Polsilver Super Iridium : I and I blade pif results and discussion thread.

I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one in the room who doesn't get a joke. Here are my notes from today's shave with the Polsilver in the Fat Boy on 6.

Overall feel: 7.5 out of 10
Comments: About the same as the Super Iridum, with slightly less sting at the end, but a little less efficient: I can already feel a bit of stubble along my jawline, two hours after my shave. I'm starting to lose patience with both of these blades; what is the big screaming deal about them? The interest in them baffles me, when there are much cheaper blades that work just as well or better for me.

I'm not sure I can classify these as the same blade, since they consistently perform a little differently from each other in both razors I've tried so far. More to the point, I don't much love either blade. I'm wondering if I should forge ahead with a comparison in my Diplomat, or just pack it in. The first shave for each in the Diplomat will be the fifth or sixth pass for each, depending on how you count my shaving technique. Am I going to learn anything I didn't already know from that?

dgilman said:

what is the big screaming deal about them? The interest in them baffles me, when there are much cheaper blades that work just as well or better for me.

Click to expand...

and YMMV....

Super Speed said:

and YMMV....

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True enough. Results listed are purely idiosyncratic and non-transferable to other shavers.

I have had a chance to try both of these now, and I honestly dont think there is a difference between the two. The blades appear to look the same, and for me they shave the same. Thanks for the opportunity to try these out Chris.

Blades arrived today. I will test them this weekend and post my opinions...

Quick update:

I was out of town all weekend visiting my daughter, but I used the R41 loaded with the same blade everyday...I have used the same balde for 6 days and performed well, with some light pulling yesterday, So today I loaded a new blade.

Great performer for me...smooth, sharp and gave nice shaves.

Sorry I haven't posted my findings on these yet but I had a bad run in with a Gillette 7 O'Clock yellow I received from a PIF. Needless to say I need a little healing before I try these so stay tuned I will review one of the blades by Friday.

I find them to be the same as the previous Super Iridium.

Well I finally got to do my comparison (thanks to xillion for the opportunity). Just completed a couple shaves with and SI and a couple with a Polsilver SI. Skipping all the boring details it's easiest to say they looked and felt exactly the same to me. As you can see I did not push them to their limit to see if one would last longer than the other. But both provided two excellent and indistinguishable shaves. Oops, should note that the wrappers were very different. Lots of Polish on the Polsilver but I didn't bother trying to translate it.

The following is pure speculation on my part. I know that Polsilvers used to be made at a plant in Poland and sold in Poland. I assume there was/is brand name recogniton there. So when production moved to PPI it would make perfect sense to me to keep marketing these as Polsilver SIs in Poland. I keep thinking that the Perma-Sharp Supers that are made at PPI and sold in Turkey are similar in that I'm guessing they are identical to some other blade coming out of PPI with a different label but sold as Perma-Sharps in Turkey because there used to be a Perma-Sharp made and sold in Turkey. So that name is recognized there.

I can say that I've pushed this blade and was shocked to see how long it lasted in the R41.....I love these blades....my favorite blades to date...let's pray the seller can keep getting these!!!

So I finally got to get one shave with each blade using the same safety razor, soap and shave prep. My first side by side comparison of the first shave was that the SI blade is sharp, not as sharp as a Gillette 7 O'Clock yellow but definitely sharper than the Wilks I normally use and the same for smoothness, smoother than the yellows, not as smooth as the Wilks. The final shave results were a close shave with only slight irritation. The Polsilvers on the other hand were sharper for me but a lot smoother than the SI's I did a three pass (WTG, XTH, ATG) shave with the SI's to get a close shave vs a 2 pass( WTG, XTG) shave with a light buffing in a couple of areas on my neck. YMMV but I still have a few shaves on these blades and I will post my findings here

First shave with the Polsilver Iridium tonight, compared to the regular SI's to me so far it appears these blades are nearly identical in every way. The only difference I'm finding are that the Polsilver version appears to be a bit sharper but ever so slightly less smooth than the regular SI. So far so good, 8.5/10

First shave with the Polsilver SI this morning. Used a slim on 6, face lathered Lea stick, Skin Bracer AS. My normal, minimal prep (definitely could be better!)

My first impression is that the blade is very sharp and pretty smooth. The blade is NOT rough, but I've used smoother...just to clarify. Using my normal routine I did not get a good first impression. I had a couple weepers on my cheeks and a nick on the side of my adams apple. All very rare occurrences. Perhaps I was a bit too aggressive with it. Maybe a different razor would pair up better. The AS really stung and turned my face red.

The overall shave results were not spectacular. Not BBS, not even a DFS. The shave "looks" ok, but I can still feel lots of stubble south of my jaw-line. I'm not going to give up on it yet, but not off to a good start.

I have only used these blades in my R41 and in my NEW and find them to give a great balance of sharp and smooth.
I'm curious to those have found a smoother shave on what blades they prefer over the SI's....

More details for anyone that was wondering, shave #1 was a two pass wtg and xtg with a Slim Aristocrat set on 7. I rarely ever shave daily but the excitement over this blade had me dying to try it again even though I barely had any stubble from the previous shave. Shave #2 on the Polsilver Super Iridium was with a Gillette LC New, after one pass and light buffing aroung my trouble spot near my adams apple I had a DFS and decided to call it quits. Even more impressed this time around, zero pulling and tugging just smoooth cutting action. No irritation or burn, 9/10...

I don't usually swap blades around, but I might drop the Polsilver into a LC new tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

Super Iridium Day 1:

Smoothness: 9.5 out of 10
Sharpness: 9.5 out of 10
Comments: This is my first time trying Super Iridiums, I have to say I really wanted to be indifferent or not like them due to their price and rarity. They were fantastic, no wonder people pay top dollar for them. For my shaves I always use my Fa Tip for the first pass (WTG) and I have to say it is made for massive beard reduction. On my second pass (XTG) and partial third pass (ATG on chin only) I use my Gillette Superspeed. I have to say that for the second and third pass it didn't seem to be nearly as impressive for just general touch-up (I believe this to be within my realm of lack of perfected skill). Overall I loved my first day with these blades and look forward to trying them longevity.

Shave 3 with Polsilver with the Slim Aristocrat on 6, two pass wtg/atg. Still sharp as ever but smoothness degradation was starting to show, a little burn and irritation on my neck 7/10. I think I could have gotten another shave or two out of it but decided it wasn't worth it. My final thoughts these are good blades and similar to the regular Iridiums but not quite the same. I'll be trying the regular Iridium under the same conditions and report back with my findings...

Shave #1 with regualr Super Iridium, used a Slim Aristocrat on 7 . It's just how I remembered my last one: perfect balance, both sharp & smooth. No other blade does it for me like this blade does. It handles the trouble area on my neck no problem, I don't even have to really pay attention to the growth pattern which I love. So I can pretty much confirm in my opinion these two blades are in fact not the same blade, they're very close though... Thanks again to Xillion for this opportunity as it's reaffirmed my love for Iridiums...

Shave #2 with each of the blades and the same setup with the exception of the soap, I used a Derby stick. It went pretty much the same as the first shave but the Derby lather was not as slick as the VDH I used the first time. My last and final evaluation will come on Monday, this time with a Razorock XXX sample I won in a PIF.