Hi All - Some of you may remember a thread I started regarding this US made DE blade. A lot of us here in America liked the idea of buying a US made blade but a $100 minimum order was required. Some folks were interested in pooling finances to make the order. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was able to make contact with a representative who was kind enough to send me a few samples. I had high hopes, but sadly the blade I tried did not shave well. It pulled & tugged badly & I struggled to complete one downward pass. Since the rep was so nice, I haven't had the heart to give him the bad news on the blades performance:ashamed001. Oh, well.......................... CSL.
I too am a fan of buying American. Its sade that the blade was substandard. Maybe you could have gotten a bad one. I would make contact with the rep again and offer some constructive criticism. They may have no clue that they are turning out an inferior product.
Yeah, true enough. He sent me a few but I haven't been brave enough to try another yet. They come in plain paper wraps, not glued down - I'm sure that doesn't help to preserve the edge.
Ha! Nice one. The rep told me it could be used for shaving. I wouldn't have bothered asking for samples otherwise. However, it could well be, that he was just assuming that it would work for shaving.
Maybe your bad experience with this blade is a case of YMMV? Why not send a blade or two to other shavers so they can also give their feedback? Regardless, I am sure the company rep will be interested in the results. No need to feel bad about telling him. Just thank him for sending the samples and let him know what was found.
I can understand your reticence to offer your opinions to the company rep...A co. rep at Derby was nice enough to send a couple hundred Derby Extras but they were the Verticles and sure enough I tried a few samples from several differemt packs and they all were unusable...There's no way I can tell this guy his company's blades used to be great (the Horizontals) but now are not...And it's common knowledge in the shaving community, especially with the Barber community here in Turkey...This company rep. has nothing to do with product development, or QC and DE blades are such a low priority with most of these companies...Most the Derby Co. Rep's I have talked to didn't even know they made DE blades...) I can just thank him and trade them for something else at a local wholesaler...
Nope. I've shaved with about 20 different brands of blades at this point. Even the crappiest ones were streets ahead of these.
Yeah, uncoated, from an industrial supplier... I am thinking that while the can be used for shaving, there are not refined for shaving. Sort of like slapping carpet cutter blades in a Gem and ending up with a horrible shave?
Yup. I imagine the well intentioned rep is unaware of what goes in to making a good shaving blade. He probably assumes that the only requirement is that the blade fits into a razor.
your experience with their rep is interesting; i spoke to one of their reps last week and she told me their blades were for industrial use only, so i never bothered to ask for samples.
Yeah - surprising that they said that. The fellow I spoke with is called Nathan Horn. Here's a quote from the email - "We get a lot of requests for the double edge blade for shaving. These blades can be used for shaving." It's a bummer. I was really hoping these blades would be good shavers.
