Hellas
Blade Whisperer
The best DE-Razor is useless if there is no blade in it 
Beginners are asking themselves, which blade to try. Well, the question is very easy to answer on the one hand, on the other hand not so easy to make a recommendation. When asked "which one should I try", the answer is simple: "anyone you can get", otherwise you might miss your later favorite blade. The question for a recommendation is much more difficult to answer, as nothing is as subjective as the feeling of a certain blade, especially since not every blade in every razor shaves the same. If a blade in one razor may shave fantastically gently and thoroughly, it can spoil the fun of shaving in another.
Inspired by and as homage to "Eugen Neter" and his "Kleine Klingenkunde" in a German Forum I would like to give a guide to blade testing to beginners, based on my collected notes from the first 5-6 years of my "DE-Razor-career”:
To the Razors: I tested all blades with the Mühle R89 and/or the identical Edwin Jagger and the Merkur Progress. Where enough blades were available, the blade went through almost all my existing razors at that time (Merkur Progress, R89, R41, Ibsen Slant, Globus CC, Rotbart Mond Extra 15, Gillette Adjustables, Romi Slant, Giesen + Forsthoff CC, Gillette Tech and a few others) which is then noted at the respective blade. There were also blades, which were - if possible - used up in terms of tool life, but I did not have the need to test them in other razors as well. I found that a blade that did not work in Progress and/or R89 was rarely useable in other planes.
Please take into account that my personal preference has changed over time. For example, in the beginning, I appreciated the Personna Platinum (Red) very much because of its softness and I probably used 50 blades of it. I still feel them softly, but not the most thorough (compared to other blades) and more than 3 shaves were not possible. On the other hand, the Feather gave me very smooth shaves in the beginning, but always at the price of a more aggressive shave with some irritations and I find it very dependent on the razor. So e.g. with the time earlier "favorite blades" have moved quite down, because others simply offer me more. I just want the ideal combination of very sharp (because hard beard), very gentle, very thorough and no irritations after shaving. The lifetime (how many shaves a blade holds) has never been the most important thing to me, but in my opinion, for blades with similar characteristics, the lifetime was only one shave longer, so that this blade is listed before the one with the shorter lifetime.
The following list is just a guide. I think, if you order Blade-sampler at the beginning - which I would always recommend to every beginner, instead of ordering 100 blades of one kind directly on suspicion - and in which sampler blades from the first 2-3 following leaves are included, I think the chances are very high that your later favorite blade is also included. But I certainly don't rule out that you will like the blades that I find further down (e.g. the ultra-sharp Feather that other people like so much) much better than I do: As I said, nothing is as subjective about shaving as the blade and as ever YMMV
Have fun testing. I like to read your reports in the individual blade threads.
Beginners are asking themselves, which blade to try. Well, the question is very easy to answer on the one hand, on the other hand not so easy to make a recommendation. When asked "which one should I try", the answer is simple: "anyone you can get", otherwise you might miss your later favorite blade. The question for a recommendation is much more difficult to answer, as nothing is as subjective as the feeling of a certain blade, especially since not every blade in every razor shaves the same. If a blade in one razor may shave fantastically gently and thoroughly, it can spoil the fun of shaving in another.
Inspired by and as homage to "Eugen Neter" and his "Kleine Klingenkunde" in a German Forum I would like to give a guide to blade testing to beginners, based on my collected notes from the first 5-6 years of my "DE-Razor-career”:
To the Razors: I tested all blades with the Mühle R89 and/or the identical Edwin Jagger and the Merkur Progress. Where enough blades were available, the blade went through almost all my existing razors at that time (Merkur Progress, R89, R41, Ibsen Slant, Globus CC, Rotbart Mond Extra 15, Gillette Adjustables, Romi Slant, Giesen + Forsthoff CC, Gillette Tech and a few others) which is then noted at the respective blade. There were also blades, which were - if possible - used up in terms of tool life, but I did not have the need to test them in other razors as well. I found that a blade that did not work in Progress and/or R89 was rarely useable in other planes.
Please take into account that my personal preference has changed over time. For example, in the beginning, I appreciated the Personna Platinum (Red) very much because of its softness and I probably used 50 blades of it. I still feel them softly, but not the most thorough (compared to other blades) and more than 3 shaves were not possible. On the other hand, the Feather gave me very smooth shaves in the beginning, but always at the price of a more aggressive shave with some irritations and I find it very dependent on the razor. So e.g. with the time earlier "favorite blades" have moved quite down, because others simply offer me more. I just want the ideal combination of very sharp (because hard beard), very gentle, very thorough and no irritations after shaving. The lifetime (how many shaves a blade holds) has never been the most important thing to me, but in my opinion, for blades with similar characteristics, the lifetime was only one shave longer, so that this blade is listed before the one with the shorter lifetime.
The following list is just a guide. I think, if you order Blade-sampler at the beginning - which I would always recommend to every beginner, instead of ordering 100 blades of one kind directly on suspicion - and in which sampler blades from the first 2-3 following leaves are included, I think the chances are very high that your later favorite blade is also included. But I certainly don't rule out that you will like the blades that I find further down (e.g. the ultra-sharp Feather that other people like so much) much better than I do: As I said, nothing is as subjective about shaving as the blade and as ever YMMV
Have fun testing. I like to read your reports in the individual blade threads.
