I was given a few of these from @Mark1966 to try and to give me to review (Thanks!!!). I have been wanting to take one of these 2012 year blades for a drive for a very long time, but with a tough personal week, with my Dad getting a Quad bypass, made any shaves this week an after thought. So 5 days growth for those playing at home.
Took out the Omega 10005 Boar hair brush (which is still being broken in) and paired it with TOBS Sandlewood.
Packaging was nice, double wrapped which is always nice and the wax dots werent too bad on the one i opened tonight. Loaded a Gillette Black into the DE89 ready for the test drive.
Usual prep and into the shave. First pass WTG.....WOW smooth as silk. Had to check i loaded a blade as it was so smooth. No tugging, just speed across the face and loads of hair gone. Completed my first pass all WTG and i have to say this blade is very, very sharp but also super smooth.
Reapplied the lather and went XTG and again minimal effort for maximum cutting power. Finished off with XTG in the opposite direction. Had a quick splash of water on the face and was super surprised there was minimal touch ups needed.
I did have a small weeper on my chin, which isnt an unusual thing for my unfortunately.
The most impressive part was i have quite course hair and also super sensitive skin on my neck. Usually have some slight irritation no matter what i do. This blade had nothing, no redness or irritation at all. The alum bar confirmed this with the only sting being the chin nick. Ive never come across a blade that did this, so for me a massive tick
My previous top 3 blades in my DE89 were Voskhod, Perma Sharp and then the Astra/Merkur super (tied). This blade is now my fav, nothing comes close to the smoothness and also sharpness but also how forgiving it is for something so sharp. Feathers are definately the sharpest ive used but i find i tend to have lots of small nicks when i use them.
Longevity is yet to be seen but id day a 5 day growth on my with course hair will take a hit on this first blade i have used.
The feedback this blade gave through the razor was great, as well a great sound and lets you know your cutting angle is right or not.
Value ???
Packaging
Smoothnes
Sharpness
Longevity ???
Overall
and a halfAs a blade, i would by 100 of these 2012 if anyone was able to point me to where i could get these blades still. 4 and a half/5 for me which could change with pricing and longevity thrown in, but i cant see this blade ever being less than a 4 1/2 in my eyes. Just hope i can get my hands on some more
