Astra SP or Astra SS - Who has tried both?

I see a lot of love on the board lately for the Astra SP and they do seem to be priced much lower than the Astra SS. Please share your experience with these blades IF you have tried both. Which do you like best and why?

I've used both and slightly favor the Astra Superior Stainless as I find it marginally sharper. If I could only find Astra Superior Plat's I would not in the least feel cheated.

I find them both to hit the sweet spot for me on the Sharpness/Smoothness spectrum.

+1 to redrako's comments: I like them both, and find the SS to be a slightly (and I mean very slightly) better blade for me in comfort and closeness. After trying out 20 or so different blades, I bought 100 of each of the Astras from bestshave.net (currently $8/100 for SP and $8.20/100 for SS; $50 gets free shipping). Look under Original Boxed Blades to find the 100-packs.

I find the Astra SS slightly sharper than the Astra AP. Both good blades IMO.

I preferred the SP over the SS, if you'd like to read my thoughts check out my blade review thread here: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/265167-Noob-blade-PIF-reviews

Blades seem to be a YMMV item, so if you're really interested in trying a blade, grab a 5 pack and see how they perform for you.

I find the SPs more smooth for me, but the SS to be sharper. I haven't gotten one smooth shave out of the SS, but I have gotten more than my share from the SPs.

That said, its been months since I've used either blade. I really like the SP, but theres so much other choice! Haha, I think I'll break one out soon.

I am not a fan of either blade but prefer the SS over the SP; both sharper and smoother for me. The Astra Keramiks (but I think they are out of production now) were for me in between.

For me, I find most "Platinum" blades smoother over the SS....I couldn't tell much of a difference between either blade...both were nice blades for the money.

I found the SS far less comfortable than the SP. Too scrapey.

The SS works better for me. I get a little more tugging from the SP. Probably the coatings, who knows. FWIW I have found carbon blades work really well for me, and some stainless. The ones that have teflon tug something fierce. The Astras are cheap enough, I got my SS for 14 for 100 delivered on amazon(prime).

Have personally found the SS to be sharper and give me overall a better shave than the SPs. Any ideas why there seems to be better deals on the SPs than the SSs? Have seen a few deals on the SSs, but nothing like the number of deals on the SPs. One would tend to think that platinum blades would be much higher than stainless steel.

The SS felt better, but gave me a very harsh shave with razorburn and weepers. The SP was ok, but didn't feel sharp enough on the ATG pass.

I prefer the SS to the Platinum by far. Felt much sharper, no nonsense kinda blade. I wouldn't stock pile them but would buy a pack here and there

Both are good blades, but I like the Astra SS a little better. For me they are bit smoother than the SP, and I get one less shave from them, than I do with the SP.

The SS is my preferred of the two, but the SP is definitely easier to find in the US. If you don't mind planning ahead and waiting a few weeks for delivery, you can get Astra SS for $8.20/100 at "BestShave.net". They also have the Shark SS (another favorite of mine) for $6.25/100.

I like both blades. I was getting better performance out of the SS at first, but as my technique has improved, I've found I'm now getting ever so slightly better shaves out of the SP.

IMO it depends on the razor.

In my merkur HD, Astra SP edges over the SS slightly
In weber, no difference.

bluesbishop said:

For me, I find most "Platinum" blades smoother over the SS....I couldn't tell much of a difference between either blade...both were nice blades for the money.

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+1... And if my memory serves me right, sp used cost more than ss last year. And then more people preferred sp over ss for its smoothness.

yeah I have found the ss to be my favorite blade and will use them for the rest of my days. The find the sp to last longer. yup its astra ss and arko from now on. it works for me and hits the sweet spot. I just tried the feathers again and needed blood transfusion when i was done. they got hurled in the bin.

j

I will echo a lot of others on this thread - I really like both offerings. I would be happy with either, but if I had to pick just one, the SS would have a very slight edge.