What's the Best Value for a DE Blade?

I have been using Feathers and Gillette 7 o'clock sharp edge blades. Both of these are in the 35 - 40 cent per blade coast range, if you buy in bulk. Are there other blades that perform nearly as well that cost much less? For example, Astra blades are about 18 cents each.

 

I like Voshkod , they were 10 cents a blade during the group buy. Voshkhods are exceptionally smooth but lack the sharpness of the Sharp edge and of course Feather. They are closer to the Sharp Edge than Feather. You can easily get a box of V's and try'em out, they have become my economical every day blade.

 

YMMV. But if your referring to the Russian 7 o'clocks , you might want to try some of the other blades produced at the same factory. I actually prefer Russian Perma Sharp blades and Rapira's over AStra's but blades are a total YMMV.

 

I like any of the chrome or platinum blades from Lord. I get great shaves from them. Good consistent quality, not much glue..that's important..and are around 11cents a piece when you buy bulk. And IMO.. they have some of the niftiest looking packaging going...

 

Best value equals best blade for me and that is Feather.

 

Catch `em at the right time, and Astra SP's can be had from Amazon for ~$10/100-pack. I think it's a great blade at twice that, so $0.10/blade is a heck of value in my eyes.

- Mark

 

Yup. What Mark E. Wallace said.

 

I just recently tried the Astra blades and was very surprised on how sharp they are. I have 3 uses in my Progress with 2 of those being a face and head shave. I have not had a pull or a tug yet.

 

My most favorite blade is the 7 O'clock Perma Sharp blade (the other green 7 O'clock) and then Voskhods, then probably Astras. The Voskhods and the Astras can be had for about 10 cents per blade where the 7 O'clocks are about 40 cents each, depending on the deal and your patience in tracking them down. I have a few years worth of Voskhods, so I don't really have a concern for a while, bit FOR ME (<----key point), those 3 are really good. I'll shave with Sharks and Lords without hesitation also. Wally Wilkies work well too but don't last but 3 or 4 shaves for me.

 

Blade performance varies so much from face to face, I don't think you can take any recommendation as something more than something worth trying. I'd recommend building a big sampler of blades you haven't tried that are less expensive to see if you find anything that works as well for you. The recommendations here are a good starting point for that sampler.

That out of the way, I also find the 7 O'Clock SE an outstanding blade, but rather expensive. The blades I've found that I like equally that cost less are Astra SP and SuperMax Stainless. In really aggressive razors I would add Crystal and Red pack Persona blades to the list (but they seem to tug on the 3rd or 4th shave in some of my milder razors - worst of all in a Tech).

 

I put my vote in for the green Astras if you can find them for $13 or less, shipped. Similar with the personas if you can find them for $15 or less.

 

I find that my choices tend to be based on which sale may be going on. As I tern to use a blade only once, there are very few that ''aren't as sharp once as they ever were''.-)

 

For me I have stocked Astra green but just lately I've tried the blue version and love them.I also like Voshkods in only some razors and don't like them at all in others.
The 7'oclock blues,yellows I find them for around $25 a 100 so they are my preferred blades.

 

Perhaps you'll find THIS useful.

 

I find it interesting. Some of the results I find hard to believe. But overall very useful.

 

What I did when I first started TWS was to patrol the various forums and get a sense of what blades most people liked and recommended. I figured all those people couldn't be right by accident. There had to be sonething to it.

It was about the time that the Personna Med. Preps. were becoming popular so I tried them and they worked great. I got lucky I guess and never really did struggle to find good blades by using this method.

It's funny too that the 4 blades I use exclusively were ranked highly in Gary's analysis.

 

I've done that also and not just with blades. I think a lot of knowledge can be gained by artfully trolling the shaving sights. That's why if I have had experiences with products both good and bad, I like to talk about them...

 

Yep, good point.

 

Astra at 8 cents a blade. Personna Med(or lab?) Prep at 12.9 cents a blade.

 

I wonder how much you guys spend on razors.