4 Blades Under Microscope (moderate 56k warning)

[FieroGT42]

"Razor blades + Microscope", or "What does your blade really look like?", Episode 1

Dorco New Platinum ST300
Personna Platinum Chrome ("Red Box") - Dist. by ASR
Crystal Super + Platinum ("Israeli Personna")
Treet Blue Special, blued carbon steel (maroon/gold paper)

Today I snapped some photos of four blades under two microscopic magnifications. Although this was just an initial hasty test, I think I got some good results. Unfortunately, a conventional 1000x power is designed for a very flat viewing section under oil immersion, and that's simply not going to work for razor blades. For the same reason, it's hard to get clear pictures with lower powers as well. I also didn't clean any of the lenses because honestly I didn't know this would work as well as it did, and I really had insufficient light so I'm going to try again soon. But anyway... on to the blades!


Dorco New Platinum ST300

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/225/dorco1de0.jpg
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/624/dorco31za0.jpg
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/962/dorco32in9.jpg

Just eyeballing this blade gives the impression that the slope is curved and the edge rounded. I seem to have misplaced the image of the low magnification, but the honed area has large uneven craters that look to me like air cavities, and the cutting edge has an uneven orange peel or shark skin texture. The Dorco 300's were the only blade of the 4 that showed these characteristics. It could have been a bad blade, so next time around I'll try another box. Under both magnifications, the blade still seems to have a rounded tapering and the edge is very hard to focus on. I would guess this is why these blades are so "forgiving"


Personna Platinum Chrome ("Red Box")

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4130/personnared1cb3.jpg
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/7517/personnared32si7.jpg
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/7517/personnared32si7.jpg

These are the blades supposedly produced at the same factory as the Crystal "Israeli Personna" blades. Mine appear to have the same packaging, stamping, and box numbering as the "eBay Red Box" blades. At 100x, one side of the blade looks like a 3-angle grind job, but the other appears to be 2 angles. Strange... maybe these are a bum batch. I'll do some more of these blades next time around. There are very clear striations from shaping the blade; sort of a brushed aluminum look Close up, the edge has a clearly chromatic surface (rainbow). I'd guess this is the coatings. The cutting edge appears to be relatively straight and even, with some areas where the edge is slightly receded. Better that protruding!


Crystal Super + Platinum ("Israeli Personna")

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/2903/crystal1ld4.jpg
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1394/crystal2km3.jpg
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6683/crystal3li0.jpg

"Made in Israel" dispenser, white paper w/ blue printing. I'm pretty sure these are the real deal, and the microscope seems to agree. Deep striations like the "Red Box" blades, so they're not radically different. The closeup didn't come out well, but the blade was very similar to the "red box" Personnas.. just better. The edge was a bit finer, only a few receded areas, and a hell of a lot more coating. I like the way this looks! (aside from the striations)


Treet Blue Special

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/4623/treetblue1uj7.jpg
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/4228/treetblue21wm5.jpg
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/1595/treetblue22bw5.jpg
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/4527/treetblue3gh5.jpg

One of the few carbon steel blades I have, it was a sample so there's only one to look at. Fortunately, it looks great. Wide view shows much finer striations that the "red box" and Crystal (d/t being carbon steel?), a two angle grind, and a very fine edge. Closeup shows evenness that I would put on par with the Crystal, but the receded spots on the edge are not as wide. I don't know if these are coated, but I don't see anything on them. Carbon steel is prone to rust, unlike the stainless blades, but take care of these and you should get a damn fine shave. Supposedly you can even hone them because they're carbon steel.

----------

Well that's it for now. I'm pleased with the results of my makeshift experiement, so I think I'll charge the camera so I'm not in a hurry, clean the lenses, and have a go at it again sometime.

In the future, I'll be testing packs of the following:
· Personna "red box" re-test
· Dorco re-test
· Derby Extra (5 coating)
· Iridium Super Extra Stainless (Gillete, St. Petersburg, Russia)
· Sputnik (St. Petersburg, DuPont brand PTFE coating)
· Wilkinson Sword Classic (black label, triple coated, not NOS)
· Personna Super Platinum Chrome (top of the line, US, large dispenser)

I also have single blades as free samples of:
· Treet Classic (carbon steel, supposedly same as Blue Special)
· Treet Trig Silver Edge (imported exclusively by B-----ria Italia?)
· Polsilver ("Polish" Gillette, imported exclusively by B-----ria Italia?)
· Treet Dura-Sharp Stainless (embellished packaging)
· Super-Max Platinum (Indian made for UK market, platinum + teflon)
· Vidyut Zorrik Super (Indian)
· Gillette 7 O'clock (St. Petersburg, not Wilkinson 7AM)

And of course if anyone wants anything else checked out, plese feel free to send me a couple of blades. Just PM me and I'll give you my address. I'd ask that you send two blades in case one is a dud, 3 if you really want to.

Thanks for your time, and I hope some at least find this interesting if not informative. :)

P.S. ImageShack is a PITA and mangles my filenames... is there another free alternative that lets me directly embed images?

[Ookla The Mok]

I would recommend turning off the underside light. A good side light is a lot better for looking at edges.

[Scruff McGruff]

Very cool! I'll be watching for updates.

[sol92258]

Nice, looking forward to the rest of your research
Personally, I've either loaded pics either to Flickr, or to the B&B gallery, just click "more" at the top menu of the site

[FieroGT42]

Bottom light was off, no side light so I was using a bright lamp. :(

It was just a quick "wonder if this will really work..", so I'll do more as soon as I can figure out better lighting. Buying a purpose-made sidelight is out of the question though, and I don't have access to a fancy-schmancy microscope with a camera built in.

[Ookla The Mok]

When I look at edges, I use an LED booklight with a bendable neck. If you set it up right you can really see both bevels on a DE blade.

On a side note, Dorcos and Derbys are my DE blades of choice. Neither are sharpness award winners.

[Haiku]

It seems to me that the Dorco's look the worst of the bunch, but I can tell you, I get really really comfortable shaves with them, so I can only guess that the sharpness/finish that shows here isn't the whole story. But this does confirm my experience that the Israelis are really great.

[linuxman]

Great post. Should help dilute opinion with some data. Looking forward to pictures of a feather :-)
Interestingly, I dislike the treat, even though the edge appears good - and do not consider myself fussy about blades. Some are better than others, but most for me are good enough. But there are a few I just would not use.......

[BigRay]

Very interesting, thanks for taking the time to do this :biggrin:.

-Ray

[T-square]

This is excellent information Fiero. I look forward to the updates. Thanks for taking your time and resources to do this!

[dwestenk]

... In the future, I'll be testing ...

Might be nice to see what a Feather looks like under the scope.

[scoopster]

Outstanding post Fiero!

[thirdeye]

Very interesting idea. Thanks for a cool insight and please do update us when you have more.
I don't think I would changed because of these pictures but really cool to see.

[bb557]

Very interesting. Thanks for doing this!.

[_JP_]

At the Northeast Ohio Event a few weeks back we were looking at the edges of straights under a microscope setup. It was really interesting to see how the sharpening process progressed that way. The microscope setup was microscope with a digital camera attached, which was viewed on a black and white TV screen. Doing it that way made it very easy to scan the complete length of the sharp edge and everyone could see it.

[niftierthanthou]

Very interesting post! +1 on wanting to see what Feathers look like under the microscope.

[michael m]

Very interesting post! +1 on wanting to see what Feathers look like under the microscope.

Ditto on me ...I think maybe time look at feathers again .

[letterk]

A few more (http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5595&highlight=microscope) photos (http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?p=19760#post19760).

[Must Dash]

Sorry, couldn't go past the Python option.

Nice job and much appreciated.

Cheers

Jeremy

[Ltltony]

I'm very interested to see your next round of pictures.

[kasik]

Those pictures are great. I wish I had the equipment to do that kind of thing. Thanks for sharing it with us. Now for a request/suggestion, how about a couple pictures of used blades (whatever you commonly use). I'm thinking a comparison between new, after one shave, and then again when you feel it is time to replace it. I'm just curious how well they hold their edges.

[TstebinsB]

A few more (http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5595&highlight=microscope) photos (http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?p=19760#post19760).

I knew I saw blades posted somewhere before..

[Scruff McGruff]

I've got another idea. I don't know if it has been done before, but I would be very interested in seeing the difference corking makes. Maybe take some pics pre- and post-corking?

[Bradford]

Great post thank you. Glad I use the crystals.

[smithno]

Neat!!

[The_Shadow]

"Razor blades + Microscope", or "What does your blade really look like?", Episode 1

Dorco New Platinum ST300
Personna Platinum Chrome ("Red Box") - Dist. by ASR
Crystal Super + Platinum ("Israeli Personna")
Treet Blue Special, blued carbon steel (maroon/gold paper)

Today I snapped some photos of four blades under two microscopic magnifications. Although this was just an initial hasty test, I think I got some good results. Unfortunately, a conventional 1000x power is designed for a very flat viewing section under oil immersion, and that's simply not going to work for razor blades. For the same reason, it's hard to get clear pictures with lower powers as well. I also didn't clean any of the lenses because honestly I didn't know this would work as well as it did, and I really had insufficient light so I'm going to try again soon. But anyway... on to the blades!


Dorco New Platinum ST300

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/225/dorco1de0.jpg
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/624/dorco31za0.jpg
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/962/dorco32in9.jpg

Just eyeballing this blade gives the impression that the slope is curved and the edge rounded. I seem to have misplaced the image of the low magnification, but the honed area has large uneven craters that look to me like air cavities, and the cutting edge has an uneven orange peel or shark skin texture. The Dorco 300's were the only blade of the 4 that showed these characteristics. It could have been a bad blade, so next time around I'll try another box. Under both magnifications, the blade still seems to have a rounded tapering and the edge is very hard to focus on. I would guess this is why these blades are so "forgiving"


Personna Platinum Chrome ("Red Box")

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4130/personnared1cb3.jpg
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/7517/personnared32si7.jpg
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/7517/personnared32si7.jpg

These are the blades supposedly produced at the same factory as the Crystal "Israeli Personna" blades. Mine appear to have the same packaging, stamping, and box numbering as the "eBay Red Box" blades. At 100x, one side of the blade looks like a 3-angle grind job, but the other appears to be 2 angles. Strange... maybe these are a bum batch. I'll do some more of these blades next time around. There are very clear striations from shaping the blade; sort of a brushed aluminum look Close up, the edge has a clearly chromatic surface (rainbow). I'd guess this is the coatings. The cutting edge appears to be relatively straight and even, with some areas where the edge is slightly receded. Better that protruding!


Crystal Super + Platinum ("Israeli Personna")

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/2903/crystal1ld4.jpg
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1394/crystal2km3.jpg
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6683/crystal3li0.jpg

"Made in Israel" dispenser, white paper w/ blue printing. I'm pretty sure these are the real deal, and the microscope seems to agree. Deep striations like the "Red Box" blades, so they're not radically different. The closeup didn't come out well, but the blade was very similar to the "red box" Personnas.. just better. The edge was a bit finer, only a few receded areas, and a hell of a lot more coating. I like the way this looks! (aside from the striations)


Treet Blue Special

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/4623/treetblue1uj7.jpg
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/4228/treetblue21wm5.jpg
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/1595/treetblue22bw5.jpg
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/4527/treetblue3gh5.jpg

One of the few carbon steel blades I have, it was a sample so there's only one to look at. Fortunately, it looks great. Wide view shows much finer striations that the "red box" and Crystal (d/t being carbon steel?), a two angle grind, and a very fine edge. Closeup shows evenness that I would put on par with the Crystal, but the receded spots on the edge are not as wide. I don't know if these are coated, but I don't see anything on them. Carbon steel is prone to rust, unlike the stainless blades, but take care of these and you should get a damn fine shave. Supposedly you can even hone them because they're carbon steel.

----------

Well that's it for now. I'm pleased with the results of my makeshift experiement, so I think I'll charge the camera so I'm not in a hurry, clean the lenses, and have a go at it again sometime.

In the future, I'll be testing packs of the following:
· Personna "red box" re-test
· Dorco re-test
· Derby Extra (5 coating)
· Iridium Super Extra Stainless (Gillete, St. Petersburg, Russia)
· Sputnik (St. Petersburg, DuPont brand PTFE coating)
· Wilkinson Sword Classic (black label, triple coated, not NOS)
· Personna Super Platinum Chrome (top of the line, US, large dispenser)

I also have single blades as free samples of:
· Treet Classic (carbon steel, supposedly same as Blue Special)
· Treet Trig Silver Edge (imported exclusively by B-----ria Italia?)
· Polsilver ("Polish" Gillette, imported exclusively by B-----ria Italia?)
· Treet Dura-Sharp Stainless (embellished packaging)
· Super-Max Platinum (Indian made for UK market, platinum + teflon)
· Vidyut Zorrik Super (Indian)
· Gillette 7 O'clock (St. Petersburg, not Wilkinson 7AM)

And of course if anyone wants anything else checked out, plese feel free to send me a couple of blades. Just PM me and I'll give you my address. I'd ask that you send two blades in case one is a dud, 3 if you really want to.

Thanks for your time, and I hope some at least find this interesting if not informative. :)

P.S. ImageShack is a PITA and mangles my filenames... is there another free alternative that lets me directly embed images?
Just saw your article, Great Job! Have you taken a look at the Derbys yet? Until the next time ~ Thanks for the view

[wetbadger]

very interesting, any chance you could put the most popular blades under the microscope?, please.

Thanks.

[AACJ]

I would be interested in seeing a before and AFTER (shaving) of the blades as well. Feathers and Merkurs would be nice to see as well.

Thanks for sharing!

[Bflobill 1125]

All that really matters to me is how they feel on my face.................and there the Personna reds feel great!