Blade Sharpness Research Project

[thombrogan]

My memory of the Indian-made Astra Superior Platinum is from last night and it’s so much better than my faded, foggy memory of the Russian-made Astra Superior Platinum and made tied with my foggy, evaporating memory of the Russian-made Astra Superior Stainless.

 

[AndyPanda]

For my face the Perma-Sharp and Astra SP are night and day. I can't shave with the SPs, they are too dull, the Perma-Sharps work great and are among my favorite blades. The Refined Shave data found the Perma-Sharp to be very sharp, up near the BICs, especially after the first shave wore off some of the coating. That's different than the measurements from helicopter, but more in agreement with my experience. At the end of the day I go with whatever works on my face.

Same here. Perma-Sharp (the gold/red box) are sharp, smooth and long lasting for me - right up there near BIC. I keep thinking there must be good and bad batches of Astra SP and I must have only ever bought the bad ones somehow - which is odd because almost every time I've bought a razor on BST the seller has tossed in a tuck of SPs so I have them from various dates and they always feel too dull to shave with. They are one of the most loved blades here in the forum so I keep going back and trying them again to see what I'm missing. I've only ever tried the Russian SP -- the Russian SS seem much sharper to me.

 

[Phoenixkh]

Theo included two tucks of Astra Stainless Steel along with my Ares V2... I haven't tried them... One of these days I should try the Green Astra SP blades.... Our son gave them to me along with a Lupo Aluminum... neither have been used since that first horrible DE shave. <eg> ...... Two plus years later, I'm almost over the horror that shave produced...

 

[spacemonkey42]

I find the Astra Superior Stainless to be very usable, much sharper than the Astra SP. I have only tried the Russian versions.

 

[h3hound]

interesting. i am working my way through a sampler pack now. Astra Green superior platinum was ok for being smooth and durable, but not the sharpness i like. Perma-Sharp and Feather have been the best experience so far. Shark was not that good to me .

 

[LRod]

Yep. This post was inspired by your recent posts about them. I have over 300.
(they are the PPI budget blade after all so there has to be some compromise)

I used an Indian Astra SP tonight (and a Russian one) with my Drakkant OC!
I did a half & half shave between the two. All I can tell you is that I'll probably
never again use the Indian blades. Those are some terrible blades!!
Rough as can be when the Russian ones are smooth as silk. Crazy!
I ended up with equal efficiency on both sides since the Indian ones did cut,
but it was rough & tuggy throughout + I was left with some irritation.
On the side of the Russian ones, it was perfect!
I take back what I said about them being rebranded Gillette Wilkinson's.
No way these are the same blades!
The Gillette Wilkinson's are actually nice blades that I enjoy.
Anyways, so much for that experiment. I shall continue with my Russian one's
till they become unobtainable!

 

[Flanders]

I used an Indian Astra SP tonight (and a Russian one) with my Drakkant OC!
I did a half & half shave between the two. All I can tell you is that I'll probably
never again use the Indian blades. Those are some terrible blades!!
Rough as can be when the Russian ones are smooth as silk. Crazy!
I ended up with equal efficiency on both sides since the Indian ones did cut,
but it was rough & tuggy throughout + I was left with some irritation.
On the side of the Russian ones, it was perfect!
I take back what I said about them being rebranded Gillette Wilkinson's.
No way these are the same blades!
The Gillette Wilkinson's are actually nice blades that I enjoy.
Anyways, so much for that experiment. I shall continue with my Russian one's
till they become unobtainable!

I found several sellers on eBay that have the RU ones, with pictures of them. About $5/100 more than the IN ones.

 

[LRod]

I found several sellers on eBay that have the RU ones, with pictures of them. About $5/100 more than the IN ones.

Thanks for checking!
Coincidentally in my typical rush to buy, I ordered 300 of them from Razor Blades Club last night!
$13/100 with free shipping, so it ain't too bad!

 

[helicopter]

This is the Royal Shave Ice Tempered blade, which is made in Solingen, Germany by Giesen and Forsthoff along with the other Ice Tempered Solingen blades. I am confident these blades come from the same place due to packaging, printing, grind, and finish, and I recently learned that Timor is proudly proclaimed to be a Giesen and Forsthoff blade, solving the mystery for the others.

I got this blade on Amazon where it costs $22/50, initially thinking it was just another private label Amazon seller that doesn't really do anything. A look at their website shows that while they don't seem to produce anything, they are more sophisticated than many of these private labels. They are sort of going for a post brick and mortar Art of Shaving lineup and high end wet shaving target market, with some English soaps and creams and their own line of Solingen straight razors from the top tier producer Ralf Aust.

The blade is made from standard 100 micron stock, with a heavy platinum driven metallic coating and excellent durability. Initially, it was mild in sharpness, but it became quite sharp after the first paper cut and remained sharp through the end of the test.

It comes in a box of five standard Giesen and Forsthoff plastic tucks of ten blades each. They didn't bother with a private label stencil.

The abrasives used are fairly typical. You can easily see the heavy coating half way up the tertiary bevel. After the test, second photo below, you can see that the coating has worn, and there is almost no visible change in the steel at the edge. The failure mode is some miniscule chipping, indicating an exceptional edge in grind, alloy, and heat treatment.

Aside from the coating impact, performance is very similar to Giesen and Forsthoff's Timor and Van Der Hagen Ice Tempered blades. The steel, heat treatment, and grind are all likely the same specification.

Date	17-Dec-2024			Blade Thickness, mm	0.100
Blade	Giesen & Forsthoff	Royal Shave	Ice Tempered	Germany	1-Jan-2024
Wear on Edge	0	3	6	9	12
Edges Measured	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top
Measurement Medium	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21
Dulling Substrate	New	Paper	Paper	Paper	Paper
Measurements	20	20	20	20	20
Adj. Std. Dev.	8	4	6	9	9
Median F (g)	57	42	43.5	44	42.5
Mean F (g) Top	60	43	43	41	39
Mean F (g) Bottom	58	43	43	46	46
Mean F (g)	59	43	43	44	43
BESS Adj. Factor	1.39	1.39	1.39	1.39	1.39
Avg. Adj. F (g) Top	83	60	60	57	55
Avg. Adj. F (g) Bottom	80	59	60	64	64
Median Adj. F (g)	79	58	61	61	59
Mean Adj. F (g)	82	60	60	61	59

The ranking is held way back by the initial impact of the metallic coating. The performance of the edges is well balanced, so we know it isn't damaged. Perhaps there is some variation in the coating, or it could be a different specification.

It is an excellent blade, but Giesen and Forsthoff's OEM branded Timor had better performance and is priced about the same as this. I don't see any reason to choose this over Timor, but they are similar enough that it doesn't matter much. I see Royal Shave is currently on sale on their website for $17.50/50, which is not bad compared to other Giesen and Forsthoff blades, but is very expensive compared to other double edge razor blades overall.

Blade Sharpness Test Index

 

[helicopter]

This is the Wilkinson Sword Stainless Vader blade that @Space_Cadet got from his grandfather in Israel, and was asking about in this thread:

What are these Wilkinson Swords?​

It is moderate in sharpness, and very durable and consistent. It has good balance. It is 101 microns thick, suggesting it was made to imperial specifications. My best guess is that it was made in England for export. The 101-micron thickness suggests the blade was produced during the 1960s to early 1970s, before full metrication took hold in the UK. If I find similar blades in other samples from the same era, measuring them could further validate this timeline.

It is in a cardboard tuck of five blades. These were originally packaged on hanger cards, rather than in boxes.

It is a three stage grind done with typical abrasives. In the second photo, we see that the failure mode of the steel is small denting, rather than the chipping we typically see on durable and consistent blades.

Performance is similar to the Warner Lambert era German Wilkinson Sword, and the Pfizer era American Schick. Perhaps the similarities have to do with information sharing among these entities. It does not resemble the English Super Sword Edge blade I tested, but I wouldn't draw conclusions without testing some more English blades.

Nazareth produced blades were probably influenced by English Wilkinson Sword designs.

Comparison Insights:​

Blade Type	New Force (g)	Avg. Force (0-6)	Comments
Wilkinson SS Vader (English)	70	68	Gradual wear, consistent performance.
Personna Crystal (Nazareth)	65	66	Similar wear, slightly sharper initially.
Personna PtCr UK-il (Nazareth)	66	64	Consistency matches English designs.

Date	3-Jan-2025			Blade Thickness, mm	0.101
Blade	Wilkinson Sword	Wilkinson Sword	Stainless Vader	Europe	1-Jan-1970
Wear on Edge	0	3	6	9	12
Edges Measured	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top
Measurement Medium	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21
Dulling Substrate	New	Paper	Paper	Paper	Paper
Measurements	20	20	20	20	20
Adj. Std. Dev.	5	3	4	3	4
Median F (g)	50.5	47	49	50	50
Mean F (g) Top	48	45	49	50	51
Mean F (g) Bottom	54	49	50	51	49
Mean F (g)	51	47	49	50	50
BESS Adj. Factor	1.39	1.39	1.39	1.39	1.39
Avg. Adj. F (g) Top	66	63	68	69	71
Avg. Adj. F (g) Bottom	75	68	69	71	68
Median Adj. F (g)	70	65	68	70	70
Mean Adj. F (g)	70	65	68	70	70

Blade Sharpness Test Index

 

[Space_Cadet]

Thank you. Much appreciated.

 

[catchacoolbreeze]

Same here. Perma-Sharp (the gold/red box) are sharp, smooth and long lasting for me - right up there near BIC. I keep thinking there must be good and bad batches of Astra SP and I must have only ever bought the bad ones somehow - which is odd because almost every time I've bought a razor on BST the seller has tossed in a tuck of SPs so I have them from various dates and they always feel too dull to shave with. They are one of the most loved blades here in the forum so I keep going back and trying them again to see what I'm missing. I've only ever tried the Russian SP -- the Russian SS seem much sharper to me.

I've had same experience with Astra SP. Never worked for me. Even the random tucks people through in on trades or sales at bst. Way too dull.

 

[helicopter]

This is the Personna Diplomat Super Stainless blade from their Nazareth, Israel plant. Having an interest in Personna designs, and origins of Israeli ones, I asked @Space_Cadet to send me this one from Israel where it was originally sold.

It is quite mild; I would classify it as almost a traditional grind. It was fairly balanced, and even the sharper top edge was more mild than any other Personna blade tested so far. It is of standard thickness, with typical durability and consistency.

It is hard to say from that data in this test if a metallic coating is present. There are some other Diplomat models that were marketed as "Platinum" and "Platinum Plus," which, along with inconclusive test results, makes it plausible that this one only has a polymer coating.

It comes in standard Nazareth Super Stainless wrappers and a white plastic tuck of five blades.

Older than many of the Nazareth blades I have seen, the wrapper has asymmetrical folds, and a thinner gold stripe than we see on blades from the 2010s.

It has a three stage grind with coarse abrasives used for the primary grind, but even transitions, indicating a thick edge. The PTFE coating is visible on the distal part of the tertiary bevel. In the second photo, we see that the failure mode of the steel is a combination of chipping and denting, which can be associated with a subjective feeling of smoothness.

It is not made to the same specification as any other Personna blade tested. It is an older design that lacks the English Wilkinson influence. It doesn't seem to be related to Zaza Gold, either. It is an interesting vintage blade, and people who like very mild designs may like it.

Performance is not something I can link to other designs, but maybe the packaging or performance will tell us something later on. This blade is quite rare and difficult to find, so I wouldn't recommend seeking it out unless you are collecting, trying to do historical research like this, or something similar.

Date	5-Mar-2025			Blade Thickness, mm	0.099
Blade	Personna	Diplomat	Super Stainless	Israel	1-Jan-1980
Wear on Edge	0	3	6	9	12
Edges Measured	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top
Measurement Medium	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21
Dulling Substrate	New	Paper	Paper	Paper	Paper
Measurements	20	20	20	20	20
Adj. Std. Dev.	10	10	11	9	18
Median F (g)	61.5	60	57	59.5	63.5
Mean F (g) Top	54	61	62	62	66
Mean F (g) Bottom	67	62	58	62	67
Mean F (g)	61	61	60	62	66
BESS Adj. Factor	1.39	1.39	1.39	1.39	1.39
Avg. Adj. F (g) Top	75	85	86	86	92
Avg. Adj. F (g) Bottom	93	86	81	86	93
Median Adj. F (g)	86	83	79	83	88
Mean Adj. F (g)	84	85	84	86	92

Blade Sharpness Test Index

 

[Orlandez]

I measured the Treet 7 Days Platinum blade from the pay it forward Lucky 7 this evening.

View attachment 1866250

The new blade has a nice scratch pattern, visible metallic coating and a clean edge.

View attachment 1866251

The post-test blade looks like it has smoothed out a bit, and of course, the coating is worn off across most of the bevel.

View attachment 1866252

Information Summary:

Date	6/21/14	6/21/14	6/21/14	6/21/14	6/21/14
Blade	Treet 7 Days
Shaves	0	P3	P6	P9	P12
Location	Bottom Center	Bottom Center	Bottom Center	Bottom Center	Bottom Center
Medium	Stren 8	Stren 8	Stren 8	Stren 8	Stren 8
Dulling Substrate	New	Stpl Ppr Rubr Push	Stpl Ppr Rubr Push	Stpl Ppr Rubr Push	Stpl Ppr Rubr Push
Measurements	30	30	30	30	30
Std. Dev.	6	10	9	11	13
Median F (g)	70	69	81	84	87
Mean F (g)	69	70	82	85	88

Complete Data:

Date	6/21/14	6/21/14	6/21/14	6/21/14	6/21/14
Blade	Treet 7 Days Pt PIF
Shaves	0	P3	P6	P9	P12
Location	Bottom Center	Bottom Center	Bottom Center	Bottom Center	Bottom Center
Medium	Stren 8	Stren 8	Stren 8	Stren 8	Stren 8
Dulling Substrate	New	Stpl Ppr Rubr Push	Stpl Ppr Rubr Push	Stpl Ppr Rubr Push	Stpl Ppr Rubr Push
Measurements	30	30	30	30	30
Std. Dev.	6	10	9	11	13
Median F (g)	70	69	81	84	87
Mean F (g)	69	70	82	85	88
F (g) 1	70	83	80	76	76
F (g) 2	73	82	96	84	76
F (g) 3	65	65	97	97	83
F (g) 4	64	69	76	106	70
F (g) 5	72	56	80	75	80
F (g) 6	68	77	68	95	88
F (g) 7	79	73	68	96	118
F (g) 8	72	105	75	73	74
F (g) 9	62	69	72	85	70
F (g) 10	70	67	76	74	66
F (g) 11	69	57	76	74	82
F (g) 12	63	60	80	78	102
F (g) 13	63	57	83	87	102
F (g) 14	52	74	82	95	79
F (g) 15	61	69	86	91	87
F (g) 16	75	82	91	111	86
F (g) 17	72	63	93	85	103
F (g) 18	69	54	83	72	87
F (g) 19	76	75	79	103	87
F (g) 20	74	68	82	82	74
F (g) 21	70	75	90	88	101
F (g) 22	73	59	85	84	86
F (g) 23	74	79	72	75	93
F (g) 24	65	69	89	77	92
F (g) 25	76	68	69	96	97
F (g) 26	66	77	93	88	85
F (g) 27	71	67	82	73	91
F (g) 28	74	77	80	71	110
F (g) 29	64	66	95	71	90
F (g) 30	62	64	68	79	111

This looks like a good blade overall, with reasonably sharpness and durability, but nothing exceptional.

Talking about users’ impressions, the Treet 7days is indeed included in my personal group of the three most precise, sharp and smooth blades made of the aforementioned blades, the Mühle Rasukultur blades and the Personna Lab Blue or Accutec Accuforge blades …

 

[Dimitri]

This evening, we have a real German blade, the Schick double edge triple coated stainless steel blade. This blade has excellent performance. It is quite sharp, and is the most consistent and durable out of the top 15 sharpest blades tested. Schick must have heard about the Merkur blade, because they put a German flag right there on the front of the tuck, and the back of the blade is screen printed with a giant "Germany" that dwarfs the other information printed. It has a nice cardboard tuck with five blades single wrapped in thick and strong waxed paper with no wax dots. It looks like this blade is produced for the South African market, where they must also be aware of how disappointing the Merkur blade was. These blades only cost $2.49 per tuck, and you can get a card with 100 for $28.99 at The Razor Company. You'll probably get the same batch I tested if you hurry and order them, and they are a real bargain compared to Merkur. A great blade like this always puts a big smile on my face.

View attachment 1883048

View attachment 1883049

The new blade has a heavily coated bevel with an even medium grind and even fine honing that goes high up the bevel.

View attachment 1883050

After testing, the coating is gone, and the edge looks excellent. You can see how consistent the scratches on the bevel are, and how they are completely honed off the last third of the bevel. The apex shows virtually no wear. There is some extremely fine chipping you can see if you look closely. This is one of those steels that is hard and tough, where most steels accept a trade-off between those attributes rather than achieving both.

View attachment 1883051

Information Summary:

View attachment 1883055

Date	7/24/24	7/24/24	7/24/24	7/24/24	7/24/24
Blade	Schick	Triple Coated	Stainless Steel	Germany	~2023
Shaves	0	P3	P6	P9	P12
Location	Bottom/Top	Bottom/Top	Bottom/Top	Bottom/Top	Bottom/Top
Medium	Stren 8 .29	Stren 8 .29	Stren 8 .29	Stren 8 .29	Stren 8 .29
Dulling Substrate	New	Paper	Paper	Paper	Paper
Measurements	30	30	30	30	30
Std. Dev.	12	8	10	10	9
Median F (g)	74.5	72	73	77	79
Mean F (g) Btm	82	75	73	74	80
Mean F (g) Top	73	69	75	79	78
Mean F (g)	78	72	74	76	79
BESS Adj. Factor	0.83	0.83	0.83	0.83	0.83
Av. Adj. F (g) Bt	68	62	61	62	66
Av. Adj. F (g) Top	61	57	62	65	65
Median adj. F (g)	62	60	61	64	66
Mean adj. F (g)	64	60	62	63	66

View attachment 1883056

I am looking forward to trying this blade tomorrow; an easy choice out of the eight blades I have tested since the 7 O'Clock black blade that I have been using for the last three days.

Blade Sharpness Review Index

Complete Data:

Date	7/24/24	7/24/24	7/24/24	7/24/24	7/24/24
Blade	Schick	Triple Coated	Stainless Steel	Germany	~2023
Shaves	0	P3	P6	P9	P12
Location	Bottom/Top	Bottom/Top	Bottom/Top	Bottom/Top	Bottom/Top
Medium	Stren 8 .29	Stren 8 .29	Stren 8 .29	Stren 8 .29	Stren 8 .29
Dulling Substrate	New	Paper	Paper	Paper	Paper
Measurements	30	30	30	30	30
Std. Dev.	12	8	10	10	9
Median F (g)	74.5	72	73	77	79
Mean F (g) Btm	82	75	73	74	80
Mean F (g) Top	73	69	75	79	78
Mean F (g)	78	72	74	76	79
F (g) 1	87	82	63	71	81
F (g) 2	79	73	71	61	67
F (g) 3	71	64	63	67	92
F (g) 4	71	82	95	80	89
F (g) 5	78	82	84	78	73
F (g) 6	73	79	66	62	85
F (g) 7	83	74	86	89	72
F (g) 8	78	63	81	77	83
F (g) 9	118	75	69	79	74
F (g) 10	74	80	64	77	87
F (g) 11	84	78	92	69	82
F (g) 12	111	71	65	69	74
F (g) 13	70	85	66	83	84
F (g) 14	81	78	63	82	79
F (g) 15	75	58	74	70	79
F (g) 16	67	69	74	74	87
F (g) 17	72	70	74	63	79
F (g) 18	79	68	75	62	79
F (g) 19	78	62	85	91	85
F (g) 20	80	59	71	94	60
F (g) 21	84	73	70	77	86
F (g) 22	69	67	83	85	68
F (g) 23	66	67	85	77	81
F (g) 24	72	60	72	71	72
F (g) 25	71	71	79	91	69
F (g) 26	63	81	67	79	94
F (g) 27	92	69	84	63	72
F (g) 28	66	78	60	87	77
F (g) 29	73	75	61	90	99
F (g) 30	61	68	84	74	66

This looks like a fantastic blade. Looks like it would be really smooth feeling. Been eyeballing them for awhile. Performance seems identical to the German Wilk's. I had to check, and it looks like they are both Edgewell products. I wonder if they are just re-branded Wilkinson's and come off the same production line.

 

[helicopter]

This looks like a fantastic blade. Looks like it would be really smooth feeling. Been eyeballing them for awhile. Performance seems identical to the German Wilk's. I had to check, and it looks like they are both Edgewell products. I wonder if they are just re-branded Wilkinson's and come off the same production line.

I am sure they are the same, along with the China market Schick.

 

[catchacoolbreeze]

@helicopter - I am wondering if your blade testing results corresponds equally to your experience using these blades shaving? The reason I ask is that I have been on a hunt for the best blade/blades for me and doing my own testing. Though the testing is subjective is fairly standardized.

For the past year+ I've used my Karve Overlander. 2 days between shaves, fresh blade, 3 pass shave (wtg, atg, atg). Most blades don't make it even past the first atg pass. One blade (Tatra) couldn't make it past just 2 strokes wtg. A Treet Classic plows through all three passes but with a Vokshod, I feel tugging almost immediately on the second pass. The Vokshod, on your chart is ranked sharper. Any reason you think this might be?

 

[helicopter]

This is Sotraco's Lord Super Chrome Super Stainless blade in a white tuck of five. I previously tested another Lord Super Chrome in a blue tuck of ten blades. It comes in a cardboard tuck with an anti-counterfeit hologram, and printed plasticized paper. It is fairly dull, with poor durability and consistency. The blue one I tested was much sharper. When I measured this blade, the first three had dead spots on the bottom edge when new, so this one is the fourth one. With this manufacturer, it doesn't surprise me.

It has a crude and sloppy three stage grind with coarse and uneven scratches and uneven transitions. You can see the metallic and PTFE coatings. In the second photo, we see the failure mode of the steel was dramatic large chipping.

It is sort of similar to the Lord Extra SS blue blade and Lord Classic SS green blade in performance. Unless you are participating in Shark week, I don't recommend any blades from this manufacturer. I don't think they have their processes under control. They do make some good inexpensive razors, though, like the Cool Click, L5, L6, and Sh.25.

Date	5-Jan-2025			Blade Thickness, mm	0.100
Blade	Sotraco	Lord	Super Chrome W5	Egypt	9-Jul-2022
Wear on Edge	0	3	6	9	12
Edges Measured	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top	Bottom / Top
Measurement Medium	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21	Stren 4 .21
Dulling Substrate	New	Paper	Paper	Paper	Paper
Measurements	20	20	20	20	20
Adj. Std. Dev.	11	26	28	31	27
Median F (g)	61.5	59	74	72	86.5
Mean F (g) Top	64	65	82	74	87
Mean F (g) Bottom	61	69	79	86	90
Mean F (g)	63	67	81	80	88
BESS Adj. Factor	1.39	1.39	1.39	1.39	1.39
Avg. Adj. F (g) Top	89	90	115	103	121
Avg. Adj. F (g) Bottom	85	96	110	120	125
Median Adj. F (g)	86	82	103	100	120
Mean Adj. F (g)	87	93	112	112	123

Blade Sharpness Test Index

 

[helicopter]

@helicopter - I am wondering if your blade testing results corresponds equally to your experience using these blades shaving? The reason I ask is that I have been on a hunt for the best blade/blades for me and doing my own testing. Though the testing is subjective is fairly standardized.

For the past year+ I've used my Karve Overlander. 2 days between shaves, fresh blade, 3 pass shave (wtg, atg, atg). Most blades don't make it even past the first atg pass. One blade (Tatra) couldn't make it past just 2 strokes wtg. A Treet Classic plows through all three passes but with a Vokshod, I feel tugging almost immediately on the second pass. The Vokshod, on your chart is ranked sharper. Any reason you think this might be?

I can think of possible reasons your Treet Classic tuggs less than your Voskhod on the second pass. Batch variation is one possibility. Treet has a fairly clean grind categorization, so I doubt you got sharp Treet Classics, but you may have gotten dull or damaged Voskhods. It could be your beard, if it is exceptionally hard on blades, is damaging the Voskhod in the first pass. It could be the coatings are behaving differently with your face and software. The thicker and tougher edge of the Treet blade may just behave better, being less flexible at the apex. I wonder if you would have a different impression using a razor with less gap and exposure. I don't think your experience with these two blades is typical, but I don't find it too surprising either. There are a lot of factors that affect sharpness of two individual blades, and there are several factors other than sharpness that might be effecting how the blades feel when you shave with them.

 

[Dimitri]

...It could be the coatings are behaving differently with your face and software...

I'm of the opinion that the coatings play a big role. My understanding is that all DE blades, with the exception of the carbon steel ones, have had a Teflon/PTFE coating on them since the '60's. That said, I think the thickness and quality of the coatings vary from one manufacturer to the next. Bic CP's feel very smooth to me, as do the German Wilkinsons. Feathers feel slightly less smooth, and in some razors feel abrasive. Ditto for the current production Personna CC's. The Energizer era Personnas felt smooth to me. On the Bics and Wilkinsons, I feel like the PTFE coating is on the thicker side as those blades, to my eye, have a slightly darker tinge to them.