Trouble with Gillette 7 O'Clock Blacks

[Kent Kimmons]

Since adding the black 7 O'Clock blades to my "will shave with" list, I have gone through about 4 tucks of blades, that's about 80 shaves with them. I have found them to be consistent and they fall right into the pattern that the other blades I use fall into, the 4th shave is sufficiently tuggy to merit tossing the blade post-shave but that 4th shave is still quite suitable for a long work day.

Not my latest tuck. I'm 4 blades into it in 8 days. The first shave is great, close, smooth, etc. The second feels a little worse than my usual blades to on shave #4, until this morning. I tossed one mid shave #2.

Any idea what would make a usually great blade behave like this? Razor has been consistent, a King C Gillette, for the last almost 2 months since I bought it. I understand that blades wear out but the curve on this one is strange. First shave start great and from what I can tell, finishes great. Seond shave is like dropping off a cliff. Starts really good and in less than 30 strokes, it's barely acceptable.

I'm 0 for 4 on this tuck. Tuck immediately before it was great.

Any ideas/opinions?

 

[Eben Stone]

My initial sampler pack came with two G7B blades. The first two shaves with the first blade were terrible and I tossed the blade and didn't use the other one until just recently. With the second blade the first two shaves were terrible, and shaves 3-11 were great. I tossed the blade after shave 11.

Not enough experience with these blades to make any kind of informed decision, but that second blade, from shave 3 onward, reminded me of a Nacet

I am also very curious what other members' experiences are with these blades.