Nice! I like the overkill! I expect a package which will bring me to about 1200 blades, but the 398 are Derbys. I will buy others too... but the russians aside the Astras, in small numbers. The Astras here are just way too good of a deal compared to any of the other russian blades. It's half or 1/3 the price.
As Mae West once said: "Too much of a good thing is wonderful" One blade that I have really come to like more and more is the Ladas. They just work and work well. Always get an excellent sharp and smooth shave using them. Also they are very inexpensive.
Nice picture! They came up because a bunch of people said only your face will know which I understand and compared it to the forever argument of 9mm vs 45cal, tung oil vs linseed oil, chevy vs ford, etc. I get it have to ultimately decide but I was more looking for guidelines given the factors I had laid out. For younger generations I guess I could ask Xbox One vs PS4? Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
Commodore 64 wasn't just a game machine. It was a PC. Atari 2600, 5200, and Jaguar were all gaming machines. (I said 5200 because it could play all the 2600 games too. and I have one)
I know, no blade is really expensive. It's just that i have other much worse moneysinker activities and by a rough calculation, between razors, blades, soaps, accessories, i must haves spent easily over 150 EUR for "shaving gear" in less than 14 days and frankly, my Amazon has horrible prices for 100 packs of any russian out there that isn't Astra. If i want to buy Russians, i 'd have to order from another site where Voshkod is at at about 17 EUR per 100, the rest are from 21 to 30+ EUR, plus shipping of around 9 EUR. Or, from my fav shop, you get 100 AstrasSP for 7.70 EUR and shipping is like half and decreases to 0 with higher expenditure. So my "bang for buck" alarm hits, cause at the end, what am i going to get than i don't get with Astra or Dorco or even Shark that all can give easy BBS? I think that the main value of the higher priced blades, is longevity. But, aside a curiocity run (just to see how many shaves i get from them), i think 3 shaves will be my norm and 2 for the Derbies. So, i think i will just get some 5-10 blades from each of the other russians, just to satisfy my curiocity and stick with the ones that are cheaper here. I also have 10 Israeli Reds that i have yet to try. If i really like them, i will get them. My fav shop has them like 200 for 22EUR. I can accept that. Oh well, if there's a russian blade that blows the Astra-Dorco out of the water and i am like "my God, what is this superblade", i will make the exception and order a 100 pack.
I'm similar. Right now, I have a box of Cloud, a box of Shark, a box of Derby, and a box of Astra. I also have a pile of tucks of others, which I'm working through off and on. Even though the Nacet and Rapira Platinum Lux were FANTASTIC - they weren't so fantastic that I'm going to waste the ones I already have. I am PIFing to others so they can try different ones without investing a lot of money, but that still means I have - at three shaves per blade, one shave per day - three years of blades.
Yeah, i understand what you say. Plus, i think that there is a point, where there is overkill or the blade starts working against you. I mean, too sharp, just like "too dull". I don't want ultrasharp blades. I want blades that can give me a great shave, while minimizing the cut risk. To be honest, the Shark, i feel very comfortable with. The Astra i am sure is more dangerous and the Dorco too and maybe even more. My barbers' shop classifies the Dorco as sharper and more aggressive than the Astra. Although i find it hard to believe, i find it a very deceptive blade, because it cuts very much, but also very smoothly and gives a false sense of safety. I wouldn't want something sharper, even if techically speaking is "great". What i will probably buy in something like 20-40 blades, are the Voshkods, just because they are teflon coated, which means they shouldn't be too threatening for nicks. When my new shipment arrives, i will have about 1200 blades. If i am not mistaken, if i did 3 shaves per blade, with a shave every other day, they would last me...19 years? The obvious way to reduce this, is to have 2 shaves per Derby. Another would be to shave daily, but frankly i am not used to. Anyway, i sure don't like burning money and i did some pretty dumb decisions with the shaving gear. My worst decisions were the 400 Derby-Bluebird (oddly enough, my barber shop presents the Bluebird as an "excellent alternative to Derby", implying that they have a difference. I am not eager to open the box, but i will sure compare them in time). But i was a newbie, hadn't tried the Astra yet and was so happy that i couldn't nick myself with Derby, that i overDerbified... Anyway, they still have their use. They will probably be spending more time in the EJ than in the Weishi though. The other moronic decision, was to purchase this "razor leather pouch": Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler It looked better from the internet. I think i paid it about 20 EUR, including shipping from Germany and it's 1) puny and 2) not really good quality. The main problem is the puny. It can't even cover laterally the razor. The head is heavy and the razor head tends to slip outside the lateral side and if you drop and the head is Zamak and it hits laterally, the pouch will offer 0 protection. So, this works only if you intend to put the pouch inside a suitcase for travel. Otherwise, drop protection zero. And then i bought another 2 razors and thought "where am i going to put them? Buy 2 more pouches???". And then it hit me... "What other do i protect? My glasses!" I ordered 10 eyeglasses soft pouches from Amazon for like 2.50 EUR. I can put all my razors in them, they close entirely with a string and probably have better drop protection than the leather pouch... In practice, i burnt about 50 EUR between Derbies and this pouch. In case you find it weird, i don't intend to leave razors openly exposed in the bathroom, because bacteria travel pretty much everywhere inside the bathroom when you flush the toilet and i don't want them on something that may cut me. So i wanted the pouches for storing, not just for travelling.
For the derbies - ask your barbershop if they'd buy them from you. Even if you have a small loss on them, it won't be a complete waste. Frankly, I don't worry about the bacteria on my razor; one, it's a smooth hard surface, and 2, it gets regularly scrubbed with something that tends to kill bacteria.
Good idea, but i don't think it's worth it. I will probably either keep them for "advanced difficulty trainning" or put them in the DE89 which should cut more or, if i manage to convert someone to wetshaving, i will give him some Derbies as starting blade. I am trying to entice my best friend about wet shaving, i send him emails about how more interesting the shave has become, because each blade has differences and changes from shave to shave, due to use, but he won't budge. He simply doesn't care. He said his Gilette Fusion gives "excellent and effortless" shave and that i am getting "weird about hair". Another friend told me that he is not interested in prolonging his shave time. Another one has full beard with no intention of shaving it off...We will see... Oh, yes, i could convert my brother, but he has so poor hand skills, that he would butcher himself even with Derby in a Weishi. My brother could be the Gilette posterboy about why you want multiblades. Yeah, about the smooth, hard surface, i wouldn't count about it too much, because enteric bacteria are anatomically programmed like no other to attach themselves tenaciously on slippery surfaces (the intestine itself, is very slippery on the inside, plus once on the wall, they have to withstand high friction from passing solid and liquids), which is also how they manage to regularly infect urinary catheteres and move their way up through the cathetere, up until they reach the urinary bladder and cause cystitis. I have the outmost respect for them. Here's a random article: Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Flagella are well known surface appendages that allow bacterial cells to move and make initial contact with a solid surface during biofilm formation by overcoming the long range repulsive force along the surface39,40. Recently, bacteria have also been found to use flagella to adapt to or overcome nano or submicron scale surface topography9,19,23. Using short (120 nm tall, 550 nm wide, and 750 nm spacing) topographic lines, Diaz et al.23 showed that P. fluorescens uses flagella to make contact with neighboring cells to facilitate cell-cell interaction. Using shallow pores or wells (20 or 200 nm in depth), Hsu et al.9found that E. coli, P. fluorescens, and Listeria innocua use flagella or other cell outer membrane appendages to build a web on modified silica or alumina surfaces and form biofilms. Friedlander et al.19reported that flagella are used by E. coli cells to adhere to PDMS surfaces modified with an array of hexagonal features (2.7 μm in height and 3 μm in diameter) and overcome these unfavorable surface topographies by exploring the extra surface. The flagellar length of planktonic E. coli cells ranges from 6 to 10 μm39. Given the important roles that flagella play during surface attachment, creating topographic features that are 10 μm or taller can help reduce fouling. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4944170/ On the contrary, i would count on disinfectant. I will be probably pouring Betadine solution (iodinepovidone) on the razor's head once a month, just in case. Here it's the no1 surgical skin antiseptic. It's skin safe and despite the abominable colour, doesn't really remain as stain even on clothes and acts pretty rapidly. I may as well treat the razor the same way, since i don't think it has anything that can react with the chrome plating, contrary to other oxidizing agents. Normally you don't use it on surgical instruments, but i am not sure whether chrome plating would have problem or not with polifenols, actidrox and such. Between this and the pouch, i think i have this covered. EDIT: Thinking about it, i think i will do something like: alcohol bath, rinse, Betadine pouring, rinse after few minutes, like once a month. There might be better solution, but i read that even vinegar (very mild acid) can attack the chrome plating. So i don't know if there is some better method, that won't destroy the chrome. I thought about it too, but it's just the design of the pouch that it's too narrow in the upper part. I tried the DE89 and has the exact problem. As soon as you move it a bit laterally, the head gets exposed outside the pouch on the side and should it drop on that side, zamak kaput! In practice this is just a silly pouch that can serve only inside a travel suitcase, in case you are a gadger fanatit and you want to have your razor is a "fancy pouch", instead of just in a shaving kit container or just thrown in between the clothes. As far as drop protection goes, this wasn't a concern when they designed it. I sure prefer having something as cushion from all sides, rather than nothing, as with the leather pouch. And 2.50 EUR for 10 pouches? Yes please... I also thought about hard eyeglasses containers, since i have them too, but they would be less agile and occupy more volume, while the eyeglasses pouches are more flexible, you can store more razors in less space and while they don't provide the same protection as rigid eyeglasses containers, they are better than the 20 EUR german gimmick. It just shows how much marketing can affect your judgment, because sure enough, when you search in Amazon for "razor pouch", they don't show you eyeglasses pouches. But, after using a dog bowl as lather bowl with extreme success, i thought i could maybe think of something creative along the same lines. And sure enough, the solution was there. And i can fit all my 3 razors and have 7 spare pouches left! For literally peanuts.
Take a look here ContactUs for a very interesting piece on research conducted by Gillette on what makes a blade work really well. Seems what you need is a stainless steel, PTFE coated and with a metal like platinum to help stop the PTFE from flaking off. The coating, it seemed, was more important than the sharpness in terms of comfort.
Voskhods are great. Smoothest I've tried, relatively sharp , and amazing price. Also great for beginners as very forgiving. I like Derby for one shave (full head and face) in a Merkur 34C or 37C. After one too dull. Feather I also like but again just one shave and maybe a DE89 or the 34C. Still sharp after the one shave but not as smooth as I'd like.
Sometimes the razor makes a difference in how a blade performs. Personally, I find the U.S. made Personna Lab Blue razor blades to be sharp enough and smooth. I aslo really like the Astra Super Platinum blades.
I use Lab Blues in every razor I get so I can get an idea no how aggressive or mild it is. They work great in mild razors like Gillette Superspeeds/Flair tips and DE89 types, etc.......
