Testing updates......
I've been following along here as best I can right now but making time to contribute is more of a challenge.
Just want to say, I really do appreciate all you guys.
Supply Single Edge
For me, this tool with the Schick Proline just rocks it to the foundation. Just a wonderful setup to use. I only bought the standard 2 dot plate cause by concensus it is fave.
I wanted to get one for my brother as a Christmas gift, but really hated the initial blade offering and was afraid he might not pursue options like me.
Well the new blades from Supply are about on a par with China Schicks. 5 decent shaves was good enough for me to place an order. All the new ones come with 3 plates. I'll give him some Prolines too.
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Artist Club style blades for my Feather DX folder.
I ordered 2 Sampler packs from tryablade.com that have 1 of each of the items they stock. I think Dorco is the only one missing. They got lost in the mail and I didn't have patience to wait so I got packs of the Pro & the Pro Super. I do not think that I have ever used anything with a more capable edge than the Professional Supers on the first shave, but they die fast. On another front I am comparing longevity against a couple of 1/2 DE shavette offerings.
When my replacement samplers arrived I was very intrigued by the guarded blades and did some research. The technology of jacketing a blade edge with a hole punched structure was from the Personna folks when they were owned by Philip Morris in the late 60's. Personna currently markets Bump Fighter single blade cartridges using this technology and targets men who have been particularly plagued with ingrown hairs and razor bumps caused by multiple blade cartridges. The stated total thickness of the guard structure in the patent settled in around .008". A coating or film were applied as part of the structure to increase slip. Basically the design holds the cutting edge back.
I am still testing the various offerings of this type blade on the DX blade holder. The Kai version has a higher concentration of these bridges across the blade than the Feather the made it feel a little more rough, but shaves were very close with a slight favor to the Feather on shave 1.
Feather also offers a 'Softguard' that I need to test yet. It uses a slightly different designed guard.
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Bottom line.......
I was very surprised at how close a shave can be had with a guarded blade. The Feather Proguard was quite remarkable. The combination of ultra-smoothness and sharp reminded me of a very well honed straight.
For those who have, or want to pick up one of the low cost Artists Club knockoffs to 'dip a toe' into the 'Dark Side', 'guard type' blades are Max Headroom approved.
It is still possible to draw some blood, as I found out when I got a little sloppy, use the same parameters of caution for any edge forward shaving device.
I will be going thru all my samples to evaluate performance and try to guage some life expectancies.
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