Do you find the PTFE coated GEM blades to be as good and as sharp as Blue stars or personna stainless GEMS?
As far as I know, those are all the exact same razor blade, except I think the Blue Stars are not PTFE coated, so can develop rust spots fairly easily. If it's made by personna for shaving with a GEM razor, it's a good blade. As always, YMMV. Best bang for the buck is here: https://www.tedpella.com/dissect_html/blades.aspx#stainless It's down towards the bottom of the page. Product 121-3 triple facet edge, PTFE coated. $50 for 200 blades. Edit: non-triple facet edge GEM blades are not for shaving, FYI.
Which of the GEM blades would you say is sharpest? I bought a 10 blade sample of the PTFE blades once and they tugged pretty bad. I don’t know if I got bad blades or if I got cheated and those weren’t shaving blades. It has made me hesitant to buy the paella blades.
Still only £24 for 200 at Connaught. Roughly $30. $40 shipped to US. That's up from £20 last time I bought them, a few years ago now. Maybe time to stock up
I haven't tried the blue stars, but I have tried CVS branded carbon steel ones that may or may not be the same. I don't recall much difference in sharpness. Main difference is that the carbon blades were nice and smooth from the first shave. The stainless need a little "face stropping," and are a lot better on day 2. That, and the carbon steel blades need some love when you're done so they don't rust.
Thank you. I wanna be able to use the pella blades but I’m concerned based on my one experience they may not be as sharp as the blue stars or stainless.
Ok. I got a 2 blade sample of Ted pella blades and they were very nice. I must have gotten ripped of years ago and sent none shaving blades. FYI-the razor blade company also sells the ptfe coated blades 100 at a time if you don’t want to buy 200 from Ted pella.
I have the Gem Personna SS PTFE I bought from Connaught shaving yrs ago and they are very sharp. They are a little rough on first shave because of sharpness but they smooth out after a few shaves with great longevity(10 shaves per blade) + predictable. I bought 2 of the 10 packs and 1 of the 100pc and have had no issues yet after 600 + shaves with them. I like to use one of the Gem milder razors(Feather weight, push button or G bar) for first couple of shaves to take advantage of the sharpness for a blade break in.
