#381
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2024, 06:26 PM by Karveme.)
(01-30-2024, 06:52 PM)Karveme Wrote: Quotes aren’t working and still I have to type fast or these pages reload!and I start all over.
Had an idea using my Karve OC-D plate along with the Rex envoy razor..
Using a Rockwell blade in both…shaving half my face with the karve and the other with rex,thought these blades were made in the US,then I find out they’re Canadian,now Chinese made…anyways,just finished my 6th shave,the Rex I did my routine of rinsing,loosening,blowing hard 3x and placing on paper towel,the karve just rinsing,well today the karve is much rougher and didn’t get a BBS shave,the Rex was BBS and no aftershave burn…the “Rex is officially a Karve OC-E plate from the first shave”this reminds me of my white steel knives,same thing,most that own white steel or blue steel are always on stones sharpening,all you need is leather strop,..I have a takeda  blue steel knife that if not stropped will prevent me from slicing a garlic clove into. 1000 pieces that melts into my cutting board,seriously,a radish I can make disappear melted away into a puddle of liquid,if I don’t leather strop then there’s no way this could be done.I’ll keep going and see what happens with these 2 blades..then I’ll try 2 different blades.
Went a 7th time and the blade in the karve is rough,pulls and aftershave burn was pretty bad…so the next day I reloaded both razors with new rockwell blades and this time I blow hard after rinsing the karve OC- D plate and just rinse the rex razor,2 shaves in……I tried deleting parts of the above quote and just leaving the important stuff but did’t happen.
#382

Member
Chicago Suburbs
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2024, 07:56 PM by RayClem.)
Went a 7th time and the blade in the karve is rough,pulls and aftershave burn was pretty bad…so the next day I reloaded both razors with new rockwell blades and this time I blow hard after rinsing the karve OC- D plate and just rinse the rex razor,2 shaves in……I tried deleting parts of the above quote and just leaving the important stuff but did’t happen.
[/quote]

I can usually quote an entire post, including prior quotes, but anytime I try to delete the earlier quotes, things tend to lock up and won't save. 
I am going to save this post with the original quote and then try to edit the post to delete the original quote to see if that works.  I was able to delete your earlier quote, but ended up deleting your name from the quotation. Sorry about that, but at least it worked.

I received a tuck of Rockwell blades yesterday in a new order of blades for testing. I will try it sometime in the next week or two, but probably only for 1-2 shaves, depending upon the results.
#383

Member
Chicago Suburbs
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2024, 11:58 PM by RayClem.)
Friday Shave- Filoso Barber Blade

Yesterday, I received an order of quite a few razor blade from The Razor Company. Service and delivery were good, although I did pay extra for priority shipping.

For my Friday shave, I selected a Filoso Barber's Blade. Filoso brands themselves as "the Barber's Brand". Filoso is a latino owned company.

Very few details about the blades are available. I believe they are platinum coated,. No information is provided on the type of steel or the place of manufacture. I suspect they come from China, but that is a mere guess. Thus, I started today's shave with little idea of what to expect. I began the shave with a few strokes using the Suneko blade from a previous shave. It was reasonably sharp and reasonably smooth, but nothing special. As soon as I installed the Filoso blade in the Karve C-plate razor and took my initial strokes, I knew I was in for a great shaving experience. The blade was easily 4.5 in sharpness at the beginning of the shave and seemed to become even sharper. It was a very smooth shave. I could have stopped after 3 passes and still had a very nice shave, but I proceeded on to my clean-up pass using buffing strokes. I was pleasantly surprised.

I was able to achieve a near-BBS shave with little effort. Furthermore, when I applied witch hazel after the shave, I got essentially no feedback. At this time, I am rating the Filoso Barber Blade 4.5 on sharpness and 5 on smoothness making it one of the best blades I have evaluated. At a price of $13 per 100 blades it is a great value. The evaluation spreadsheet has been updated.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/71ttt15wy...qo8eb&dl=0

Because the blade performed so well, I plan to use it again for my shave on Sunday. Based on the results of that shave, the rating of the blade might change slightly., For those who like very sharp, yet smooth blades, this is a nice option.

metal_shavings and Gasman like this post
#384

Member
Chicago Suburbs
Sunday Shave- Filoso Barber Blade- 2nd use

I got a wonderful shave on Friday with the Filiso Barber Blade. I wondered how the blade would fare on its 2nd use. After all, barbers who use disposable blade generally use the blade for one client and then discard it, at least that is what they are supposed to do. Thus, the pricing of the blade is more important to barbers than the longevity of the blade.

I lathered up and went to work with my Karve C plate razor using the Filoso blade on its 2nd use. The blade was still very sharp with little blade resistance. I did feel slightly more blade on my face than with the first shave. However, I proceeded with the shave including buffing strokes. As with the first shave, I got a near-BBS shave with little effort. I was expecting minor feedback when applying witch hazel after the shave due to the blade feel. However, like the 1st shave, I got essentially no feedback. Thus, the Filoso Barber Blade receives the same 4.5 sharpness and 5 smoothness rating as with the 1st shave. Thus, this is a blade I would recommend to anyone who likes sharp, smooth blades at a good price.

I wish I had time to test the longevity of the Filoso blade, but that will have to wait for a while. I have additional blades to test, so I need to move on to the next blade.

Karveme has reported some success with Rockwell blades from China. While Rockwell razors are highly regarded, their blades have not gotten good reviews in the past. Nearly any blade from China was suspect a few years ago.. Now there are some excellent blades being produced in China, including several Gillette blades. I purchased a tuck of Rockwell blades hoping they are much improved from years past. It will be used for Wednesday's shave.

Gasman likes this post
#385
(This post was last modified: 02-05-2024, 03:23 AM by ErkRusselReserve.)
Your recommendations always hit.  I'll have to pick up some Filosos.  As many "platinum" blades no longer actually have platinum*, Filoso explicitly stating that their blades now include platinum is bonus points.  It may be that Bic CP also are actually platinum coated, this may differentiate them from many other pretenders. 

*based on the spectrum analysis of a poster on B&B as well as a Russian "insider" on B&B and the listed materials on the Gillette Super Thin Plantinum (for the Vietnam market).

RayClem likes this post
#386

Member
Chicago Suburbs
(This post was last modified: 02-05-2024, 04:00 PM by RayClem.)
(02-05-2024, 03:20 AM)ErkRusselReserve Wrote: Your recommendations always hit.  I'll have to pick up some Filosos.  As many "platinum" blades no longer actually have platinum*, Filoso explicitly stating that their blades now include platinum is bonus points.  It may be that Bic CP also are actually platinum coated, this may differentiate them from many other pretenders. 

*based on the spectrum analysis of a poster on B&B as well as a Russian "insider" on B&B and the listed materials on the Gillette Super Thin Plantinum (for the Vietnam market).

I hope you like the Filoso blades. The company is located in Las Vegas, so I do not know how easily you will be able to find them elsewhere. 

Unlike some products such as shaving soaps that have very strict labeling requirements, razor blades have far less requirements. Sometimes even determining the country of manufacture is a challenge. This is made even harder by companies like Gillette who have plants all over the world. They might make products in one country and package them in another and sell them to yet another. That also means that a single product might be sold under different branding in various parts of the world. For example, I wonder if the Gillette Nacet blades and the Gillette Minora blades are one in the same. I did note a slight difference in my testing, but the difference might well be within the margin of error, especially when testing only a few samples. 

Some blades are sold as "Swiss Quality". Perhaps the blades were manufactured using machinery designed in Switzerland or the company hires Swiss engineers. Or perhaps it is just a marketing scheme to make you think the blades have the precision of a Rolex watch. Even Switzerland only requires 60% of the components of a product to be made there to label it "Made in Switzerland". There would be no such requirement for the use of the marketing term "Swiss Quality".

Then there are manufacturers who claim they use Swedish steel in their blades. I own a Cangshan knife made in China from Swedish Sandvik 14C28N steel and hardened to 59 HRC. It is much sharper and holds it edge longer than similar knives I own featuring German X50CrMoV15 steel. The Swedish companies Sandvik and Allemia both make 13C26 steel for razor blade use and some brands might use those steels. However, I suspect that many Chinese made razor blades do not actually use 13C26, but a Chinese produced steel with similar properties. China is the largest producer of steel in the world accounting for 50% of the entire world production. Much of their iron ore comes from Australia. 

Sweden is only 33rd on the list of producers. I read that not only are most Chinese blades produced using Chinese steel, but so are many blades, including some produced in Solingen, Germany that use Chinese steel. Since Solingen has a long history of steel making and blade making, that is surprising, but economics trumps location. 

India is the second largest producer of steel in the world. Most of the blades made in India will be produced from Indian steel. Technically Russian razor steel is better than Indian steel for razor blades, but the blade making machinery at the Gillette/PPI blade making machinery in Russia was quite old. Thus, Gillette abandoning that equipment and moving to India and China might be a good thing in the long run.  

I just learned that the famed Personna Platinum Israeli Reds were manufactured using steel from the USA. The Accutec Blade facility uses American steel as well.

I read that BIC uses Japanese steel for production of the BIC Chrome Platinum blades. Perhaps that is why BIC can achieve similar sharpness to Feather blades. I am not a fan of Kai blades, which use Japanese steel. One reader commented that KAI uses a different method for sharpening the blade edges. Unfortunately, they do not work well for me.
#387
We’ll just finished up my 5th shave with both the Karve and Rex using the Rockwell blade and both gave me major razor burn and not anywhere near a DFS let alone a BBS…first Rockwell tuck from memory they were ok,had enough,my jaguar blades after 5 shaves,one blade after 10 shaves start shaving amazingly sharp and smooth…I have a dozen tucks and next time I’m grabbing all the ones they have in stock,had enough playing with these sub par blades…I don’t know how Mr Clem does this but my hats off to him.
#388

Member
Chicago Suburbs
(This post was last modified: 02-05-2024, 06:43 PM by RayClem.)
(02-05-2024, 04:39 PM)Karveme Wrote: We’ll just finished up my 5th shave with both the Karve and Rex using the Rockwell blade and both gave me major razor burn and not anywhere near a DFS let alone a BBS…first Rockwell tuck from memory they were ok,had enough,my jaguar blades after 5 shaves,one blade after 10 shaves start shaving amazingly sharp and smooth…I have a dozen tucks and next time I’m grabbing all the ones they have in stock,had enough playing with these sub par blades…I don’t know how Mr Clem does this but my hats off to him.

I have not tried the Rockwell blades recently. I plan to use one for tomorrow's shave. Whether I make it through even one pass has not yet been determined. I might discard them before the end of the 1st pass, or I might get a great shave. That is what experimentation is all about. I only purchased a tuck of 5 blades, so if they do not work, they go in the sharps container for disposal. 

One advantage I have is that I am using elite quality artisan shaving soaps. That can make a big difference in the quality of the shave.
I am using a Karve C-plate razor which clamps blades tightly to minimize blade chatter. There is less irritation with less chatter.
I also shave with a very light touch (minimal pressure) and a very shallow shave angle (off the cap). I do not mind doing a four-pass shave
I do not push for a full BBS shave. I try for BBS on my cheeks and neck, but not on my jawline and chin.
I also do not try to get five complete shaves from any blade. If I use the same blade for all four passes, usually 3-4 shaves with be the most I can achieve without irritation.
#389

Mike Distress
New Jersey
(02-05-2024, 06:37 PM)RayClem Wrote:
(02-05-2024, 04:39 PM)Karveme Wrote: We’ll just finished up my 5th shave with both the Karve and Rex using the Rockwell blade and both gave me major razor burn and not anywhere near a DFS let alone a BBS…first Rockwell tuck from memory they were ok,had enough,my jaguar blades after 5 shaves,one blade after 10 shaves start shaving amazingly sharp and smooth…I have a dozen tucks and next time I’m grabbing all the ones they have in stock,had enough playing with these sub par blades…I don’t know how Mr Clem does this but my hats off to him.

I have not tried the Rockwell blades recently. I plan to use one for tomorrow's shave. Whether I make it through even one pass has not yet been determined. I might discard them before the end of the 1st pass, or I might get a great shave. That is what experimentation is all about. I only purchased a tuck of 5 blades, so if they do not work, they go in the sharps container for disposal. 

One advantage I have is that I am using elite quality artisan shaving soaps. That can make a big difference in the quality of the shave.
I am using a Karve C-plate razor which clamps blades tightly to minimize blade chatter. There is less irritation with less chatter.
I also shave with a very light touch (minimal pressure) and a very shallow shave angle (off the cap). I do not mind doing a four-pass shave
I do not push for a full BBS shave. I try for BBS on my cheeks and neck, but not on my jawline and chin.
I also do not try to get five complete shaves from any blade. If I use the same blade for all four passes, usually 3-4 shaves with be the most I can achieve without irritation.

I tried a Rockwell blade years ago and chucked it after one shave. It just didn't feel good as I remember. Maybe I'll try another one someday, but I'm in no hurry. Tongue
integritas pietas fortitudinem
#390

Member
Chicago Suburbs
(This post was last modified: 02-06-2024, 12:20 AM by RayClem.)
(02-06-2024, 12:16 AM)metal_shavings Wrote: I tried a Rockwell blade years ago and chucked it after one shave. It just didn't feel good as I remember. Maybe I'll try another one someday, but I'm in no hurry. Tongue


Rockwell certainly has not had a great reputation for blades in the past. That is surprising considering the nice razors that have been so well received in the shaving community.
Many Chinese made blades seem to have improved in quality over the past few years, so I am hoping that Rockwell blades will be one of them otherwise, I might not get through the 1st pass.


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