Fresh Blood - well not a lot yet - Blade Question?

New to the DE shaving world. Switched over from my Fusion. I picked up a cheap Weishi due to positive reviews that said it was a very mild razor. I started with an Escali brush but have quickly bumped up to an Omega Pro 49 which fits my bear paws great. I went with Proraso Soap and some Nivea and Clubmans aftershave. I went with some Derby blades to start.

So far I am loving it. I am getting very close shaves with very few nicks, down to only 1 this last shave. I have quickly realized that I am never going to be able to shave my neck against the grain without it breaking out like crazy. The good news is that I am getting a closer shave on the neck by going WTG twice than I ever did with the Fusion.

I recently made some purchases on various blades, which include : Gillette Platinum, Gillette Permasharp. Gillette Superplatinum, Gillette Silver Blue, Astra Platinum, Shark, Wilkinson Sword, and Feather (going to tuck these away for a while). So my question is, what blade should I try next?

Hello and welcome. Great to have you here on B&B. Wander on over to the Hall of fame and introduce yourself.

Gillette Silver Blue.

Welcome from a fellow forum-newbie.

Personally it's a toss up between the Sharks and Feathers for me. Never tried Gillette Silver Blue so I can't speak to it.. I also like the Gillette 7 O'clock Green (permasharp).

But I seem to get a few more shaves/blade from the Feathers so I went with them. Definitely have a little more caution the first time you use one if you do, I went to them from Sharks and went from no nicks to probably 3 or 4 my first shave. Tried wilkinson (because they are the only ones I can buy in town where I live) and hated them. Like shaving with tweezers for me...
As always though, personal preference plays the biggest part.

Welcome to B&B! I will +1 the Gillette Silver Blues; they are my daily driver. The Wilkinson Swords aren't bad, they gave me better than expected results.

Good luck!

Welcome to the boards! I'm still learning, but I find the astras so far to be a good balance of sharp and forgiving.

Welcome to the forum !!

Since you are pretty new, I'd suggest going with the Astra next. I found them pretty forgiving while giving a nice shave. Welcome!

Welcome! I liked the Astra SP as well. Pretty nice shave and it was pretty smooth for me as well.

I spent a lot time trying to find the perfect sequence to go through my sampler with the same razor. I tried to lay them out from the most mild to the sharpest based on other folks opinions. In retrospect I don't think the order of the blades mattered much. Everyone is going to have different experiences so my carefully planned sequence of blades wasn't a straight sequence of "easy" blades on up. Even when I managed to get my basic technique down I still found that blades that many people called "mild" were the roughest on my face.

After a few weeks of following my carefully planned sequence I just started randomly grabbing different blades till I had gone through all of them a couple of times. I settled on 7 o'clock black as my standard blade which I plan on using exclusively for the next few months before revisiting the others again.

Welcome. I think you can pretty much go with whatever strikes your fancy. Saving the Feathers for later on, when you've developed more technique, is probably a good call.

I vote for GSB, Astra, or Shark.

franz said:

Welcome. I think you can pretty much go with whatever strikes your fancy. Saving the Feathers for later on, when you've developed more technique, is probably a good call.

I vote for GSB, Astra, or Shark.

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+1. Just keep in mind the blades you don't like now may turn out to be better when your technique develops.

Welcome!
I suggest shaving with each blade for 3 or 4 times and in the end sticking with the one that has the better "feel" for now.
Ime when your technique develops you'll most likely revise your opinion about the "best" blade.

Thank you for all the replies. Well I decided to try out the Astra's. Comparing them to the Derby's, and keep in mind this may just be the case because I am ever increasing my technique, I would have to say the Astra's were a little smoother straight out of the box. First pass was WTG. Felt similar to the Derby's first pass. Second was a combo XTG on cheeck and jaw line, WTG on neck. Third pass was ATG on cheeck and WTG on neck. The XTG and ATG seemed to be a little smoother (less drag) with the Astra than the Derby. Again this could all be due to increased technique and finding correct angle. Thanks again for all the insight.

JMTRAINING71 said:

Thank you for all the replies. Well I decided to try out the Astra's. Comparing them to the Derby's, and keep in mind this may just be the case because I am ever increasing my technique, I would have to say the Astra's were a little smoother straight out of the box. First pass was WTG. Felt similar to the Derby's first pass. Second was a combo XTG on cheeck and jaw line, WTG on neck. Third pass was ATG on cheeck and WTG on neck. The XTG and ATG seemed to be a little smoother (less drag) with the Astra than the Derby. Again this could all be due to increased technique and finding correct angle. Thanks again for all the insight.

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Nice!

Sjch80 said:

Welcome to the boards! I'm still learning, but I find the astras so far to be a good balance of sharp and forgiving.

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Same here, I am liking the Astras. Nice smooth forgiving (and longer lasting in my opinion.)

I like the Astras. Swords make regular appearances in my razors, and I love Feathers. On the neck...try holding the razor so the edge is at a slight angle to the direction of the pass...mimicking what a slant razor would do. My first WTG pass on the neck got a lot better when I started doing this.

Send me a PM and I'll mail you some Crystal Blue blades. I think these are some of the best kept secrets in blades.

Don't be hesitant to try a Feather, just be slow and ZERO pressure, add some glycerin to your face and let it slide across. You won't filet your cheek or anything.

BSAGuy said:

Hello and welcome. Great to have you here on B&B. Wander on over to the Hall of fame and introduce yourself.

Gillette Silver Blue.

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This!