The VDH Ice Tempered blades are crap. In my humble opinion, of course. Seriously, I tried a couple and tossed them.
@mreeveshp send me a PM with your address and I will send you several tucks of Astra SP blades, and a few others. I am sure I have a DE razor hanging around that I don't use anymore since I have been tossing rocks at any razor that is not a 2011 Muhle R41.
I should have some astra super platinums coming when I get the 34c for my birthday from my brother, I just tried the VDH with the stainless blades and it was alright but didn't seem as good as when I would use the razor and blades that my friend I worked fire/rescue with, but it was still a whole lot better than the disposable pieces of junk that I normally use. Thanks mreeveshp
Take @stingraysrock up on his offer. After you’ve been around TSD awhile you’ll get infected by the generosity of the members and you’ll become a wet shaving philanthropist like the rest of us.
The Van Der Hagen is a mild razor, pretty hard to cut yourself with it. You can also get really close shaves with it using a good blade unfortunately something those Van Der Hagen blades are not. If you don't get good results don't write the razor off until you use it with some better blades. If you want some relatively cheap blades sourced locally try your local Dollar store. The blades they sell are the low end rebrands of Dorco blades but they are much better than those Van Der Hagen blades. A tuck of 5 should cost you a dollar if they have them in stock. If you want some better blades to try I'll send you a tuck of Astra Platinums which I don't like but I know others swear by and a tuck of Bic Chrome Platinum blades which I think are the bees knees when it comes to DE blades. Just pm me if you are interested.
I should add the offer assumes you are in the US. Outside the US the shipping is going to be way to expensive just to ship a tuck or 2 of blades.
I second that they maybe the worst DE blades I ever tried. If not the worst they are right there in the running.
We had to celebrate my birthday later than the 11th since my father had a major heart attack earlier that week but I figured I would post this. My brother got the 34c, the astra ss, and the astra sp but I've only tried the merkur blade that came with the razor so far, the brush was from an amazing member of this forum that I can't thank enough it is a really nice amazing feeling brush, and the arko and the 6 packs of blades were from another member of this forum. I can't thank you guys enough it means so much to me. The merkur is more aggressive compared to the VDH with VDH blades and I have to get an alum block or styptic pencil sometime for the nicks that I have got which has been none with the VDH but when I used the merkur I was kind of in a rush and I also let the soap dry out, I realized change one thing at a time like use the soap and maybe the blades that I know until I get used to the merkur than change to new blades and soap Thanks mreeveshp
Thank you, just got to work on my technique but I guess that's the fun part, I noticed when I shaved last night my watch showed that my heart rate went down steadily from when I started to finish so I guess it is meditative in a way. Thanks mreeveshp
The 34c was my first DE as well, then a R89 and a Van Der Weishi... and many more followed. Nowadays the Van Der Weishi is my daily driver. Works great with the (sharper) ASS for me. You got a nice first setup there. Enjoy.
I tried to find an area with all the abbreviations and couldn't, so excuse my ignorance but what does ASS mean on this forum? Thanks mreeveshp