An Engineer's Blade Sharpness Study...

The testing found the Feather to be the sharpest blade on first use (by a good margin).

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At least everyone tells us it is, so it must be.

But from my experience, 7:00 Black and Kai feel every bit as sharp.

 

Sharpness of any one blade does not equate to a smooth comfortable shave. No doubt the Feather is a very sharp blade but I have always found that the first shave was uncomfortable and far from smooth. It performed much better the second and third time. Sharpness is greatly over rated. My opinion.

 

I would say we believe what our face believes. My face believes Feather ain't all it's cracked up to be.

 

I used Feather exclusively for years because it's what I had my first great shave with. When I signed up here, I got bit by the "Try 'em all" bug, and found other blades I enjoy more that cost less. I also found that I can use any blade, but still like some over others...

 

I bet @NCoxSTL has a few you could try out....

 

Decided to pick up the stick?

 

Touche... Any well built blade.

 

Doggone it. I was digging out a couple to suggest but you're onto me.

 

According to that test, Feather really is the sharpest. The lowest number means the sharpest blade.

 

The push through test does not make the results invalid. I appreciate it may be too much science but just want to respond in case anyone else reading is interested in the materials testing side:

A test, whether destructive or non destructive, does not need to replicate the actual use in order to quantify a desired property. I have extensive experience testing structural steel for example, and one of the tests is called a Charpy test which tests for toughtness. This test uses a swinging hammer like a pendulum and measures the force required to break a test sample of steel. This test is common for lifting lugs at low temperatures to prevent brittle fracture on lifting lugs during a lift.

Now in real life, there is no risk of a swinging hammer striking a lifting lug while a module is being lifted into place. The point? The test just needs to be repeatable and consistent for all the blades tested. This test measures the force required to sever the test media, and therefore how sharp it is. It could be done with a jig set up to slice, (this would be more difficult to set up), and the results would all change but they would have the same relatively to one another.

 

Judging by your profile picture it appears you only shave your face. The testing is done on a full head and face shave, so 2-3 could easily match the 5-7 you suggest.

 

Valid as a controlled scientific test, yes. I believe that's what he meant.

 

Why would a newbie need a sampler? This advice never gets examined.

Samplers are pointless. The newbie has no skill or experience with which to differentiate the blade qualities. I feel like it slows development and confuses the issue.

 

I think I have to disagree somewhat. Given the variations in razors and blades, there is some element of chance and/or skill in just getting a working initial setup. For instance, we recently discovered that the Dorco STD-301 (the Dollar Store blade) is so thin that it doesn't work well with razors that don't provide adequate clamping. Two years ago, I started this journey with a vintage SuperSpeed and picked up a tuck of those blades while checking out locally-available blade options. Thank goodness I started with the OEM Personna blades instead as I found the Dorco experience to be so bad that I immediately dismissed them as almost unusable. Had I started with those, I might have been put off of the whole Wet Shaving experience.

Similar statements could be made about other common "beginner" blades such as the Derby Extra and the Van der Hagen blades. I wish I could remember how we chose our favorite blade back in the old days.

 

I'll split the difference between you two. My advice would be to choose a middle of the road blade -- no Derby, no Feather -- and stick with it for awhile. I'm in basic agreement with BS that the fewer variables the better. Which is also why I recommend against an adjustable as a first razor.

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My opinion is that every newbie needs to find a blade not tugging. For some it might even mean Feather. For most, it means a less sharp blade than Feather.

A tugging blade is like using a dull knife. It is easier to have an accident with a dull knife because of the extra force used. A sharp blade allows more precision.

Assuming we have a valid result in this rest, a newbie noticing a blade is tugging can for now discard all plans of testing any blade less sharp. This means far less testing as he now "only" needs to search among the blades being sharper than the blade he used earlier. He will find faster a blade that is for him a good combination if smoothness and sharpness.

 

The problem being, a person new to DE shaving may experience tugging because of poor angle, poor prep, or poor tools. New DE shavers, myself included, tend to want to blame their equipment for a less-than-stellar shave. I spent a good bit of money starting out because I didn't realize that I was the problem, not my razors or blades. Another problem often arises because people tend to jump in whole hog. Learning to shave with a DE, making lather from hard soap, using a brush, etc. etc. all at the same time creates so many variables that pinpointing problems becomes impossible. I wish that I would have discovered something like the 30 day focus when I was starting out...

 

What I want newbies to avoid is the wasted two months. As soon as they get a non tugging blade, they should stick to it and nail technique. Doing a sampler for the sake of doing a sampler as a newbie, is a fool's errand in terms of skill development. So, limit use of sampler pack advice is what I try to do.