Long Term Blade Review - Gillette Rubie Platinum Plus

Discussion in 'Safety Razors' started by feeltheburn, Jun 8, 2020.

  1. feeltheburn

    feeltheburn Well-Known Member

    A little over a year ago I made a database, mostly because I wanted to learn more about making databases. I'm tracking Razors, Soaps, Blades, Shave Comfort, Shave closeness, and a few other things. Not sure if anyone would be interested in some of the data but I'll put some here as an example. A few months ago, I decided to pick a DE blade from my stash and just use that blade for a while (when I shave with a DE at least - and I still use injectors, shavettes, and straights pretty often.) So this set so far is for my first 20 Gillette Rubie Platinum Plus blades. I've still got 30 or so left and I can update this occasionally as my experiment progresses.

    When you're looking at the numbers, for closeness, 1=BBS, 2=Stubble on jawline or chin only, 3= a little stubble also on my cheeks or neck. For the Comfort numbers, 1=No irritation at all, 2=a little alum tingle but still very comfortable, and 3=a little alum sting. So basically, lower numbers are better. For this set, you'll see my closeness numbers went up (less close) about 10 blades in and that's because I started doing 2-pass shaves for the most part instead of 3-pass shaves. You'll also see the razor I used the blade with and how many shaves I got from it. I'm not done with blade #20 yet BTW.

    Blade Razor Avg Of Closeness Avg Of Comfort Count Of Daily_Shave
    Gillette Rubie Timeless TI .68 1.00 2.00 4
    Gillette Rubie Muhle R89 1.25 1.25 4
    Gillette Rubie Flare Tip Super Speed 2.00 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Merkur 34G 1.00 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Parker Variant 1.00 1.00 4
    Gillette Rubie Gibbs Adjustable 1.00 1.00 3
    Gillette Rubie Rex Ambassador 1.00 2.00 3
    Gillette Rubie ATT R2 1.00 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Gibbs Adjustable 1.00 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Timeless TI .68 1.00 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Progress-Long Handle 2.33 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Gillette NEW Short Comb 2.00 2.00 2
    Gillette Rubie Timeless TI .68 3.00 1.25 4
    Gillette Rubie Gillette Super Adj 3.00 1.20 5
    Gillette Rubie 40's Super Speed 3.00 1.33 3
    Gillette Rubie Rex Ambassador 2.33 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Gibbs Adjustable 2.67 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Gillette Super Adj 3.00 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Parker Variant 2.00 1.67 3
    Gillette Rubie Merkur Futur 2.00 1.00 1

    Edit: I tried to format this so it's more readable a couple different ways but it doesn't seem to work too well. If there's a way to put a table in, please let me know and I'll do that.
     
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  2. feeltheburn

    feeltheburn Well-Known Member

    Here's a screenshot that's more readable I think
    snip.png
     
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  3. John Beeman

    John Beeman Little chicken in hot water

    What does the “count of daily shave” mean?
    I’m not figuring it out looking at the numbers.

    Is each line a day? Timeless on Monday, Muhle on Tuesday, etc. ?

    Or did you use the Timeless for four days/shaves and then the Muhle for four days/shaves? And changing to a fresh blade with each razor change?
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2020
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  4. feeltheburn

    feeltheburn Well-Known Member

    The count of daily shaves column is just how many times I used that blade. Each row is an individual blade. I usually just put a blade in a razor and use it until it needs to be changed. I almost always switch to another razor when I change blades.
     
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  5. Tweezak

    Tweezak Member

    Glad you did this. But some results seem almost too good to be true unless I'm misinterpreting the data (likely).

    For example, you have lines that show an average of 1 for both closeness and comfort and 4 shaves. Does that mean you got 4 BBS shaves out of a blade? If you were still getting that performance then why did you change blades after 4 shaves?

    Thanks again for all the record keeping and for sharing it here.
     
  6. feeltheburn

    feeltheburn Well-Known Member

    Your interpretation seems right. I guess the best explanation I have for changing the blade after 4 shaves even when I was getting essentially perfect shaves from it is that usually after 3 or maybe 4 shaves, even when I gave the shave a 1 rating, there was probably a very slight tingle from the alum that told me the blade was starting to get rough. I probably could have got another decent shave from the blade but sometimes I don't feel like pressing it. With my beard, most blades don't get dull, they get rough. I haven't looked at the Rubie edges under magnification but I have looked at a few other blades and after 3 or 4 shaves, the edges look chipped. So once I feel that first hint of roughness, I usually just toss the blade because my experience is the blades get rougher fast. If I spend a ridiculous amount of time prepping my beard and get it really soft, I can make a blade last longer. I've used a few for up to around 20 shaves but it's a trade off between time spent and cost of blades for me.
     
  7. brit

    brit in a box

    i use most if not all of the russian produced gillettes- gsb,nacet,platinum blue box,all of the 7 oclock series including indian made black box,gotten great shaves 3-4 times per blade but not pushed beyond that when they start to dull a bit.the only exception has been the vintage spoilers i buy in sealed packages.i have achieve 10 + with those,but only because of their cost and as a challenge of interest.i use them in vintage gillette razors of a few types.never tried the rubies or red/white stainless blades.even the gillette/wilkinson brand were ok.love them..the polsivers,permasharps,indian greens,and astras are fine as well.
     

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