RayClem's Blade Evaluations

I would like to thank YOU, from all of us who have been reading and learning from your experiences, and for providing DFS with this thread... and leaving us a legacy spreadsheet for all to benefit from in the future.  Thank you Ray Clem.

I would like to thank YOU, from all of us who have been reading and learning from your experiences, and for providing DFS with this thread... and leaving us a legacy spreadsheet
for all to benefit from in the future.  Thank you Ray Clem.

Captainjonny 

Thank you for your kind words. You were one of several who gave me the motivation to keep going through the 7 months.

It has been a fun exercise, even when the shaves did not turn out as well as I hoped. Because beard types and skin types vary so much worldwide, there are a wide variety of blades available. Not all of those blades work for my beard and skin, but they work for somebody, somewhere. Hopefully, the spreadsheet will be useful in helping shaver figure out what blades will work best for them. 

Several years ago, the Refined Shave web site undertook the task of evaluating about 50 different blades. In addition to subjective evaluations, blades were also tested on the Bess Sharpness tester. I found those results to be quite useful to me in my early days of wet shaving. While some of those evaluations are still pertinent, some results are now obsolete. As Russian made blades disappear from the marketplace, information about those blades will no longer be useful. Furthermore, there are a lot of blades available now that were not available then. Blades from China and Czech Republic, in particular, have made significant inroads. 

I just attempted to open the Refined Shave web site and it failed to open. I do not know if this a permanent closure or just a temporary interruption. I was able to open it a few weeks ago. 

My spreadsheet should be useful for a few years, but like the data on the Refined Shave site, there will come a time when my observations are no longer relevant.  While I have no plans to delete the spreadsheet from my Dropbox account, there will come a time when the Dropbox account is no longer in service. Thus, I would suggest that anyone who values the data download the spreadsheet and save it to your own computer. 

I will continue to monitor this thread and will respond to any comments or questions as appropriate. 

Ray

  It looks like I'm gonna call it after 9 shaves. It felt like it was dragging the whole shave, likely dull. It felt like I was getting a slight burn while shaving and I could feel irritation as I shaved. Closeness was good, one side closer than the other, likely user error on that. The feedback from the alcohol based aftershave was minor but lingered much longer than prior. No major irritation or burn after that, but the shave was less than enjoyable this time with my Blackland Blackbird Ti. I did my mustache area twice and still wasn't satisfied. I usually only do it once. It's good to know I can be satisfied with this blade beyond just 3 shaves, but I would likely cut it off before 8. Even if I went 5 with the cost of about .18¢ per blade it's still a bargain at about .06¢ per shave. It wasn't a terrible shave overall, just the feel during the shave left it less than desirable for me personally.

I would like to thank YOU, from all of us who have been reading and learning from your experiences, and for providing DFS with this thread... and leaving us a legacy spreadsheet
for all to benefit from in the future.  Thank you Ray Clem.

Captainjonny 

Thank you for your kind words. You were one of several who gave me the motivation to keep going through the 7 months.

It has been a fun exercise, even when the shaves did not turn out as well as I hoped. Because beard types and skin types vary so much worldwide, there are a wide variety of blades available. Not all of those blades work for my beard and skin, but they work for somebody, somewhere. Hopefully, the spreadsheet will be useful in helping shaver figure out what blades will work best for them. 

Several years ago, the Refined Shave web site undertook the task of evaluating about 50 different blades. In addition to subjective evaluations, blades were also tested on the Bess Sharpness tester. I found those results to be quite useful to me in my early days of wet shaving. While some of those evaluations are still pertinent, some results are now obsolete. As Russian made blades disappear from the marketplace, information about those blades will no longer be useful. Furthermore, there are a lot of blades available now that were not available then. Blades from China and Czech Republic, in particular, have made significant inroads. 

I just attempted to open the Refined Shave web site and it failed to open. I do not know if this a permanent closure or just a temporary interruption. I was able to open it a few weeks ago. 

My spreadsheet should be useful for a few years, but like the data on the Refined Shave site, there will come a time when my observations are no longer relevant.  While I have no plans to delete the spreadsheet from my Dropbox account, there will come a time when the Dropbox account is no longer in service. Thus, I would suggest that anyone who values the data download the spreadsheet and save it to your own computer. 

I will continue to monitor this thread and will respond to any comments or questions as appropriate. 

Ray

Adding a thank you, Ray for this fascinating undertaking and the rigor with which you did it and how you've stuck with it.  Thanks!

  It looks like I'm gonna call it after 9 shaves. It felt like it was dragging the whole shave, likely dull. It felt like I was getting a slight burn while shaving and I could feel irritation as I shaved. Closeness was good, one side closer than the other, likely user error on that. The feedback from the alcohol based aftershave was minor but lingered much longer than prior. No major irritation or burn after that, but the shave was less than enjoyable this time with my Blackland Blackbird Ti. I did my mustache area twice and still wasn't satisfied. I usually only do it once. It's good to know I can be satisfied with this blade beyond just 3 shaves, but I would likely cut it off before 8. Even if I went 5 with the cost of about .18¢ per blade it's still a bargain at about .06¢ per shave. It wasn't a terrible shave overall, just the feel during the shave left it less than desirable for me personally.

Even the most expensive blades are fairly inexpensive at only a few pennies per shave. It's up to you, but I would suggest you discontinue using a blade well before you get to the point that you are no longer enjoying the shave. 

I cannot believe you got 9 shaves from an Astra SP blade, your beard and skin must be a lot different than mine. I cannot even apply an alcohol based aftershave without diluting it with water first. Otherwise, I will get severe feedback immediately. While some love the slap in the face from the experience, it is not an enjoyable experience for me. That is why I believe I was a good candidate for the blade evaluation. I can detect subtle differences in sharpness and smoothness that might go unnoticed my many shavers.

  It looks like I'm gonna call it after 9 shaves. It felt like it was dragging the whole shave, likely dull. It felt like I was getting a slight burn while shaving and I could feel irritation as I shaved. Closeness was good, one side closer than the other, likely user error on that. The feedback from the alcohol based aftershave was minor but lingered much longer than prior. No major irritation or burn after that, but the shave was less than enjoyable this time with my Blackland Blackbird Ti. I did my mustache area twice and still wasn't satisfied. I usually only do it once. It's good to know I can be satisfied with this blade beyond just 3 shaves, but I would likely cut it off before 8. Even if I went 5 with the cost of about .18¢ per blade it's still a bargain at about .06¢ per shave. It wasn't a terrible shave overall, just the feel during the shave left it less than desirable for me personally.

Even the most expensive blades are fairly inexpensive at only a few pennies per shave. It's up to you, but I would suggest you discontinue using a blade well before you get to the point that you are no longer enjoying the shave. 

I cannot believe you got 9 shaves from an Astra SP blade, your beard and skin must be a lot different than mine. I cannot even apply an alcohol based aftershave without diluting it with water first. Otherwise, I will get severe feedback immediately. While some love the slap in the face from the experience, it is not an enjoyable experience for me. That is why I believe I was a good candidate for the blade evaluation. I can detect subtle differences in sharpness and smoothness that might go unnoticed my many shavers.

I definitely agree the more expensive blades are still cheap enough to use and toss after a handful of shaves. Generally, I usually chuck a blade between 3 to 5 shaves. It was something I had read a while ago. It kind of made sense to me, and that was to get rid of the blade before you got to the bad shave. Kind of what you just said! I have been doing that for sometime and it has worked well for me. But, I am curious now about blades and seeing how far they can be pushed. At least for now with the blades that I most regularly use.

metal_shavings

There is no need to dispose of a blade just because it has met your predetermined shave count. For example, while I generally get 3-4 good shaves from most blades, I was able to get 5 shaves out of the Gillette Super Thin Vietnam blades. I could have used the blade for a 6th shave, but I could tell that the blade was starting to deteriorate beyond the point of providing an enjoyable shave. Thus, I stopped after 5 shaves.

I do not know what you limit might be for specific blades. Do not change blades just because they have met a certain count. Do change them when you can feel them starting to deteriorate.

metal_shavings

There is no need to dispose of a blade just because it has met your predetermined shave count. For example, while I generally get 3-4 good shaves from most blades, I was able to get 5 shaves out of the Gillette Super Thin Vietnam blades. I could have used the blade for a 6th shave, but I could tell that the blade was starting to deteriorate beyond the point of providing an enjoyable shave. Thus, I stopped after 5 shaves.

I do not know what you limit might be for specific blades. Do not change blades just because they have met a certain count. Do change them when you can feel them starting to deteriorate.

Yes, I used to do that. That's why I want to test my most used ones to see where to cut them off. I want to test my Nacets, Wizamets, Silver Star, Derby Green and Premium, Parker Premium, etc. Especially now that I have the My Shave Den app, I can put in the notes where the blade dropped off for me. I will likely start with Nacet and Wizamet. Wizamets are a new favorite since I got them. They have worked well for me, even in aggressive razors like my Lupo 127.

Thursday Shave

When Gasman sent me the Matgicol and "No name" generic blades, he included 2 of each. Since the results on the 1st Matgicol blades were not a good as I hoped or expected, I wondered if it might have been a bad blade. Thus, I decided I would try the 2nd blade. Unfortunately, that blade was no better than the 1st. I shaved one cheek and started on the other when I decided that it would not be a successful shave. Thus, I picked up the razor that still contained the FlyDear blade, now on its 2nd full shave (3rd use). I successfully completed the shave with the FlyDear blade. I got a near BBS shave with moderate feedback when applying witch hazel.

While I still prefer blades sharper than FlyDear, at least I can use it successfully. for a few shaves. Unfortunately, I cannot say that for Matgicol. While some have speculated that FlyDear and Matgicol are the same blade in different packaging, my experience tells me they are not.

Ray, sorry if this is already mentioned above, but do you know what year Gillette started moving production of their Russian-made blades to India?