I am fairly new to using a DE but have been reading this and other similar forums to fill my knowledge gap.. One thing that is trotted out with boring monotony is to try different blades as they can give widely different results depending on the circumstances. I have tried a Muhle blade and then switched to some American made Personna Lab Blue's. These were a definite improvement and seemed to perform well enough although I struggled to get a really close shave, needing 4 or 5 passes..I put this down to my inexperience and poor technique. Today however, I tried a cheap supermarket own brand blade, which according to the small print on the back of the packet was an Israeli made Personna.. The difference between it and the Lab Blue was night and day. They seemed to be far sharper, and indeed on my first pass I thought I'd got the angle wrong as I could barely hear or feel the blade cutting. It turns out it was cutting, just cutting much more cleanly.. I have not measured them, but these Israeli Personna's seem a little thinner as they feel a little more flexible when you handle them and they are also not marked like the Lab Blues..They are also individually wrapped in paper where as the Lab Blues are not.. The good news is that if I stay with these, they are cheap as chips in the local supermarket, nearly half the price of the Wilkinson sword blades they also sell.... I will be trying other blades, but its good to know I can get my hands on decent ones locally..
You mention the boring monotony of hearing to try new blades. The reason is so one may find a blade that works for them. Sounds like the boring monotony worked - you tried different blades and found a winner. Nice!
That's exactly my point! Its easy to read such recommendations, but its not until you actually experience the differences first hand that you really appreciate the difference between makes of blades...
The Israeli Personnas are well thought of. They usually come in a red box. Whoever buys for that store brand must have known what s/he was doing. I think they are a good choice. Félicitacions!
Welcome Pete E!! Much glad to hear you found a good match for your razor, and you face! Happy shaving to you sir!
A rival Supermarket (Tesco) carries what looks like the same blade but the small print on their packaging simply says "made in Israel for Tesco" with no mention of Personna, however they look identical. What surprised me was that they are so different/better than the more expensive Lab Blues by the same company.. Having said that, I am not 100% sure my existing blades are genuine Lab Blues. I bought 4 packs of 5 blades mail order off a British company, and they said that only the 100 or 200 packs were labelled as Lab blues, but these 5 packs were simply labelled as "Personna" and "made in USA" but they insisted they were the Lab Blues simply repackaged.. The blades themselves are in a white plastic dispenser, but are not wrapped in paper, which I believe the Lab Blues and Med Reds usually are? Anyone know if the Lab Blues are made in the USA or Israel? Regards Peter
Hello Pete Welcome to the Shave Den. I have a bunch of Blades that I bought at a Grocery Store in Winnemucca NV. They were cheap I bought all they had(they were closing them out) they are Personna Blades according to the small print on the package, Good Blades.
