Shaving exploration, blade division

I think we all explore a fair amount as we begin traditional shaving. ("Exploration" sometimes also called "acquisition disorder.")

Take brush exploration, for example: expensive. Same with razor exploration, though less expensive than brushes. And shaving soaps...

One good thing about blade exploration: it's cheap. And another good thing: you can find surprisingly good blades, better than any you've used so far. Which those are, of course, depends on you: the well-known blade mystery that the same brand that is sharp and smooth for me turns out to be dull and harsh for someone else. The result is that your exploration will result in your own unique discoveries.

I got started on this at a time when I thought I had found my best blade of all time: Feather Hi-Stainless. Certainly it was the best of any of the blades I had heard of and tried. It did nick from time to time, but I thought that was par for the course.

Then I got to exploring, and I was surprised to find incredibly good shaves coming from brands whose names were totally new to me. As I gradually identified a little stable of "best brands", I realized that the Feathers were not in it: like a high-powered but unstable motorcycle, they could give terrific performance but were unpredictable. I got better (smoother, easier, nick-free) shaves from other brands.

So I continue to try new brands, and continue to find new surprises, mostly pleasant. My latest discoveries are Zorrik (Indian) and Tiger (Czech)---but note that these may not work for you. You must do your own exploration and rely on your own experience.

I've just become aware that some collect razor-blade wrappers. I'll have to get my grandsons started on that.

 

Back to the Futur

I like to pick out the morning shave arsenal from comments made on the blog, and lately several commenters have mentioned using the Merkur Futur, so I've been using that a little more frequently, and I made an interesting discovery.

I've been holding the Futur much like I might hold the Fat Boy or some other razor: the blade edge touching the skin, with the safety bar touching just ahead of it.

But recently I (in effect) raised the Futur handle higher, so that the main contact (other than the blade) was the top of the razor: the razor now rides along on the top, more or less, with the blade's edge just skimming the skin.

The result has been easier and smoother shaves. I haven't yet experimented to see what this would be like with other razors, such as the Gillettes. Heck, maybe I've been holding the razor wrong all along.

Shaving: the continuing experiment.

 

Interesting. I tried that when I first rediscovered the DE. Tore my face to shreds!!! This with a supposedly mild-mannered SS, not a Futur. I'll not be trying THAT again. Different strokes, I suppose.

 

Shaving is a continuing path of new discoveries.
THere are so many blades, soaps, creams, fragrances...It's a shame I didn't start this delightful journey at a younger age
Tom

 

And the best thing is that you have a perfectly good reason to continue doing it, otherwise you'd end up with a full beard

 

Very interesting stuff here.

 

Michael

How does your old favorite

Treet Blue Steel blades

compare with the new ?

 

Just as most of us find that some blades work better in certain razors I find that I hold some razors differently. The adjustables I usually hold farther down on the handle and the fixed blade razors (all brands) I use the technique that Michael (Leisureguy) described by moving my grip farther up the handle. As you so often say, YMMV.

 

The Treet Blue Special remain in my personal stable of "the best for me", which now includes:

TBS, Zorrik, Astra Superior Platinum, Polsilver Stainless, the Wilkinson family

Tiger has (for me) joined Feather: very sharp, but too prone to inflict surprise nicks. (Some, of course, will find them just fine, others will hate them.)

I continue to find new blades at Razor and Brush---Polsilver Stainless is the newest---that are astonishingly good (for me).

 

I started DE shaving over the summer and I think I have pretty good form. I rarely get nicks and normally get a great shave. I have a blade sampler pack on the way from razor and brush. But all in all, once in a while i wind up with a weeper thats more like a war wound than a shaving nick. Could this mean that the blade is too harsh or is it more likely that its my technique. These nicks come out of nowhere when the blade just randomly catches my face. I cant wait to get my sampler pack and be on the way to a better shave

 

It's possible that it's the brand of blade, but I suspect that it's more likely that you inadvertently used a bad blade angle. Continue to use a light touch and pay careful attention to the angle---if you use short strokes, you can focus better for the entire stroke. Still, when you try other brands, you'll get a better idea of the differences. And if you pay close attention to what you're doing as you shave and the results you get, the daily practice will result in rapid improvements in technique. The result is sometimes that problems you had sort of fade away and you never know exactly why.

 

I use very short strokes and hope hope that it is the blade and not just my technique. Time will tell as I have the blade sample pack on the way. Hopefully a bit of both and I'll have that bbs shave asap.

 

I have so much to learn. I've only got six brands of blades currently, and I thought that was a pretty big amount. When I happened across the world of DE shaving I never thought I'd have so much to learn.

 

I'd like to offer a mild dissent to the idea of "the larger the sample pack, the better." This past summer, when I started shaving again with a DE razor (after about 20 years using a cartridge razor), I bought the large sample pack from West Coast Shaving. The pack contains Merkur, Israeli, Derby, Swedish Gillette and Feather blades. After trying all of them in my Merkur 38c razor, I found Derby to be the best and, so, I ended my search. Derbys give me BBS shave and rarely do I get a nick, cut or weeper. As a result, I bought five years' worth of them.
Should I have bought the largest sample pack available, i.e., the #5 from Razor and Brush? I don't think so. I might find a better blade than Derby among them, but it also might take me three years to find it.
There is a classic problem in the management science/operations research literature and it is called, among other things, the optimal search problem. The question posed in this problem is when to stop searching. The answer is stop searching when the cost exceeds the expected benefit. For razor blades, the cost of searching increases with the number of blades we need to try, but, if we already shave with a blade we really like, the expected benefit becomes small.
For some of us, the search, itself may be fun, so the cost of searching is negative. Those folks should get as big a sample pack as they can and also buy as many different blades as they can that are not included in any sample pack. However, if the purpose of buying a sample pack is to find a blade that gives us a comfortable, clean shave at a reasonable cost per blade, we can end our search when we find it. Otherwise searching for the "best" blade can become a never ending process.

 

Agreed. I'm not the biggest fan of the feathers I've been using though and would like to try some new blades. Sure, I could order a bunch of random blades that I hear are popular from the website. I rather take my chance with the sampler pack. At the least, I'll have a large supply of blades. I'll try one, if I like it, I'll use it. If I dont, I'll set it aside and pass it along to my friends. I'm bound to at least find something better than what I'm using now. And hey, maybe I'll fall in love with a cheap blade this time

 

I agree that once a blade is found that's good enough and inexpensive enough, it might make sense (depending on the person) to draw the search to a close. However, I'm very glad that I kept searching, because I found a blade that was MUCH better (smoother, nick-free, etc.) than the one I was using and cost half as much.

It's obviously up to each individual shaver, but there are some astonishingly good blades out there, and some of those might be *much* better than good enough and cost even less. The problem is that one has to find the blade one one's own. Generally, I think a person can tell within 3 shaves whether a new brand is going to work, so you can go through even a large pack pretty quickly. The longer test---the week-long comparison---comes when you have blades that are quite close, and perhaps most will just go with the cheaper at that point.

The dollar cost of exploration is actually pretty low---especially compared to brushes, razors, soaps, and the like. And finding a true jewel of a blade is wonderful.

 

Plus, half the fun is the exploration. Who in their right mind would find "the cream" or "the soap" and then stop? Variety, the spice of life.

 

I understand that searching can be fun. For me, continuing the search for a better blade is not fun, because while trying to find the "jewel", I might give myself a painful face, a poor shave or both. That's why, after some searching, I found a blade that I like very much (Derby) and I ended my search for blades.
The great thing about our hobby is that there are so many different things we can search for; razors, blades, creams, soaps, brushes, after shaves, etc. Some of us like to experiment with all of these while others might like to concentrate on one or two. I fall in the second camp.
My own fun in searching comes from making my own glycerin-based shaving soap. There are many ingredients that one can put into the soap to increase its lubricity, moisturizing quality and slip. In addition, there are so many essential oils and fragrance oils on the market, that I can make soap with virtually any scent I like. Some people might say, "Why bother given that you can buy great glycerin soaps commercially over the internet?" My answer is that making soap is the most ignored part of our hobby as well as the one I find to be the most fun.

 

I bought sample packs from all three main online suppliers: razorandbrush,westcoast shaving, and suffolk supplies. I never bought the biggest packs because I was avoiding Feathers and Merkurs. I have a bloody history using Merkurs and a lightweight little razor called Futur. Still, I got a heck of lot of razor blade brands.

The packs had Wilkinson, Swedish Gillette, Astra Platinum, Treet Black Beauties, Treet DuraSharp, Trig, Treet Platinum, Sharps, 7 AMs, Derbys, Crystals, Dorcos. Of course, I added a few like Gillette Silver Blue. (I'm sure I forgot some!)

I ended up liking one of the first I tried, the mild Platinum Dorcos. After that obvious blue ribbon, there's an awful lot of decent blades for me.

As I try to use every blade for a week, sampling all the brands will take a while. This is at least 56 weeks of blades.

Even though I've been DE shaving for a few months, each new blade poses some kind of challenge to my face. I haven't used corking, which would certainly put more blades into the acceptable group. So I think the search is over because I'm not finding new winners like Dorcos or Swedish Gillettes. (Online blade sellers take note! Someone should sell a 2-pack of everything. I certainly do not need five Derbys or five Treet DuraSharps -- my current least favorites, but I would like try maybe the top 30 blades cheaply.)

So I think oversampling is definitely possible. By now too, bias has set in so I'll need someone to load my razor for me for a "blind-shave test." (Can I really tell the difference between a DuraSharp and a Dorco?)

 

I think it's important to realize that different people read and post on websites such as TSD, B&B and ShaveMyFace.com for different reasons. For some people, wet shaving is a serious hobby or even a source of income. Those are the people who get pleasure from continuing the search for the "best" stable of blades, soaps, creams, etc. This group will continue its search as long as it gets pleasure from searching.
Others of us began reading, then posting to these websites, not because we regard shaving as a hobby, but, rather, because we want our daily shaves to be comfortable and pleasurable and/or that we want shaving to be less expensive. I fall into this second group. I have learned a lot (and continue to learn) from reading and posting on these websites, such as the proper techniques for DE shaving, techniques for lathering my face and after-shave care of my face. For me, searching is not fun, per se. It has a cost in terms of both time and money. So, when I find a blade, soap, razor, cream, etc. that I really like it makes sense for me to stop the search.
I believe that there are many other people who have the same reasons for reading and posting on these websites that I have. Are we the "silent majority"? I don't know, but I suspect that there are many of us.