Blind Blade Test Results

First: My sincere thanks to all the members who took part in the test. I know how hard it is to stick to one razor/blade setup for a week, and can’t imagine how hard it must have been for you all to stick to one setup for weeks on end.

Why do the test?

The design of the test.

But you said 10 blades? I count nine!

1) Sharpness (1-5)

2) Smoothness (1-5)

3) Closeness of shave (1-5)

4) Comfort (1-5)

5) Pleasure of shave (1-5)

6) Weepers (1-5) (1 would be lots of nicks, 5 would be none)

7) Tugging (1-5) (1 would be lots of tugging, 5 would be no discernible tugging)

Overall shave impression (1-5)

David Cardenal - Merkur Progress

SharpSpine - Merkur 39C

Mike Perry - Weber DLC

Member (name withheld by me - DNF) - Hoffritz Slant

Member 2 (name withheld by me - DNF) - EJ89

C. McMartin - Weber DLC

William Moore - Gillette Slim on 9

Nickedandcut - Gillette SS flare-tip

Ridgerunner - DNF (extenuating circumstances)

Azarius - Gillette Slim adjustable on 9

Analysis

If someone whose really a statistician disagrees with me on this, please feel free to use the raw data to do a statistical analysis of the blades.

------------I’ve often wondered how much of our individual appreciation for blades comes from knowing ahead of time what we should expect. Feathers will be sharp, but harsh and short-lived, Red IPs will be smooth, but not super-sharp. Things like that.I wondered what would be the results if people didn’t know which blades they were using.------------Ten people volunteered to try ten blades for three shaves each. They kept the razor the same and perhaps used the same soap/brush as well (that wasn’t insisted on).The blades were numbered, and each guy’s wife/girlfriend/SO put the blades in the razor for them, so the participants themselves did not know what blades they were using.Blades were chosen to be current-production blades (no discontinued ones). I used Squire’s blade reviews as a template to pick the blades. Blades were chosen from across the range of available blades.Here are the blades used, along with their Squire score from SMF (8 is the highest):Feather - 8.0Red IP - 6.25Bic - 6.75Shark Super Chrome - 6.85Gillette Yellow - 7.5Astra SP - 6.25Gillette Black - 6.75Dorco 301 - 6.75Turkish Permasharps (no score, but included because they’re pretty good)Just for orientation, Squire doesn’t score blades below 6 (except in one case), so a 6.25 is pretty bad, while 8 is great.--------------------Yes, I doubled one blade for each person, as an internal standard of reproducibility. Participants were not told about the doubled blade. Evil of me!--------------------People sent me reports daily (for the most part).The blades were evaluated on a numbered scale - 1 through 5, with 1 always being the worst score, and 5 always being the best. People were told not to stick with blades that were too bad to shave with.-----------------Raw Data follows:Here's his description of his hair/skin type: "As for beard type, I would say my beard is sparse, but quite coarse on the chin and upper lip. As far as skin being sensitive, I couldn't say. I've never had another skin to compare it to..."David scored all the blades pretty high - probably due to his sparser beard not being super-sensitive to blade brand. His score for the (Repeated) Red IP was not consistent, but the second IP was scored highest.Here's how he describes his beard: "coarse and thick beard; capillaries close to the skin so prone to weepers easily; not really sensitive skin but there are some things that bother me like alum (creates a rash); traditional shaver for 13 months"He was the toughest on the blades (or they were on him, depending on your point of view). He mentioned to me that he usually used SE razors. Pretty much every blade in this test cut him up. He's certainly an outlier, but I kept his data in the test as it serves as a warming to people that not everyone can use DE razors - sometimes you need to look elsewhere. The Red IP was the only blade that gave him a reasonable shave......and that may only have been comparatively good."Red (very curly) hair, pale skin, freckles and "sensitive" skin(especially lower neck area).Beard hair is like thin wire and I'd say growth density is definitelyon the dense side of the scale."Again, there's some variation in the rating of the blades. The first Red IP was retired, but the second was rated highest. Apart from the Shark, Bic and Dorco blades, every blade did fine.Not much to say here. Not much data."Beard Type - Who knows? I can grow a full beard in 7 days.Experience - 35 years of DE and Straight shaving with soap and brush.Have only grown a beard once in the 80's. Never had facial hair since. Ishave daily with about one skipped day every 3 months. I use a lot ofJ-hooking and sliding when I shave"From the small dataset here, it seems that most blades will work for this member, with the Gillette Black looking the best.Chris was very consistent in his scoring, and it looks like Astra SP, Feather and Permasharp blades work best for him. The Bics were a certain no-go."I have been wet shaving since April of this year. I would say my skin type is average, not really sensitive but I can cut myself if I get careless. My beard is coarse and thick around my chin and under my neck. The beard on my cheeks and mustache is not as thick as it is on my chin but the hair is coarse. I am and will be using a 1968 Slim Gillette Adjustable (N4) (set on 9), I have been using this razor for the last month & I like it. It has given me the best shaves I've had so far."William also liked most of the blades. The Permasharps looked good first time around, but not the second. Other than that, most of the blades seem to have worked for him.Bics and Dorcos didn't work for him, but otherwise, most of the blades rated about the same.William seems to have liked the Red IPs, Feathers and Permasharps. He wasn't able to finish the test, unfortunately.Arley has a goatee - just for the record.Arley didn't like the Bic and Dorco at all. However, the Red IP was retired the first time and scored 5's the second time. Otherwise, he liked most of the blades.Analysis will follow in future posts.First, let's look at the limitations of the test itself.1) No blade longevity.This is something several people asked about, when I started setting up this test. It is a factor that people regularly use to decide which blades to buy, but it just wasn't possible to ask each person to use each blade until they couldn't use it anymore. I had a lot of trouble filling up the 10 slots for this test, and I would probably never have got any volunteers if the test went on any longer.NOTE: For a future blade test, I've considered sending one blade per person and asking them to use them to failure.2) No reproducibilityAgain, due to the constraints of having people limited to unknown blades and a single razor for so long, it was not possible to have a true test of reproducibility. One blade was doubled for each person, and we do see some variability in the ratings.3) Blade choicesNot every blade that's currently available was chosen for the test. Since the blades were chosen by me, according to my own perception of what each blade would score, the test was biased on that basis.4) No consistent setupIt's not possible to get a 'standard' face and facial hair, of course (though Gillette may believe that it is possible). However, I could have insisted on one single razor setup and one prep. In that case, this test would never have got off the ground.-------------------------Finally: the main problem with this test is that it's too small a sample set. Not enough data.I started to do a statistical analysis of each blade for each shave, and combinations, of course.....then realised that the data was just too grainy to come up with anything other than general trends, which are immediately obvious on looking at the data itself.However, some things pop out at you immediately:1) Retired blades (blades that didn't make three shaves):Dorco = 5Bic = 4Red IP = 2Shark = 2Yellow Gillette, Black Gillette, Permasharp, Feather = 1 (all Sharpspine).Ignoring the single retirees, the Dorcos and Bics failed the most. In fact, they were retired by half or more of the people who use them - that's a pretty clear indictment of these blades. They also consistently scored the lowest, and are deemed sub-par blades (from this test).Interestingly, while Brian retired most blades, he never retired the Red IP's (he used two). Perhaps that points out that, for him, smoothness is more important than sharpness. Just a thought.2) Feather bladesThese continue to be controversial. Some of the data shows that these blades are harsh for the first shave, but improve after that. However, the data also shows a trend for the blades to die out after two shaves.3) Consistently good bladesMost people liked the Permasharps, Gillette Blacks and Red IP's. There was some variation in the Red IP score, when it was doubled, but not so much for the Permasharps....indicating that the Permasharps may be more consistent.-------------------There's more information buried in the data. However, I don't want to over-analyze things from this small dataset.The beauty of the test is in the raw data. Peruse if for yourself and make up your own mind.Any discussion on the results are welcome, of course.