The Worst Blade in The World

[Pjotr]

As the title says, I'm embarking on a quest to find the worst blade in the world. Plenty of threads here and on other forums searching for the best blade around so it's time to delve in to the depths. Underlying this is my belief that there are no......really shockingly bad.......OMG this is going to rip my face off.....I had to replace it after one stroke......blades. At least I haven't come across any yet. So if you think you've got any suitable candidates flick'm through to me and I'll offer my face to the cause.

All I'll do is my standard three shaves with a blade using my trusted 7O'Clock bakelite razor and at the end conclude if or not I'd be happy to shave with it and basically if it in my opinion is a MUM (much of a muchness) blade or a BUM (bloody ugly mess) blade. I won't go in to the sharpness or smoothness because I find all that really hard to quantify.

To date I've had a commitment from RM and Mark to send me some of their floozies but in the interim Jug has come good with some Ladas and Personna Reds (the subject of a recent none too flattering review) and a Merkur blade. He also gave me some Gillette Plats but they're most definately no floozies but gratefully recieved nonetheless.

I'm starting off with the Ladas. How can something named after one of the most boring cars in the world possibly be anything but a BUM blade? We'll have to see. After that it's the Merkur. I've generally only heard bad reports about Merkurs.

 

[hunnymonster]

PM your address and next time I see some of the fabled silvered chipboard blades here I'll get some and send them. (Only one chain sells them and they don't have branches within 150km of me).

 

[SmallYetDeadly]

How commited are you PJ? $12 bucks for some wilks at coles etc :laugh:

 

[Pjotr]

PM your address and next time I see some of the fabled silvered chipboard blades here I'll get some and send them. (Only one chain sells them and they don't have branches within 150km of me).

Oh, that sounds like a rare blade to me. I'll PM.

 

[Pjotr]

How commited are you PJ? $12 bucks for some wilks at coles etc :laugh:

Are Wilkinson Swords that bad? It's got a picture of swords on the front. Surely this stands for rapier like sharpness and efficiency. No I'm not that commited, but if somebody's got one I would like to try it for sure.

 

[Pjotr]

Ladas

If you happen to be shopping in a high street in Moskow some time and come across a pack of Ladas DE blades you can be assured that they're not going to bite you. Had three very comfortable shaves out of a blade. No cuts, weepers etc. It's a MUM blade. I guess if I was a bit anal I could have said that they appeared to be hard work but I'm not sure if that was because I've never heard of them. And, I find if you know what you're doing you tend to compensate and adjust without even thinking about it. A bit more pressure, change the angle of the head a bit, do a few slant strokes etc.

Merkur is next. Most people slam Merkur blades. I've got a feeling this is so because they're available everywhere and they're pretty expensive. In blade world that's a no-no. You can only be expensive if you're rare and hence not everywhere. And it's this rather than shaving qualities what people are really commenting on or that predisposes them to find fault. I guess I'll see.

Wow, just opened Marks contribution to my cause. There must be at least fifteen different blades including some vintage out of production ones. Thanks! That's fantastic. I'm particularly intrigued by a blade with no markings on it other than a few arrows.

Gillette Super Silver Stainless Blades Dispenser
Blue Gillette New Improved
Gillette Super Stainless (box of two)
Gillette Super Nacet
Super Gillette Blue Blades
Asco SS
Bic
Astra SS
Treet Platinum
Voskhod (teflon)
Super Max SP
Lord Platinum
Lord SC
Lord SS
Super Max SS

If nothing else it's an excersize in stringing together different combinations of the words super, stainless, platinum and chrome. Which of these are potential BUMs, Mark?

 

[Mark1966]

Which of these are potential BUMs, Mark?

Glad they arrived safe and sound!

To be honest I'm not sure than any are BUMS - except for the one in the blue packet that looks like a Super Thin packet from memory - they were horrible.

The rest of the current production ones, on my recollection, were cheap and cheerful. Not without fans nor critics. The Chroma for example being either loved or hated from memory.

Can you post a pic when you do a review? With some of these it is hard to know what is what.

Enjoy!

 

[Pjotr]

.......Can you post a pic when you do a review? ........

I'll try (ten characters).

 

[Johnus]

I would have to say that the worst blade that I've used so far has been the Speciality blade that Merkur mades for its mustache razor. The small triangular shaped razors would be a great idea if the blades were any good!
These Merkur labeled blades don't make it through their 1st use!

 

[Pjotr]

Yes, I've got one of those. And would cut myself to shreds every time. I'm not sure if it's the blade or the design of the razor. I didn't let it hang around long enough for me to work that out properly. It's somewhere in the back of a drawer where it belongs. They're not cheap either! Thankfully I can trim around the edges with my ABC which can also bite you but at least I can put that down to operator error.

 

[glenos]

How many carts do you think we could deliver to PJ?

I've got a single blade BIC disposable kicking around somewhere.

 

[JugV2]

I've got a four pack of Fusion - the orange blades - somewhere that I have had for over two years.

 

[Pjotr]

You're both being silly.

I've got a horrible feeling I'm going to fail in my quest. I don't know how many times I've read people slamming Merkur blades.......couldn't even finish the first stroke.......the whole pack went straight in the bin....was putting plasters on my face for a week....etc......etc.

Just had a perfect shave with a Merkur blade. And based on how it went I strongly suspect it'll go for three absolutely no worries.

 

[Johnus]

Merkur does work well with hair removal creams. You leave the cream on your face until it finishes working and you scrap it off with the bare Merkur blade. Works every time and makes you look tuff doing it!!

 

[pedro083]

I have some jewel blades left from a very ill advised purchase these have to be right up there I also could pick some of the blades HM was talking about as they is one of those stores close to me.

 

[Pjotr]

Nothin' wrong with Merkur

I have some jewel blades left from a very ill advised purchase these have to be right up there I also could pick some of the blades HM was talking about as they is one of those stores close to me.

If they're potential BUMs I'm in! I'll PM.

As expected, couldn't find much wrong with the Merkur blade. On to the next which is a no name blade from Mark. Just has some arrows on the blade, plain white wrapper. I'll get some pics up.

 

[Pjotr]

No name blade

Just had a first shave with Marks no name blade. I'm still trying to get some decent camera action happening. It's got made in the USA written on it but that's it. Other than that just a few arrows which I'm sure have more to do with manufacturing than anything else. Not the sharpest but still got a good shave out of it. See how we go on the next two.

 

[Pjotr]

No name blade

Well it's not the best blade around. Had three shaves and wouldn't want to push it much further than that. Not that I normally do with any blade but this just felt like it wouldn't give much more. Still had three pretty good shaves out of it. Maybe I can call this one a little bit of a BUM. Unfortunately I don't even know what make it is so it's a pretty useless excersize. Next up is the Personna Red. I have absolutely no doubt it'll be a pretty good blade but it was the subject of a very bad review recently so that in theory makes it a potential candidate.

Talking of worst blades, send us your floozies folks. I've got loads of odds and end blades but most are pretty well known. I need some face shredders. Where are those Fakeidiums RM?

 

[Pjotr]

Personna Red

Had a great shave with the Personna Red. As good as any blade out there. I can't imagine it wouldn't last three shaves so I'm calling this a firm MUM blade. I like the packaging too. There's something strangely alluring about a razor blade in a blood red wrapper. After this I'm having an SE stint whilst waiting for some potential floozies to arrive.

 

[~Spyne~]

OK Pjotr, I have a clear winner for you...
Zorrik Super Stainless

Had one of these thrown in with my purchase (from a while ago) of some Perma-Sharp Supers. Finally had the lack of care (weekend) to try it and I have never experienced a worse blade. Absolutely, horrifically, stupendously dull.
First pass barely managed to mow down my 2.5 day growth in any way - just a continuum of tugging, pulling and downright unpleasantness.
Second pass I worked a little harder and managed to get my sides, cheeks and parts of my neck to something resembling a very rushed, poor 1st pass effort.
Now I very rarely go for a 3rd pass with any blade - 1x wtg and 1x xtg is usually (95% of the time) enough for me to get a very good shave. With this blade, I HAD to make a 3rd pass, so with trepidation I went in again. Now I must say that for all the dullness this blade exhibits, I didn't get nicks throughout the shave (though I was being super careful given all the tugging and skipping) or any offending irritation post-shave. 3rd pass down and I was able to do some xtg on this one, having to go back and do a few double-passes to get some hairs that the blade refused to cut.
Needless to say, once out of the shower the blade was removed from my razor and placed in the blade bin, never to be seen again.

Scores -
Price: 10/10 It was a freebie after all!
Smoothness: 7.5/10 Hard to score this one - I did get a small amount of heat while shaving, but that may be due to the tugging/skipping
Sharpness: 1/10 You could possibly cut butter with this blade....IF the butter had been zapped in the microwave for 30s beforehand
Overall: 2/10


This blade is now easily at the very bottom of the list for me, with the 7OC Greens sitting somewhere around 4/10 (pretty sharp, but highly irritable for me)