the sharpest and smoothest/most comfortable blades?
Sharpest Blades
- Thread starter Miketorrge
- Start date
Cracking this can of worms. Cost/material/durability aside, my favorite (current production) sharp-but-smooth blades for DE use are:
Treet Dura Sharp (single shave)
Gillette 7oclock Super Platinum (2-3)
Disclaimer: I have very little Lord family experience (Sharks)
St. Petersburg Nacets would be #1 if I were still buying them, but they almost fall off the balance toward the too-sharp side. Almost. Their consistent performance throughout the blade's life (3-4 shaves) mitigates this. They will probably reappear in a new country with the same grind & coating, but performance will also depend on the ore used, just like with the new Astras.
Super Iridiums would also previously make this list toward the smooth side, but my 2022 batch is disappointing. They are not "old Derby or Black Beauty dull," but there has been a sharpness decrease. Perhaps it was a steel change or reduced equipment maintenance, but I thought I was going crazy until threads popped up about this. I went from comfortably using one Iridium all week for workhorse DFSs to not wanting to use them at all. I typically only chased the baby with a new one or a Nacet instead. People say good things about Suneko as a replacement.
Others to try are Bic Chrome Platinum (more batch variation), and Wilkinson Sword Germans (a tuggy first pass that is still better than current Iridiums in my opinion). The Wilkies would become my weekly replacement if they lasted a bit longer and came in cardboard tucks, but after really enjoying the closeness and comfort of the Treets & Indian Gillettes, prior frugality and laziness has been kicked to the curb.
For comparison, I don't like Feathers or Dorco Prime very much. There are plenty of other blades, and plenty of other opinions, of course.
Treet Dura Sharp (single shave)
Gillette 7oclock Super Platinum (2-3)
Disclaimer: I have very little Lord family experience (Sharks)
St. Petersburg Nacets would be #1 if I were still buying them, but they almost fall off the balance toward the too-sharp side. Almost. Their consistent performance throughout the blade's life (3-4 shaves) mitigates this. They will probably reappear in a new country with the same grind & coating, but performance will also depend on the ore used, just like with the new Astras.
Super Iridiums would also previously make this list toward the smooth side, but my 2022 batch is disappointing. They are not "old Derby or Black Beauty dull," but there has been a sharpness decrease. Perhaps it was a steel change or reduced equipment maintenance, but I thought I was going crazy until threads popped up about this. I went from comfortably using one Iridium all week for workhorse DFSs to not wanting to use them at all. I typically only chased the baby with a new one or a Nacet instead. People say good things about Suneko as a replacement.
Others to try are Bic Chrome Platinum (more batch variation), and Wilkinson Sword Germans (a tuggy first pass that is still better than current Iridiums in my opinion). The Wilkies would become my weekly replacement if they lasted a bit longer and came in cardboard tucks, but after really enjoying the closeness and comfort of the Treets & Indian Gillettes, prior frugality and laziness has been kicked to the curb.
For comparison, I don't like Feathers or Dorco Prime very much. There are plenty of other blades, and plenty of other opinions, of course.
Looking at this can of worms. Walking to the kitchen, to throw away the can opener.
By reputation the BIC Chrome Platinum and Feather are the sharpest blades on the market, but I have tried neither personally.
Nacets are the sharpest blades I have used, but I can't use them in all my razors. However, Gillette Silver Blues work universally in my observation.
For a budget "sharp enough" with comfort razor blade, I suggest users demo the Treet Platinum for themselves. It's an excellent blade for me with performance far outstripping its meager cost.
Nacets are the sharpest blades I have used, but I can't use them in all my razors. However, Gillette Silver Blues work universally in my observation.
For a budget "sharp enough" with comfort razor blade, I suggest users demo the Treet Platinum for themselves. It's an excellent blade for me with performance far outstripping its meager cost.
Any Gillette 7 o'clock
Gillette Permasharps
Gillete Nacets
and for the oddball choice...LOI Titaniums
But, again, YMMV. For example, I have not liked any GSB or Astra that I have tried while many love these blades. But they didn't work for me. And many people have not tried the blades from Bangladesh that I like (LOIs). So...to each his own.
Gillette Permasharps
Gillete Nacets
and for the oddball choice...LOI Titaniums
But, again, YMMV. For example, I have not liked any GSB or Astra that I have tried while many love these blades. But they didn't work for me. And many people have not tried the blades from Bangladesh that I like (LOIs). So...to each his own.
Your question has no right wrong answer, depend on your skin & beard.
If one blade was best, or sharpest. It would own market.
If one blade was best, or sharpest. It would own market.
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Feather for overall the best combination of smooth and sharp. I’m one and done nowadays but I remember the subsequent shave felt more sharp with less smoothness as the coating was most likely was wearing off. The Gillette black and Kai are almost just as good with a more durable coating. The St. Petersburg blades -Rubie, Nacet, Permasharp, Wizamet, and Gillette Platinum are all stellar as well.
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I will try to take a year off from blade comments. Try, yes.
You are correct of course. I need to try LOI Titaniums and the Lord family.
For me, they are Gillette Nacets and the older double-wrapped GSBs.
The whole Durablade family from Bangladesh seems to be pretty good, but the LOIs are my favorite.
This is very timely and interesting to me as I won 50 of these from a PIF a few months back. I used one for the first time yesterday and could not understand the hype. It was a horrible shave with lots of tugging. Mine are dated Nov 2017 tho.
There was this discussion a few months ago:
Iridium -Super (PPI) Old vs. NEW
This is supposed to be the last comparison of old vs new Russian PPI blades. On the left we have a pack or double wrapped Iridium -Super. Bought in January 2010, which means manufactured in 2009 or earlier. On the right a pack manufactured 09/2022. Single wrapped of course. Again same...
www.badgerandblade.com
Wishing I still had the Iridiums purchased 3-5 years ago to confirm the production date and do a direct comparison. It might be the same batch you were pif'd, but there could be some confusion between the 2017 box copyright and actual production date (I have no idea).
However, for me, THAT batch was very much like Iridiums from 15-20 years ago that I was using before slipping back into cartridges for a long time. They felt like an old friend, despite developing a heavier beard & personality in the meantime and introducing variables like a new razor and soap. My original blades from "long ago" were definitely PPI production in a blue box - I would not recognize minor changes, but they were not Polsilver, Czech production, two-tone brown tucks, etc.
This more recent May 2022 batch is tuggy and rash-inducing. Apparently others seem to agree it is not a case of the Good old Days, but to be clear, Wizamet/Iridium/Polsilver were never the absolute sharpest. They were a smooth & durable daily workhorse or a bruiser for giving Sasquatch his summer haircut. There are other blades I'd rather use now.
Haha, do as you like. My thoughts are that if this thread runs long enough I think every blade we know will be mentioned.
Well, maybe not Derby Extra.
Thanks for the link to that thread. I can confirm my tucks are Nov 26 2017 - so in theory and along the lines of all that info, they should be the sharper blades. I didn't find that to be true but I am certainly going to try them again, and also in a different razor. I used the blade in my Overlander.There was this discussion a few months ago:
Iridium -Super (PPI) Old vs. NEW
This is supposed to be the last comparison of old vs new Russian PPI blades. On the left we have a pack or double wrapped Iridium -Super. Bought in January 2010, which means manufactured in 2009 or earlier. On the right a pack manufactured 09/2022. Single wrapped of course. Again same...
Wishing I still had the Iridiums purchased 3-5 years ago to confirm the production date and do a direct comparison. It might be the same batch you were pif'd, but there could be some confusion between the 2017 box copyright and actual production date (I have no idea).
However, for me, THAT batch was very much like Iridiums from 15-20 years ago that I was using before slipping back into cartridges for a long time. They felt like an old friend, despite developing a heavier beard & personality in the meantime and introducing variables like a new razor and soap. My original blades from "long ago" were definitely PPI production in a blue box - I would not recognize minor changes, but they were not Polsilver, Czech production, two-tone brown tucks, etc.
This more recent May 2022 batch is tuggy and rash-inducing. Apparently others seem to agree it is not a case of the Good old Days, but to be clear, Wizamet/Iridium/Polsilver were never the absolute sharpest. They were a smooth & durable daily workhorse or a bruiser for giving Sasquatch his summer haircut. There are other blades I'd rather use now.
Regarding the ©2017 Gillette imprint, my tucks don't even have that on them which I find interesting since the production date of mine are 2017
Nacet
Owning a multiple lifetime supply of DE blades, and having tried many dozens of brands, I vote Feather the sharpest and most consistent.
I'm a huge Nacet fanboy. I like most anything that comes out of St Petersburg, but Nacet are definitely my #1 blade. (I did recently do a blade swap with someone, though, so it's possible that will change.) Anyway, my years-long experience with Nacet leads me to wholeheartedly agree with two points you made:
1. Nacet are very sharp, almost too sharp, but not quite too sharp. I've used one or two Feather blades before, so allow me to compare the two. Nacet are almost as sharp as Feather, with Feather just ba-a-a-a-arely sharper. Nacet feel more... I don't know... substantial during the shave, with Feather feeling lighter (light as a feather?); which is preferable is surely a matter of preference. Nacet are half the price of Feather. So, in short, you get very nearly the same sharpness at half the cost.
2. Nacet have very consistent performance. Using Nacet, I've never had a bad blade. I'm not sure I've ever actually hit a drop-off in performance with Nacet; usually, when I toss one, it's just because I feel like switching to a different blade for the sake of variety. I no longer count shaves per blade, but I'm sure I easily get six to nine shaves before binning—and I shave a week's worth of neck stubble at a time (I have a beard but shave below it)—and the quality of the seventh-or-whatever shave is just as good as the first.
The sharpness of Nacet doesn't result in nicks—as long as I remember to respect the blade and PAY ATTENTION. If I've been using a less-sharp blade for a while (like Voskhod), then it can be easy to forget that I can't use as much pressure or re-shave the same spot as many times with Nacet. But if I actually engage my brain, especially during the first half of the first shave, and unlearn my lazy muscle memory, then the result is an excellent shave.
Very much agree on the consistency (blade to blade, tuck to tuck) and general packaging/quality in my limited experience with them.
