hey guys, blade question. trying to find right first 100 pack!

[4waves]

Gents, trying to make the leap to a hundred pack. Right now my top five list consist of gillete 7 o clocks, bic chrme plats,lord plats class. do you guys have any advice?

About me- need to shave every other day. not a crazy beard by any means,just to keep up a sharp look. to grow an actually beard it would probabably take me about 2-3 months. hair is stubborn, grows differently.

looking for something that i can get 3-4 shaves out of. my razor is a tech. prep is ice cube on face, dry face, nox,apply van der hagen deluxe 40% nat.

in future if you read this thread, a lot of people ask about blades and i think we should try to include what razors we use to help the YMMV topic. a fat red tip and feather would be a massacre with pressure. a tech with feather and no pressure might be okay.

i am stil a newb so obviously no disrespect. i have utmost respect for this whole forum. great people! just thoughts.

Thanks for yours!

 

[Boge]

... prep is ice cube on face, dry face, nox,apply van der hagen deluxe 40% nat...

Why an ice cube? Do you live in Death Valley?

 

[4waves]

gillete 7 yellow. haha, no death valley but the colder the better. summer time.

 

[JimL911]

I have tried dozens of blades. While I can tell which are bad, telling which is better is difficult. Astra SP are a decent blade that I easily get three good shaves out of. I ordered 100 from ebay for 10.50 shipped. I have two identical razors and have been shaving half my face with the Astra's and the other half with a different blade to see which I prefer. I haven't done a longevity test but at 20 cents a week I think I may stay with them. Go for the cheapest that do the job for you and spend the rest on soaps and new razors.

 

[4waves]

Might have to do the samples. gillete yellows have a pretty solid following though. seem very reliable. polsilvers were great but i heard the blade life is short.

 

[musicman1951]

I'm down to two blades PolSilver SA and Med Prep - but that's for my face. Get whatever works for your face.

 

[Okla1911]

Yeah, I'd would recommend trying a few more samples first. When I got started w/DE shaving I picked up a 100 sleeve of Astra SP's off Amazon for $9 shipped. I didn't do the sampling first. Luckily it worked out alright, but as I sampled other blades later, I regretted diving in on the Astra's. I would probably pick up feathers instead.

 

[Corey]

Go to tryablade.com and get at least two of each blade you're interested in trying, then go from there. Only because you mentioned having a Tech, I'd recommend Feathers. They really shine in the Tech and give a very smooth shave. It's definitely one of my favorite razor/blade combos.

 

[mhdena]

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/393655-The-Great-Blade-Exchange

If you have not sampled blades from here do so.

Try before you buy.

 

[4waves]

Thank you guys! i will definitely lool into a sharper blade. With my budget, i wouldn't want to possibly like feathers. ill probably do try a blade and settle for either chrome plats or yellow 7's. i am thinking the mild razor/ agg blade might work well.

 

[BSAGuy]

Gillette Silver Blue

 

[4waves]

gsb versus gillete yellows?3 dollar difference in price or so.

 

[vaplanman]

4waves. Take heart. Your blade choices will change. I loved Astra SP until I got an LC New. Then I loved Polsilver SI until I tried Voskhod. But I don't like the Voskhod in my FaTip. I still have a few of each but Voskhod is my goto blade (when I'm not using Ted Pella SE or Schick Injectors).

A 100 blade purchase is never a bad thing. You'll usually use them. If not, they sell well on bst.

 

[Inverted]

Samples samples samples.

I have tried about 15 different blades. Although there are a bunch I like, I ordered a 100 pack of Astra SPs, Gillette Silver Blues, Personna Reds, and Polsilver SAs (which are my fave). Nothing wrong with having multiple 100 packs at your disposal, and it will take years to go through them all.

Your face will prefer what it prefers. Everyone is on the Feather bandwagon, but I get a closer, smoother and much easier shave on a Polsilver SA than I do with Feather, so who knows...

I bought the biggest blade pack on www.westcoastshaving.com plus I added another 5-6 individual packs of other blades.

 

[gwsmallwood]

Go to tryablade.com and get at least two of each blade you're interested in trying, then go from there. Only because you mentioned having a Tech, I'd recommend Feathers. They really shine in the Tech and give a very smooth shave. It's definitely one of my favorite razor/blade combos.

I just switched from a Feather Popular to a 37c, so I needed to go back through some samples again. Placed my order with Try A Blade because you can't beat their prices if you know exactly which blades you would like to try. If you're a little more open, you can find slightly better deals on sample packs elsewhere, but I would recommend investing in a sampler that gives you at least 2 or 3 blades of each type instead of just one.

 

[vaplanman]

Samples are a great way to go. The one downside is that, in all likelihood, your tastes will change and no amount of sampling will be able to predict the future. As your technique matures, as your tastes in soap or cream or razors change, or even as you go back and "retry" a blade you previously discounted, you'll find that the blade you once thought was 'perfect' for you, now drops to number 2, or 3 or even number 10. I am now in my fourth "perfect blade" and my guess is, as I try other things, that "perfect" choice will change again.

While I would never tell anyone to stop trying blades, my advice is this. Relax. Choose a blade, razor, soap, brush and shave your face. Enjoy what you are using and enjoy, as you use up stock, finding new 'perfect' choices.

 

[4waves]

thanks for the advice gents!gw,how was that feather popular?i hear great things.

vap, i don't have that much dough so as crazy as it sounds i need to find a blade and stick with it. later on in life maybe i could try a lot of blades and what not. for right now, i need a blade, got my razor, soap, and just need to shave my face.

 

[gwsmallwood]

thanks for the advice gents!gw,how was that feather popular?i hear great things.

vap, i don't have that much dough so as crazy as it sounds i need to find a blade and stick with it. later on in life maybe i could try a lot of blades and what not. for right now, i need a blade, got my razor, soap, and just need to shave my face.

I thought it was a great starter blade for someone who wasn't sure whether they would stick with DE shaving or not. Very mild, nice grip to the handle even though it is plastic, and loading the blades is pretty much fool proof with no alignment issues. It is a little light, so the urge to apply pressure is higher than with a heavier razor.

 

[bberg100]

100 pack is not much more than a smaller order. Don't like them you can PIF, sell, dump, trade, etc. I see pop art made with blades too. Any of the popular blades are really very good. I really like Gillette Silver Blues, yellow 7 O'clock, Astra SP, and Feathers. I won't turn down Sharks or Derbys. Now Vietnamese Dorcos are the only blade I can't abide, while others like them.

 

[Dondoh]

100 Astras for 10 bucks. Work on technique. Then sample. I did a blind test of 24 blades that took me months. My conclusion? There are lots of good blades and few bad ones.

Astras are terrific, cheap and readily available. I have 100, but I now prefer to shave with Feathers so I only use Astras occasionally. But I'd be happy to shave with only Astras for the rest of my life if all the others went out of business. Great blades.