I was in Bed Bath and Beyond earlier this afternoon, and decided to take a stroll through the shaving aisle. I noticed that they sell Wilkinson Sword double edged blades, made in Germany, in a 5 pack for $1.99. I remember my Dad using Wilkinson Sword blades in his safety razor years ago, but I'm not sure if these are the same quality blades that they once were. Have any of you had any experience with the current Wilkinson Sword blades?
Yeah. They used to sell at Wall*Mart for $1.76 a ten pack (before Wally World clearenced them out). I find them to be a very middle of the road blade. Average sharpness, smoothness and longevity. I used to use them to test any new razors I purchased to form a baseline opinion about the razor. I'm a bit past that now, experience wise, but I always found them to be a decent blade for a locally available shaving product. Edit: These are not the famous UK stainless blades of yore (which is probably what your father used in the '60's).
I like'em also, and I too find them expensive. It's not a blade I stock up on, but I do have a pack in the drawer. I find it _very_ sharp and _very_ smooth_ - among the best.
Just to show how YMMV, I hate, hate, hate these blades! They are the worst blades I have used in my short DE shaving career. Admittedly, there are a lot more blades that I haven't tried than I have, but that doesn't change the fact that, for me, this is a horrible blade. I bought a pack of these at my local mom & pop drugstore. I have tried 2 blades from the pack. They tugged and pulled more than anything I've ever felt. If you like having your whiskers ripped out rather than cut, these are the blades for you! To be fair, I've never heard of anyone else that dislikes these blades as fervently as I do.
I like 'em and they always give me a good shave however after trying the Gillette Wilkinson (made in India) I ordered 100 of them cheap. I get excellent shaves with these.
They work ok for me..I used them when I first started "traditional" wet shaving mostly because I could get them locally....There are better blades out there however and at better prices I.M.O. Some favorites of mine are: Viking's Sword Astra SP PolSilver Super Iridium Any of the Gillette 7 o'clocks Voskhod BlueBird
I like the Wilkies. They are more expensive than my other favorites, but I can get 4-5 good shaves out of a blade. They are currently number 3 on my list. 1. Astra SP 2. Viking Sword 3. Wilkinson Sword
Thank you all for your experienced opinions, and recommendations for your favorite blades. This is exactly what I was looking for. So far, I have used only Derby blades since I first started DE shaving a little over two weeks ago. A five pack of Derby blades was included with my razor. So far, I have had great results. I also bought a 10 pack of Feather blades, which I have yet to try. I realize that I am a newbie to this, and it's going to take time to find out which blades suit me best (YMMV). I look forward to trying the other brands you suggested to see which I like best!
For me, they're good, but not great. I can get them at a local pharmacy for $1 for a 5 pack. Wouldn't hesitate to use them if that was all I had. I prefer Personna Blue Labs/med prep, Red Israili Personnas, Gillette 7:00 Yellow, Astra P, Voskhod, or Ladas.
Same thing here. Today, I had worst shave of my life. I used wilkinson sword plastic DE razor with wilkinson sword blade which came with it. My first shave was okay. Did not give me any trouble. I got some scratchy feeling but I assumed it is from razor corners not from blade. Today I tried same combination. So scratchy! I changed with a new wilki. SAME result. I put old wilki in Futur, bad result. I put new wilki in Futur. Got blood bath. Put Feather in Futur to complete my pass but could not! Left shave in between. BTW you are first one and I am the second having bad experience with wilkis.
I really like them and have a pack of 100 Wilkinson Sword blades. I found the first shave with the blade to be the not so great. After the first shave it was brilliant . Then I discovered (I know this sounds weird) if you shave some old jeans, just a few strokes on both edges of the blade, the first shave becomes much better and smoother ☺
I've changed my opinion in Wilkies, and like the pretty well now. Still prefer Astra SP, and maybe Ladas, but I now think the Wilkies are really close to Personna Lab preps.
