Well I'm sure the older guys here know this but for us new guys I thought this needed to be mentioned. I started out shaving with Derby blades and they gave me a clean comfortable shave. I stuck with them for about a month and then started working on my sample packs to try out different blades. I switched first to the Dorco ST301 blades. Did not like! Not as good as the Derby's for me. Then I swapped to the Sharp stainless. I had a 10 blade pack of these. I used up 9. I was battling my way through them and when I finished blade 9 I realized shaving was not fun like it had been. I was having to shave very carefully to avoid irritation. I was getting tugging and pulling. My face would feel sensitive and raw after the shave. I could only do a two pass shave and I was only using the blades for 2 shaves each. I had another pack of Derby's so two days ago instead of using the last Sharp blade I swapped a Derby in. Back to enjoyable! The lesson I learned is keep some of your reference blades (whatever your go to blade is) on hand so you can go back and get a feel for what the standard is as you work through your blade packs. It's easy to lose your frame of reference. Looks like I will order a couple more packs of Derby's to keep on hand as I work my way through the sample packs. In the mean time Dorco ST301's and Sharp Stainless are not my blade of choice - YMMV. So that is 2 down and 18 more different blades left to try!
Pretty good lesson if you ask me. Check out bestshave.net derby blades in bulk are pretty cheap. I dont know where you live, but shipping is usually not expensive
Excellent advice! I love Gillette Silver Blues, but have recently gotten a bunch of blades from www.tryablade.com and have been trying to go through them, but I think Ill take what you said and try the blues out again for frame a reference.
Good advice reference blade, I had a pack of Derbys come with my EJ89 and I found them to be a good blade, and I had ordered some Astra SP Platinums as well that I have been extremely please with and pretty much all I use now.
