Which blade did you use today?

Wizamet Super Iridium

Personna med prep.

I am using an SE razor to do my clean up pass after a double pass SR shave. The razor (Pearl "the sleek") uses half DE blades. It came with something called Silvermax blades which seem to last forever in this role. I can probably make one last for a few months just doing clean up passes. I have 20 of them so I am probably good for close to forever, but I did some looking and they are hard to find. I think the primary market for this brand is India. It appears that they may be the same thing as Euromax cryosputtered DE blades which can be snapped in half to made SE blades.

Does anybody know if this is true?

Wizamet Super Iridium

King C. Gillette

Remember that my blade evaluations are all subjective. I would consider the differences between the King C Gillette Russian and China blades to be within the margin of error. They are both good blades, but I tend to have a slight preference for the Russian version due to my sensitive skin. Considering, however, that the Chinese version is now available in bulk packs of 100 blades for $16 on Amazon, it is a much better value. Since the Russian blades are no longer being produced and they were only available in 10 packs, I suspect that there are very few of the Russian KCG blades remaining.

There was a time when Chinese blades were considered to be rubbish. Those days are gone. Sure, there are still some poor quality blades coming out of China, but there are also some very nice ones. If you want very good blades at a bargain price, check out the FlyDear blades. If you want an even better blade at a somewhat higher price, check out the Filoso Barber Brand blades.

Ray, I notice the wrapping/lettering on the Filosos and very similar to the Flydears except for the name. Think it could be the same factory?

Remember that my blade evaluations are all subjective. I would consider the differences between the King C Gillette Russian and China blades to be within the margin of error. They are both good blades, but I tend to have a slight preference for the Russian version due to my sensitive skin. Considering, however, that the Chinese version is now available in bulk packs of 100 blades for $16 on Amazon, it is a much better value. Since the Russian blades are no longer being produced and they were only available in 10 packs, I suspect that there are very few of the Russian KCG blades remaining.

There was a time when Chinese blades were considered to be rubbish. Those days are gone. Sure, there are still some poor quality blades coming out of China, but there are also some very nice ones. If you want very good blades at a bargain price, check out the FlyDear blades. If you want an even better blade at a somewhat higher price, check out the Filoso Barber Brand blades.

Ray, I notice the wrapping/lettering on the Filosos and very similar to the Flydears except for the name. Think it could be the same factory?

I have no idea which factory produces these blades. They might very well come from the same factory. In my testing, I found Filoso to be the better blade (slightly sharper, significantly smooth), but it also sells at a higher price. Like the Gillette/PPI plant,  a manufacturing facility can make a variety of blades, but likewise, the same blade can be packaged in different packaging and sold under private brands. In the face of Filoso and FlyDear, I do believe they are different blades, even if they come from the same factory.

Polsilver Super Iridium

King C. Gillette

Polsilver Super Iridium

 I never found Polsilver Super Iridium blades produced by PPI to be anything special. I found them to be similar to Gillette Platinum blades. Both of those blades are favorites of some shavers. For my tough beard and sensitive skin, they were only average. I found recent Gillette Platinum blades to be sharper and smoother than older ones.

The more recent Wizamet Super Iridium blades produced by PPI were sharper and smoother IMHO.

Since the Polsilver blades have not been manufactured for several years, supplies are diminished. They are somewhat difficult to find and existing supplies are costly ($60 per 100 blades). The Wizamet blades are not currently being shipped to NATO countries. There are few sources, but the pricing is decent at $20/100 blades. Thus, for me, the Wizamet blades are a far better value.