I just got done saying how smooth the blacks are. Uh oh....
Thoughts on Gillette 7 o’clock Super Platinum (blacks)?
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IDK? To me, the Black's are both smooth and sharp. I tried the Yellow's for the first time at the end of last year. Have to say that I am very impressed by the Yellow's. Will need to do a shoot-off.
I think I still have 90 or so... same tin... It's a nice touch but they sure are expensive here in the States, compared to other great blades.
I have quite a few but probably won't repurchase any.
I'll be trying the Treet Dura Sharp blue pack soon.... My top blade at the moment, in most razors, is the Perma-Sharp and I'm hoping the Treet Dura Sharps are their equal. I have quite a few Nacet blades and love them as well.
Yesterday, I shaved with a Gillette 7 O'clock Super Platinum "Black" for the first time in a while and was so pleased with the experience that during a momentary loss of control I pulled the trigger and spent the family fortune on 100.
I had a small stash of less than 40 "Black" blades and, in my miserly ways, had been using Derby Premium, Personna Platinum and Shark Super Stainless to save the "Blacks". Yes, the "Black" blades are more expensive than most blades but, in the course of life, $29.99 just ain't a whole lot of money for such a great product. I could have easily skipped the subpar taco dinner I had the other night for $30.
I had a small stash of less than 40 "Black" blades and, in my miserly ways, had been using Derby Premium, Personna Platinum and Shark Super Stainless to save the "Blacks". Yes, the "Black" blades are more expensive than most blades but, in the course of life, $29.99 just ain't a whole lot of money for such a great product. I could have easily skipped the subpar taco dinner I had the other night for $30.
I haven't tried the Dura Sharp so I'm interested to hear what you think.
My shave yesterday was with a fresh Treet Platinum and I find it to be a very good blade. This morning, the second shave on the blade was just as good as the first. There is at least a 3rd good shave left in the blade and I think I paid about $8 for 200 last year so the value is just insane if you get along with them. I'm surprised at the poor reviews here, I find them to be right up there with many of my more expensive favorite blades.
If the 7 o'clock blacks weren't so darn expensive, they would probably be the only blade I use
And "hearing" myself say that now I feel really silly letting a few cents stop me from buying them 
You and I seem to have the same taste in blades (Nacet, Perma-Sharp etc.) so I think you'd like the Treet Platinum.
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Well said!
I agree and you only live once. Don't go back to the taco place!
I'm a Treet Platinum fan. It's in my top 2. I also like the Dura Sharp but put it below the Platinum because I feel the drop off in performance after initial use is greater, but I think it starts out feeling sharper than the Platinum.I haven't tried the Dura Sharp so I'm interested to hear what you think.
My shave yesterday was with a fresh Treet Platinum and I find it to be a very good blade. This morning, the second shave on the blade was just as good as the first. There is at least a 3rd good shave left in the blade and I think I paid about $8 for 200 last year so the value is just insane if you get along with them. I'm surprised at the poor reviews here, I find them to be right up there with many of my more expensive favorite blades.
If the 7 o'clock blacks weren't so darn expensive, they would probably be the only blade I use
You and I seem to have the same taste in blades (Nacet, Perma-Sharp etc.) so I think you'd like the Treet Platinum.
I haven't tried the Ninjas, but the value proposition seems missing, since my #1 blade the Gillette Silver Blue is still findable at $15/100.
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I agree, I bought a tin for $30 as well and don’t regret it. To me, they’re the rare combination of very sharp and very smooth.
They do seem to be pretty razor dependent though, as others have pointed out. Same with the Bic Chrome Platinums.
Luckily the ninjas (and the Bics) preform brilliantly in my current favorite razor (Overlander aluminum).
So far in the blades that I’ve tried, Perma-sharp is the only other blade I’ve found that has that perfect balance of sharpness & smoothness like the ninjas.
Not sure how they directly compare, I haven’t done a head-to-head comparison yet. But I will eventually, just for fun.
Off the top of my head, I’d say the Perma-Sharps may be a bit sharper and the Gillettes a bit smoother?
Hard to say though from memory.
I don’t see myself ”stocking up” on them at $30 per 100 (especially when perma-sharps can be had for $10), but I’m glad I bought a 100 of them.
Like you said, it’s basically the cost of 1 dinner in a restaurant. And they’re still cheaper than cartridges.
Yes, the "Ninja's" are expensive. They have more than doubled in price these last few years.
But... They are a super blade. Although I have several blades which I consider top tier, the Black's may be my favorite blade.
Yes, they may be more than the other top tier blades, but is a $30 investment, the end of the world?
No, 30 cents a blade isn't much... But it's also a point of diminishing returns. Are the ninjas twice as good for me as the GSB? Five times as good as the Treet Platinum? Probably not. I may get a tuck to satisfy a stray curiosity some day though.
The "twice as good" and "four times as good" comparisons are logical, but...
As you move up almost any similar ladder, things become incremental.
As an example, I had a 22-Watt audio amplifier. It cost $4,500 and weighs 77 lbs.
I have a smaller amplifier that produces 3.9-Watts (per-channel). It is only about the footprint of a piece of notebook paper. It is a $2,500 amplifier.
It takes some serious coin to climb the higher end audio ladder.
(As a note, I bought both of these on the second hand market and paid much less.)
Look at gem stones. As the quality of the stone goes up, the price seems to increase exponentially!
The GSB's are some of my most favorite blades. And I am very fond of the Platinum's. Still, the Black's are a super nice blade in every aspect.
So you take out a quarter and a nickel and place them on the counter. This is your cost for one weeks admission for shaving with the Black.
You don't always wear your Sunday best clothes every day. It never hurts to have top shelf merchandise. Fortunately, with razor blades, you can have champagne taste with a Coca-Cola pocketbook...
Still, compare this 30¢ blade to the cost of what an average cartridge would run.
About ten years ago I thought they were very good until I got a 5 pack with 3 bad blades. I haven't used them since, not because I swore I'd never buy them again, they just never got back on my wish list. I'll have to give them another try the next time I'm blade shopping.
I like the Treet Platinums too. Impossible to argue with price even tossing them daily. Very smooth with happy skin afterward, but I struggle to achieve bbs and can feel them starting to "go out" halfway through a shave. They're become my only blade if I could figure it out. No sasquatch here; just how it works out for me.I haven't tried the Dura Sharp so I'm interested to hear what you think.
My shave yesterday was with a fresh Treet Platinum and I find it to be a very good blade. This morning, the second shave on the blade was just as good as the first. There is at least a 3rd good shave left in the blade and I think I paid about $8 for 200 last year so the value is just insane if you get along with them. I'm surprised at the poor reviews here, I find them to be right up there with many of my more expensive favorite blades.
If the 7 o'clock blacks weren't so darn expensive, they would probably be the only blade I use
You and I seem to have the same taste in blades (Nacet, Perma-Sharp etc.) so I think you'd like the Treet Platinum.
Dura Sharps also seem to wear fairly fast (not as fast as they do for @cranewarrior ), but it's better... or at least they start off sharper. Micro rust gets them anyway despite being coated. Others somehow get multiple shaves out of them, but I'm too lazy to to either pull them out of the razor or dunk them. Sometimes I'll eek out a second shave the next day only. They are no cheaper to use this way than 7oclock blacks are for 3 shaves.
Gillette definitely knows what they're doing on pricing, as we grimace and offer up the money.
