I traded for 30 of these with another member to see if I liked them enough to purchase 100, the only way you can seem to get them. I traded an equal lot of Gillette Silver Blues.
Loaded one up this morning about 10am in my R89. It started off a little rough as with my first two N/S strokes on my cheek, the blade chattered and skipped down my face. My first thought was "these can't be that bad with all the good things I've heard". I sat the razor down and checked my shave creme consistency. Turns out it was a little to saturated with water, and the water here in SA is very hard. This was the first day that I tried using my Kent BK8 in the shower for my shave, so I either didn't get enough product in my bowl before I got in or got too much water in...or both. I added a little Nivea liquid body wash to the bowl and re-whipped it to make a quick super lather and re-lathered my face.
This helped quite a bit, but the blade still didn't didn't glide as smoothly as my other favorite blades, the Gillette SB's, Israeli Personna (Crystal) and the Astra, but it was cutting quite well. I did my normal 3 pass shave with cleanup and it chattered a bit on my blade buffing passes, even with ample lather. It also chattered on my ATG pass for my lower neck (diagonal from ear to adam's apple for me).
I got a few weepers, but nothing out of the ordinary for me and nothing that bled after rinsing my face in the shower a few times. I exited the shower somewhat disappointed in the Voskhod. However, after brushing my teeth and putting my hair product in I put on my Weleda AS balm as is my normal routine. I immediately noticed that the normal brief stinging I get in any mildly irritated areas was absent. No sting at all. Also, as I rubbed the balm into my face and neck I could not detect any area's that felt irritated. I can usually feel a few until the Weleda has time to work it's magic.
At the time I felt like I had BBS in some parts of my face and DFS over the rest. Not too shabby for a blade that chattered across my face in several areas.
Even now, almost 12 hours after my shave I have no noticeable beard growth and most of my face still feels BSS. Additionally, I don't have any of the small red bumps at the base of my neck that I have been fighting for the past few weeks. I doubt that has anything to do with the blade, but maybe it does.
For now I am going to chalk the chattering up to a poor batch of shave cream. I will try again tomorrow and concentrate on building a better bowl of lather for the Voskhod. I am now much more impressed with this blade than I was when I stepped out of the shower. After I shave with this blade for the rest of the week, to see how long it lasts and if the chattering goes away, it may be my next 100 blade purchase.
So far, so good with the Voskhod.
Loaded one up this morning about 10am in my R89. It started off a little rough as with my first two N/S strokes on my cheek, the blade chattered and skipped down my face. My first thought was "these can't be that bad with all the good things I've heard". I sat the razor down and checked my shave creme consistency. Turns out it was a little to saturated with water, and the water here in SA is very hard. This was the first day that I tried using my Kent BK8 in the shower for my shave, so I either didn't get enough product in my bowl before I got in or got too much water in...or both. I added a little Nivea liquid body wash to the bowl and re-whipped it to make a quick super lather and re-lathered my face.
This helped quite a bit, but the blade still didn't didn't glide as smoothly as my other favorite blades, the Gillette SB's, Israeli Personna (Crystal) and the Astra, but it was cutting quite well. I did my normal 3 pass shave with cleanup and it chattered a bit on my blade buffing passes, even with ample lather. It also chattered on my ATG pass for my lower neck (diagonal from ear to adam's apple for me).
I got a few weepers, but nothing out of the ordinary for me and nothing that bled after rinsing my face in the shower a few times. I exited the shower somewhat disappointed in the Voskhod. However, after brushing my teeth and putting my hair product in I put on my Weleda AS balm as is my normal routine. I immediately noticed that the normal brief stinging I get in any mildly irritated areas was absent. No sting at all. Also, as I rubbed the balm into my face and neck I could not detect any area's that felt irritated. I can usually feel a few until the Weleda has time to work it's magic.
At the time I felt like I had BBS in some parts of my face and DFS over the rest. Not too shabby for a blade that chattered across my face in several areas.
Even now, almost 12 hours after my shave I have no noticeable beard growth and most of my face still feels BSS. Additionally, I don't have any of the small red bumps at the base of my neck that I have been fighting for the past few weeks. I doubt that has anything to do with the blade, but maybe it does.
For now I am going to chalk the chattering up to a poor batch of shave cream. I will try again tomorrow and concentrate on building a better bowl of lather for the Voskhod. I am now much more impressed with this blade than I was when I stepped out of the shower. After I shave with this blade for the rest of the week, to see how long it lasts and if the chattering goes away, it may be my next 100 blade purchase.
So far, so good with the Voskhod.
