Anything other than derby
I just wish I had a 195 to mutilate my face with Every nick would be a Treet. (Geddit?) Over here the 195 is rarer than rocking horse dung.I want to like these but I’ve tried SPs on everything from my Merkur 34, to my SS, and every setting on my Fatboy and it’s a bloodbath every time.
This is such a YMMV question. I thought the Derby was terrible at first and blamed my woes on the blade. I bought a bunch of Astra’s based on the wisdom of B&B and had largely the same experience as I did with the Derby. But with time, technique improved. I tried the Derby Extra again and found it to give a close, irritation free shave. Turns out the initial problem was my technique, not the blade.
As for Astra, I’ve used up the 100 and will never use them again—they were terrible for me but I’m happy they work for many. After 10 years DE shaving I thought another sample pack would be fun. I’m realizing some blades I hated from my original sampler are better than I thought. I chalk this up to experience and technique.
All I know it was a TTO, most likely a Flare Tip, not a red or blue tip or adjustable. In my opinion today's blades are much better than the ones back in the 50s.Nice! What kind of shave did you get with those blades compared with any of todays? May I ask what razor you got?
What blade choice would you put into a newbie razor pack if you were a manufacturer? Obviously economics has most to do with it I s'pose, but any thoughts on the 'ideal' starter blade with a new razor? What would you have liked to have received?
I am counting out Feathers because they would be not a good pick for most newbies I suspect.
So before I received my first razor I had received a 20 blade sampler. When my razor arrived (KCG) I set aside the KCG blades and installed an Astra SP which worked great. I had razors coming everyday so just continued with the Astra SP blades for the first nine (9) shaves. Then GSB followed by Voskhod & Nacet. These blades all worked well for me.My first razor came with a 5 pack of Derby extras. I found these to be *cough* sub-optimal for my needs. In fact they nearly made me give up before I had started.
I suspect that if a little more thought would go into choosing a 'good' blade by manufacturers and distributors selling often nice razors with often 'bad' blades, many, many more would stick with the hobby. Again I would probably guess that maybe 40% of new D/E shavers give up because of manufacturers 5 pack blade sample choices. (A wild guess on that percentage estimate, but I suspect it's a lot)
What blade choice would you put into a newbie razor pack if you were a manufacturer? Obviously economics has most to do with it I s'pose, but any thoughts on the 'ideal' starter blade with a new razor? What would you have liked to have received?
I am counting out Feathers because they would be not a good pick for most newbies I suspect.