Which blade has given you the smoothest shave in terms of glide?
smoothest blade?
- Thread starter chansta
- Start date
Its got to be feather for myself. But everyone is different. My advice would be to get a sampler pack and work your way through them. Keep a record of each blade, you can go indepth with it by scoring the blade on sharpness, smoothness and how many shaves ect. Or just an overall score because if you are like me you will forget and keep going around in circles.
The sample pack is a great idea; I'm working my way through the extended samples from West Coast Shaving. I do take very short notes on each blade, and I try to give each blade a real chance, different soaps, etc.
I'm not finding a clear winner, yet. Three - Gillette Yellow 7 O'Clock, Feather, Astra SP, in ascending order - have turned out to be the best so far. I ordered 100 Astra. The others haven't felt as sharp, or as smooth, or have been rough or tugged.
I'm not finding a clear winner, yet. Three - Gillette Yellow 7 O'Clock, Feather, Astra SP, in ascending order - have turned out to be the best so far. I ordered 100 Astra. The others haven't felt as sharp, or as smooth, or have been rough or tugged.
Astra SP has a reputation for being smooth and relatively sharp, and they're what I've chosen to stick with in my DE89. With that in mind, I still recommend a sample pack... just make sure it contains the blades that at least have the general reputation of giving a smooth shave. You'd be quite surprised how subjective this can be, but I'd make sure your sample pack includes Astra, Feather, various Personnas, various Gillettes, and others. Really, try as many as you can, and you'll probably know what's right for you within a few weeks. Ya never know. The blade that many call "mild" or "dull" (Derby, for instance) could end up being what you call "smooth", "comfortable" and "forgiving".
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Chansta. I think you will find two things.
1. The blade you like best (I'm not going to use "smoothest") will be different for different razors. If you change razors, the blade choice could change.
2. Your blade choice will change over time.
To answer your direct question but also illustrate my point, I started with Astra SP in my SuperSpeed. Moved to Polsilver SI in an LC New but now use Voskhod in the New. I still favor Polsilver SI in my full size Tech and also my Travel Tech.
1. The blade you like best (I'm not going to use "smoothest") will be different for different razors. If you change razors, the blade choice could change.
2. Your blade choice will change over time.
To answer your direct question but also illustrate my point, I started with Astra SP in my SuperSpeed. Moved to Polsilver SI in an LC New but now use Voskhod in the New. I still favor Polsilver SI in my full size Tech and also my Travel Tech.
For me - Gillette Silver Blues
I really like Voskhods and German Wilkinsons.
Voskhod and Gillette Silver Blue very regular and perform nicely.
Gillette Bleue Extra for me .
For me it's the Gillette 7 o'clock yellow. For some reason Astra irritates my neck where Gillette and even Derby don't. It's definitely a YMMV issue. Get a sample pack and enjoy the variety until you settle into something.
GSB for me, with Astra SP VERY close behind.
Personna Reds so far.
Personna blues, followed by Astra SP and Feather.
I have to agree, I believe my first 100 pack is going to be these and I have tried a few so far. I have to say those Personna's can serve up some great shaves.
I recently tried out a series of blades and found that the Astra SP and Wilkinson Sword worked best for me. Gillette Silver Blue, Gillette 7-0-clock Orange were okay, and Derby didn't seem to agree with me (though better than others and many folks here like them). One piece of advice I got early on was to sample blades to get an early winner, then settle on something for a bit in order to develop technique. Thus, I just ordered a 100 pack of Astra SP (price was fantastic on Amazon). They work best for me so far, and in several months when I'm better at wet shaving I can experiment with a few other blades to see if I want to make a switch.
If you want to try the Wilkinson, a 5x pack is an add-on item at Amazon. That's how I got mine. Between them and Astra SP, my first 100 pack came down to price. They both felt the most comfortable, but the Astra pack was about 60% of the Wilkinson on price.
If you want to try the Wilkinson, a 5x pack is an add-on item at Amazon. That's how I got mine. Between them and Astra SP, my first 100 pack came down to price. They both felt the most comfortable, but the Astra pack was about 60% of the Wilkinson on price.
Voskhod or Astra SPs for me. Still debating which I like better and it will win the honor of my first 100 pack. Trial continues in single for September challenge.
Was always either Rapira Platinum or Voskhod, but now I've discovered the wonders of the Red Israeli. 
