Blades are the fundamental software–in fact, initially I thought they were classified as hardware in the discussions. But no, they’re a consumable, so they’re software.
Outside of razors, soaps/creams/gels, brushes, and pre- and after shave routines, few things generate as much argument as blades. Okay, hopefully you get the point–everything is a point of argument…er, discussion…, but it’s lively and respectful, because everyone understands that shaving is a personal experience and what works for one person may not work for the next.
As I mentioned in the FAQs, blades can vary widely in terms of sharpness, sharpening or honing style, where and how they’re manufactured (most of the best ones are either from Russia or Japan, but India and even the US are making some fine blades), and how long they can hold their edge without being damaged. One great thing about this hobby is that this fundamental part of the experience is so cheap and meant to be replaced after just a couple of uses. I use mine for 3 shaves in one week. Then it’s done. With one exception. Let’s talk about that one.
As mentioned elsewhere, a shave can fall anywhere on a spectrum of mild to aggressive. Those who support the aggressive shave maintain that it lets people shave with a minimum of strokes, which leads to less razor burn. While those who support mild shaves will argue that if the shave is mild to begin with, more strokes won’t make a difference. One aggressive blade is a Kai. Obviously Japanese, this blade is very sharp (but not the sharpest). It’s frequently recommended because it is aggressive. It was one that I’ve received in a sampler pack early on and used with my Van Der Hagen razor. And it always hurt in that setup.
Recently I came back to the Kai. I had one left* and wanted to see how it felt in a mild razor, so I put it in the Henson razor and used my Proraso products–my favorites. And it was very uncomfortable. It was a close shave, but this was the first shave that I’d had with the Henson that produced such pronounced razor burn (normally if there is any, it’s very little and my alum block and post shave balms deal with it pretty easily). But that just hurt, and it took a couple of hours for my neck to finally settle down and stop burning.
*Let’s talk about this for a moment–I’d used 4 Kai blades, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. They always hurt, so why the hell would I end up using the entire box? I haven’t even done that with the Van Der Hagens.
Now, I don’t know what my face’s problem with the Kai blades is. I have tried other very sharp and aggressive blades in various setups, and they don’t bother me nearly as much. So it’s got to be something about how the Kai is ground or honed. The TL:DR version is that the sharpness of the blade doesn’t seem to matter to me much, but the blade needs to have the right edge on it to feel good for me as well. Oddly, the only other blade I’ve rated as being as uncomfortable as the Kai is the Van Der Hagen, and that’s solely got to be due to the razor.
And it isn’t about sharpness, because the Kai isn’t rated that high on the sharpness scale. Nor is it about being a Japanese blade. Feathers are also Japanese, and those have been very good blades for me.
Anyway, to some stats: according to my tracker, I’ve used 12 blade brands/products, and here’s what I’ve found so far:
- Milder blades for me feel fabulous, but do require more passes or strokes to deliver the closeness that I desire. The best mild blades I’ve used have been the Gillette 7 O’clock Yellow (above), and the Gillette Silver Blue (two pictures up).
- Medium blades, if you will, tend to work better for me. These include the Gillette Nacet (by far my favorite blade, shown above), the Accu-Forge, and the Personna Red (both are shown in the featured photo at the top).
- On the aggressive end, I’ve found a couple of strong performers for me there. These include the Gillette Perma-Sharp (shown above), and the Feather (which are widely identified as the sharpest razor blades currently made, and shown two photos up).
The 7 O’clock Yellow paired with the Henson barely feels like a blade is making contact with my face. It’s the kind of shave that doesn’t feel like a shave, but the end result is that it isn’t as close. But it will be my go-to if I just want a comfortable shave and aren’t concerned with the quality of the shave.
The Feather and Nacet consistently deliver a close shave in mild to medium razors. They’re comfortable and close and require little effort. I will probably always reach for a Nacet when I want a close shave with good comfort. More on that in a bit.
But, all of that being said, I still have 10 more blade brands in my collection that I need to try. Why? Well, part of it is when they came into my possession: the first blades I had were the Van Der Hagens (shown in the orange box above), and I’ve already talked about how that went. But the other three shown above came with the KCG, the Rockwell 6C, and the Henson Al-13 Mild. And I haven’t tried any of those because, frankly, I wanted to try other blades first.
In my first sampler–from Razor Emporium, included 5 blade brands, with 5 blades of each. The sampler was labelled as being for sensitive skin, and included the Accu-Forge, Astra Green, Kai, Perma-Sharp, and Personna Red. All are aggressive blades, but I tried them all, and as I’ve said, mostly liked everything except the Kai. The Astra Green is…okay. Not great, but not harmful.
By the time I ordered the next sampler pack–the Gillette pack–I already had the KCG and was experiencing it, so much so that I’d ordered more Perma-Sharp and Personna Red as well, because they’d been the best so far. In the Gillette pack were the 7 o’clock Yellow, Green, Black, Nacet, Platinum, and Silver Blue. These have widely varying aggressiveness, so it was an adventure going through them. The Yellow was very mild, the Green and Blacks, not quite as mild, but also not quite as good. I’ve been underwhelmed by them so far. The Silver Blue was a very nice shave–close and fairly comfortable.
The Nacet is a wonderful blade, and mentioned frequently in the online groups. It’s sharp, gets close, delivers a good shave with every razor I have (except the Van Der Hagen, I haven’t tried yet). It performs well, and feels just as good to me on my third shave of the week on Thursday as on the first on Sunday. For me, it’s the perfect blade.
After just finishing trying it on all three of my main razors and a mix of soaps, etc., the Feather is a close second. Yes, it’s sharp–I discovered I’d cut a finger just getting it out of the wrapper one morning and never even noticed until the skin at the edge of the wound dried up and got hard and irritating. But in a mild-to-medium razor, it’s very close to perfect.
But back to why I haven’t tried the three blades that came with three of my razors. I just haven’t. People don’t talk about them a whole lot, and they don’t show up too often in the SOTDs because when people get a new razor, they run to the best blades first–the Nacets, Feathers, etc. And, when people do talk about these blades, it sometimes isn’t very complimentary.
I don’t know what I’m expecting as I start shaving with these three razors with their paired blades, but I figured I should at least try them once. The KCG blades have been reported to be rebadged Gillette Platinums or Silver Blues, but someone recently claimed that they talked to Gillette customer service and got confirmation that they are a whole different blade. It’s got a more aggressive rating than the Silver Blue and around the Nacet, so we’ll see. I’ll admit that I’m most wary about that one, but then again, the KCG razor always pleasantly surprises me when I come back to it.
I see people shaving with the RK blade with their Henson, and I’ll admit that I’m surprised when I see people show off a box of 100 of these blades in a Mail Call post. So it seems that it has a positive following. This blade also comes in toward the middle on aggressiveness, back around the Nacet, so I’m anxious to see how it pairs with the Henson.
The Rockwell blade is commonly listed as one of the mildest blades out there, along with the Bic Chrome Platinum. And I’m thinking if that’s the case, I may actually try a shave on plate 4 on the Rockwell 6C. If it doesn’t rip my face off, I may go higher.
After those three weeks, I’ll have 7 more new (to me) blades to try. I’ve had a few recommendations online to try the Bic Chrome Platinums, so those may be next. But I have heard some good things about a relatively new blade, the Durablade 7am Plus…
Stay tuned.
