Hello Which modern blades fit the Durham duplex DE ? I see that personna pathology blades are referenced but I thought some others fit as well. Maybe Kai or feather? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Cheers John
I have bought a pack of Personna's, they may not produced for shaving, hair or dogs. Darkbulb uses Personna carpet blades I believe?
Do NOT use the dog grooming ones - they are truly terrible Go for the ones in white paper with blue "Personna" on them. Are they great? No...but they are the best possible option as far as I know... I believe Jason @ImSpicy (Mr TryABlade) has some personal experience with all these blades. What would you recommend?
So carpet blades are better than dog grooming blades, who would have known? I haven't used the Personna's as I realized they were industrial but I used the Ever Ready's...
I agree that the dog grooming blades are awful. The Personna blades that I carry are technically pathology blades and are acceptably smooth in the Durham Duplex. I use the Durham Straight Safety razor to shape my goatee when it gets out of hand.
+1 For dog grooming blades being a no go! I bought some thinking I could use them...and yeah. It was like shaving with cheap paint scraper blades.
John, Just to add to the agreement, I also use the Personna carpet cutter blades in the white wrapper with blue printing. They are not quite as sharp as the original Durham blades which I've managed to accumulate a reasonable store of, but they are very close and will provide a very nice shave. The ones I use are the .17 thick blades, 100 in a package at around $15 to $18 with free shipping on eBay. There are also a few vendors who have hand stropped each blade and sell them for shaving. If you have any stropping equipment, you can hand strop each blade before use and create an even smoother excellent shaving blade. Without stropping the second and subsequent shaves are much smoother than the first in my experience. I strop each blade 25 strokes on each side before the first use and in most cases can't tell the difference from the factory blade after stropping. It only takes about two minutes to strop the blade. Hope this helps in your enjoyment of this wonderful razor!
Donmac, Thanks for the info. It's good to have a alternative. The only stropper I have might be too narrow. Can you recommend a stropper that would work with these blades? Cheers John
I would guess pathology. All the carpet blades I've seen are a blue/black steel. Those look like stainless? Cheers John
Yes those are the pathology blades. Thanks for your order, John. Your package was just dropped off at the post office. I hope they work out for you.
Those are pathology blades. I have some of those as well that I have used in my Durham Duplex. Carpet blades have a coating that is not desired in pathology blades.
John, Ingersoll makes a blade holder that will hold DE & Durham Duplex blades. There are a number of other vintage blade holders for stropping that will also hold the Durham Duplex blade. It's better to find a holder than will hold the blade at the proper angle while stropping unless you are sufficiently skilled to manually hold it at the proper angle. As far as the leather strop, there are a number of them on Ebay wide enough to accommodate the blade. An inexpensive alternative I found that works exceptionally well, is a woman's wide leather belt I picked up at a thrift store for 3 dollars. One side is a natural leather finish & relatively smooth for finishing, and the other rougher for the initial few strops. [/ATTACH]
