The Worst Blade

Dorco and Merkur are the 2 main brand ones I dislike. I have tried several lesser known brands with equally bad results.

Derby, Merkur and Supermax platinum. Tugged my whiskers too much. There are probably plenty of them available on the Great Blade Exchange.

BSAGuy said:

Dorco and Merkur.

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+ 1 / +1

Also: Kai. Absolutely butchered my face. Luckily, I only had two. Gave the other away.

Sharp is bad. Rough and tuggy. I don't have problems with Derby or Dorco (301>>300). I treat them as less than super sharp blades good for light growth and easy buffing.

BIC super chrome. Want to like them but they are just too rough.

Lord platinum, just don't seem to work for me. Tried them in 3 different razors. Found them to be rough.

Lord Platinums gave me a lot of grief!

Sharp brand blades just beat Treet Classic as the worst blade I've ever used

Merkur.

My recently acquired Treet black beauty carbons. I can do two shaves with them but they are pretty dull and tuggy as hell. Even Derby's seemed a bit sharper...

Personally, i think that Merkur blades are just bad. I see a lot of bad press about Dorco blades, but I like them. In my Merkur 33. In my Muhle r41, it's another story... But then again, I find that any blade works well in my Merkur 33.

I'm kind of surprised to see Merkur listed as a bad blade by some. I've had success with them thus far and can usually stretch 10 shaves out of one blade.

One I can't get more than 2 shaves from is a Shark Chrome blade.

When I first got into double edge shaving I bought a cheap chinese butterfly razor made by Nanjie. It came with a Flying Eagle blade. Yep, that was the worst one. Dull, dull, dull.

My 2nd worst was when I bought a 1950's tech on ebay that came with original Gillette carbon steel blades, wrapped in paper. Ummm, those are for decoration, apparently. After this many years they were no longer shaving sharp.

I am baffled by all the people hating on Shark. The SC are my favorite blades. Astra SP have to take the cake for the worst to me

It's already been said, but my vote also goes to Dorco 300.

I am baffled by all the Derby Extra comments. I purchased hundreds of them 5 or so years ago. They are absolutely excellent blades, Quality control in recent years, maybe?

Classic_Fun said:

I'm kind of surprised to see Merkur listed as a bad blade by some. I've had success with them thus far and can usually stretch 10 shaves out of one blade.

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They are bad for me. In my Mühle R89 that is. They are absolutely unusable. However, in my Merkur 37C I easily get three or four decent head shaves out of them. They are not the best blades, but they are usable.

Conversely, Red IPs are absolute top performers in my R89, whereas they are tuggy and harsh in my 37C. This is not only a YMMV, but even a MMMV.

I think Merkur deserves more opprobrium than Dorco or Derby, because the latter are both quite cheap. Price matters. For the prices that Merkur tends to charge, you would expect something with as much support as Polsilver, Feather, Gillette Silver Blue, or 7 O'Clock Black. No blades are universally loved but I've yet to hear even Merkur supporters describe them as good value for money.

karm said:

I am baffled by all the Derby Extra comments. I purchased hundreds of them 5 or so years ago. They are absolutely excellent blades, Quality control in recent years, maybe?

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Must be a YMMV thing. I purchased a large supply this year, no issues. They are great blades for me also.

This!!!!! +1

slr31 said:

One blade I remember as being horrible is the Laser made in India.

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