DE Blade Challenge II

In August of 2011 I posted a testing of DE blades and some readers made a request for me to perform this test again to incorporate some of their favorite blades. This is the result of this testing.

https://sites.google.com/site/gdcarrington1/home/de-blade-challenge-ii

I have chosen this format for easy of development. If you find any glaring issues, please contact me by PM and if it needs correction I will make any necessary changes.

Thank you for your review.

 

Excellent, Gary. Would be nice if this was made available in the Safety Razor sticky section since this comes up often.

Thanks for your time and effort.

 

This was a very good analysis. Thanks.

 

Wow, Gary! You've put an amazing amount of time & effort in these tests!
Thanks a lot for sharing!

+1 for making this available in the sticky section!

 

I have to argue against this being a sticky. Blade choice is VERY personal and what works for GD may not work for others. It's a more rigorous approach than most people take and are willing to take. So, while I like what is being done and I'm glad it's being shared here I don't think we want to present this as something everyone should do/try.

 

I kind of have mixed feelings here. The sticky idea sounded good but ya blades are a really personal thing. Mr Carrington has put a ton into this and I for one really appreciate the effort and meticulous detail that he is renowned for. I really like the comprehensive listing of all the different blades and the background information about each. Perhaps just an overall, more generalized rating approach might be best here along with the various blade descriptions with of course the listings, would be the best scenario for a sticky..2cents...

 

Not sure I understand your thinking. There is already a SE blade guide and sampler blade guide in the master sticky which are subjective as well. Everything in this business is subjective.

Gary's work would simply be a starting point for folks who are looking for a little guidance. I've never seen anything else so comprehensive on any forum as his. On this forum alone, I'll bet we average 3-4 threads a week on "Which blade..." topics. We could simply point folks to Gary's as another tool in their search as there's likely to be nothing better to come along in our lifetime.

 

Erik is right on about the rigorous approach. This is also a very limiting approach especially since you could only change one variable. That somewhat takes the "fun" out of our little hobby and makes it more like work. If anyone want to replicate this, I would make a suggestion to limit it to 5 blades and then rest for a month or two and then try 5 more.

This may serve as Randy stated as a reference more along the lines of how to think about the qualities of the blade and the shave, rather than hard and fast rules to live by. Each face is different, but this can serve a point of reference tool. Sadly the old Triphon website is now gone, so we lost a really good comparative reference for blades. I hope this can serve as a replacement for that guide.

Thanks for the reviews in inputs.

 

Interesting rigor. However, it is still a test by one shaver with one razor (slim). What I find most interesting is how this test reveals the many factors at work, including those measured, and those not measured but mentioned in the notes. Each variable may have different relevance weightings to different shavers too, such as price sensitivity and longevity. Also, I find Feathers a bit tricky in my slim, but love them in my EJ. I applaud the effort though. Hope you had some fun JDC.

 

That is why a real double blind test would be very difficult. If it took that much time to do one blade each in one razor, how much time ...
I don't want to go there!

 

Amen. I still enjoyed reading what you did though. A real statistical experiment would be serious work. I wouldn't want to design that experiment, yet alone do it.

 

I really enjoyed the analysis. GDCarrington threw some Taguchi methodology in there. He must be an engineering type in his daytime job! I really appreciate all the hard work and time you spent on his project. I bet at times you just wanted to break away from the routine and use whatever you wanted on any given day. Thats whats so cool about shaving. Each morning I get up, look at the few brushes, blades, razors and soaps or creams and decide what I want to do for that days shave. Anything other than that and I would feel like my hands are tied. Great job!

 

Thanks to all who have reviewed this. It is appreciated!

 

yeah great work, thanks for the time and effort. I know its different for each person for many factors, but great as a reference tool, why dont we have a blade section in the forums?

 

Since it is not a sticky, here is a bump up for the new members of the forum to review.

 

Wow! this is a very interesting blades review.

 

Why doesn't Steve's Doctor get his own thesis?

 

Why can't everyone leave my "doctor" and what he "ate" out of it? I like how I've become Steve (Smott); it's like a gangster nickname.

...and yes, if I decide to pursue a doctorate outside of education, my current emphasis, I intend to uncover the secrets of wet shaving for everyone. I will be known as the smottest guy in the world!