Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QY8QXM/?tag=thshde-20 Price range: $10 for 100pk I tried these today along with my new Parker badger brush, Proraso white pre-shave cream, Proraso white tub soap. I did total of 4 passes in the following order: With the grain, across, across from the opposite side, and against the grain. I also had a touch up session right after. I did not shave yesterday, so I had a pretty good situation happening on my face. The blade was extremely smooth and did not tug at all. I did not cut myself and there was no need to use my styptic stick. The only irritation was couple of small nicks on my neck where I have pre-existing bumps and in-growns. After the shave, I ran out to take care of some errands and all I could do is look at myself in the mirror of my car. The shave was smooth, painless, and very satisfying. Prior to this blade I tried Merkur Super, Gillette Platinum, and Feather blades. This Astra blade is better than Merkur and better than Feather blades. The Gillette Platinum blades gave me a smooth and comfortable shave two days in a row. I only used Feather blades once, but the shave was not as smooth. I do plan to go back and test them again, especially now that I have a new bad ass Parker brush. As for these Astra blades, they get an A based on this first experience. Let's see how they perform tomorrow and the day after. -D
I have been extremely pleased with these blades. I was totally prepared to not like them and was sooo pleasantly surprised by how good they are.
I just had two BBS shaves this past weekend with an Astra loaded in a long handled Black Beauty set on 6. I rotate between these, Feathers and Voskhods.
I use the Astra sp in my de89 and get seven two pass shaves. They are a very good price aswell. I have also been happy with the Astra super stainless. Every time I start to look at other blades I have a shave with the sp's and am like " forget about it "
How well the astra sp does really depends on which razor I'm using. My merkur 33c does not give me a smooth shave with astra no matter how many passes I make. But with my SS and fatboy, i get smooth in 2 or 3 passes.
