September 30 Day Focus--Blade Search
Sept 17
Razor -- Lord L6
Blade -- Personna Red
Brush -- VDH Boar
Soap -- Stirling Sharp Dressed Man
Post -- Cold water splash, styptic pencil

and WH
View attachment 77483
Today I made the switch to a Personna Red blade. Tomorrow will be a different blade (that about sums it up, but since I am long-winded I will keep going).
I started with a GREAT lather from the Stirling SDM.

It is not my favorite scent, but it is a good scent. It just explodes with lather, and I had enough that I could have made 5-6 passes if needed (might have needed to get a DFS or BBS shave, but I would have looked like Freddy Kruger when I was done

). So off I went to put this blade to the test. Started WTG on my cheeks and sideburn area. From the first pass I could tell this may not be my razor. I came down the cheek, had good feedback and held my angle, but there was little removal in the first pass and it was not that smooth. Switched to the other side and the same thing. So before I moved on to the chin I stopped, cleaned the razor really well, took it apart and put the blade back in to make sure something had not been done wrong and started again. Went XTG on the chin and got some removal but still some irritation. Did a cold water splash and felt around. A lot more growth remaining than I ever have with the Ladas and GSB blades.
So I started pass 2 ATG on the face. It went ok. The pass produced a decent shave, definitely nothing to brag about. Also produced a fair amount of irritation. Really felt like the blade struggled mightily on the chin ATG. It is the area where my hair is the thickest and coarsest and has always been a trouble area for that reason. This blade just was not up to the task. I stopped again, to take restart the process and make certain it was not technique causing the problems. I moved on to the neck with pass 2. Moving slow, taking my time, paying attention to feedback and angles, and no pressure. Well, the blade still sucked! It was tugging and pulling and just could not handle any areas with thicker coarser hair.
I finished the shave with 2 weepers on my neck and several red irritated areas. I have not had that rough of a shave since very early on in my wet shaving journey. I decided I would switch to a new blade instead of giving that blade another go whenever I shave next depending on when I have time and how my face heals from today. I will revisit the Personna Red at a later date a see if it could have been a bad blade or something.
Right now, I don't think I want to risk another morning like this morning with this blade. So the next shave I will be going back to one I used in my previous blade search and found not that great. I want to make certain it was not technique causing it to fail and that it was the blade that did not work with me and the L6. I will be using the voskhod for the next few shaves. The blade cartel insisted I either prove the blade did not work or accept responsibility for my previous failures.
One day closer to Friday! Happy shaving!
Click to expand...