I tested some razor blades lately and here are my comments.
Merkur platinum are basic blades which are dull IMHO and sometimes one side is sharper than the other.
The Nacet blades are cheap Gillete-style blades which are good if you can find them for really cheap. Nothing special though…
The Filkinson white label blades were so bad that I didn’t want to complete the shave with them.
The Feather blades are infamous for their sharpness. They are sharp but not as sharp as I thought. They are good blades for a very good price.
The best in my list so far are the Bic razor blades made by Astor in Greece (where I live). I really didn’t expect that!!! They are sharp and provide a comfortable shave for a very low price (.25 cents per blade in my local super market 
). They also last longer than all the other blades I tried (5-7 shaves).
So far the best blades were the Feather and the BICs. If you can’t find the Astor made BICs try the Feather. I am also going to try the Swedish Gillette blades.
continued…
March 29th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Personnas made in Israel are much sought after.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:01 am
A razor blade has to be sharp to start with or all of the Badger Brushes, Gel Creams, etc. will do no one any good.
Has anyone looked at the edge of various maker’s double edge blades under a 10 power magnifying glass, or, better yet, a microscope, to see if they can see a difference in the blade edges?
I looked at a Schick and a Merkur under a 10X glass. The Merkur has a rough edge. The Schick has a much smoother edge.
I checked this out after using one of each blade. The Schick gave me 25 good shaves before it started pulling,
The Merkur blade gave me a worse (it pulled more) shave on the first shave than the Schick did after 25 shaves.
I used to get 60 good shaves out of the Gillette Blue Blade. Now I am doing good to get 30 out of stainless steel, platinum, etc.
Seems the blade makers are just not putting as good of an edge on their blades just so they will get duller faster.
I have not tried the Feather Blades yet, but have ordered some, as they have a reputation for sharpness.
A person should be able to tell just how long, comparatively, a blade will last just by looking at its edge under a microscope.
The whole thing seems to be a “sting” operation though, as sharp blades could go out for weeks and then the makers of these blades start sending out less sharp ones.
It does seem near miraculous to me that in a century no one has come up with a way to sharpen and strop these double edge blades.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:23 am
“It does seem near miraculous to me that in a century no one has come up with a way to sharpen and strop these double edge blades.”
Sharpening a DE blade would be like trying to wash and reuse a cotton ball — yeah, I guess it could be done, but why? They’re both cheap, disposable commodities that aren’t built to hold up to renovation.
Run the numbers and you’ll see what I mean. You mentioned that your 25-cent Bic blades are good for 5-7 shaves. Let’s say 5 for ease of calculation, since that yields 5 cents per shave.
Assuming 365 shaves a year, you’re talking about a total blade budget of $18.25 annually.
Even if you could double the life of a DE blade by stropping or sharpening it, would it be worthwhile to spend the necessary time and money in order to save nine bucks a year?
July 29th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I started researching the DE blades because I really needed a better shave that would not irritate my skin a lot.
Money was not the problem Matt.
After a lot of research and experimentation I believe that a good Merkur razor couple with Sweedish Gilletes are the best combination evailable.
(and don’t forget the shaving cream!)