WetShaving
This is a community of enthusiasts, hobbyists and artisans who enjoy a traditional wet shave: brush, soap, and safety or straight razor. We are a part of the WetShaving community found on Reddit, Discord, and IRC.
New subscribers welcome!
Please visit our wiki, which is always and forever a work in progress.
🪒 Check out these alternative front-ends for this server:
https://gem.wetshaving.social/ - a nice modern interface
Our sister Mastodon instance is https://wetshaving.social/.
🪒 Track the uptime of our various services here:
https://uptime.selfhost.ing/status/wetshaving
🪒 Community Rules
Rule 1 - Behaviour and Etiquette
-
Be Respectful. Do not bully, flame, or harass others.
-
Malicious comments are not allowed but heated discussion and salty banter is okay.
-
Low effort replies and complaints about content will be removed.
Rule 2 - Content Guidelines
-
Mail Calls, Simple Questions, and SOTD posts belong in the recurring weekly threads.
-
Posts must have sufficient content to generate a meaningful discussion.
-
Images, links, or videos must include additional text that summarizes the topic.
Rule 3 - Reviews and Disclosure
-
Use [First Impressions] in the title if your experience with the product is limited.
-
Use the [Review] in the title if you can provide comprehensive details with enough familiarity to answer follow-up questions.
-
Disclose how the product being reviewed was acquired (e.g., PIF, loan, or purchase). If the product was provided to you directly by the maker or vendor free of charge or at a discount, you must disclose this fact even if the item will later be returned to the maker or vendor.
Rule 4 - Advertising
-
Vendors are to keep marketing within the biweekly Deals/New Products threads.
-
Non-vendors may post topics about products if it will foster a compelling discussion.
-
Do not solicit donations or share fundraisers without mod approval.
Rule 5 - Inappropriate Content
-
All NSFW/L content must request mod approval and be flaired appropriately.
-
Non-shaving related NSFW/L content is not allowed.
Rule 10 - Moderator Discretion
- The rules may not apply perfectly to every situation. The mods have final discretion.
view the rest of the comments
August 11th, 2025: Fresh blade
It was a good run with the marathon blade, but just because it was still usable and decent doesn't mean I should deny myself objectively better shaves. I really love these V12 blades. I also have a bunch of Zorrik which I find similarly smooth and efficient.
I heard that my favorite blade website https://razorbladesclub.com/ is going to stop selling to the USA because of tariffs. It's a shame. Maggard and other retailers certainly have some blades to choose from, but I've had fun over the past 4 years trying some weird ones, and have found some that I really like which I won't have easy access to anymore. On the other hand, I don't need any more blades!
What do you think varies in blade manufacture? Do you think there are only a few places that make them, and specifications vary? Does someone (perhaps Feather) control their whole process, including band-steel?
I don't have any insider insight to the blade industry other than what I've read in passing over the past few years. The most interesting one to me was when Personna (or rather, whoever owns the Personna brand, which is now something else) moved the manufacturing of their only DE shaving blade (Platinum Chrome) from Israel to Germany. The nomenclature changed from Isreali Red to German Blue (why people don't just call them Platinum Chrome is beyond me). It was interesting because the rep who came on the sub said 1) Platinum Chrome is Personna's only shaving blade, and 2) they physically moved the machine(s) from Israel to Germany.
#1 is interesting because of course there's also "Lab Blue" and "Med Prep" (note: I'm woefully out of date with the current branding/naming), but apparently they don't consider those to be general shaving blades and the marketing department ignores them. #2 was interesting because that seems like a lot of work, so obviously there must be relatively few of these specialized machines.
I do think there are only 1 or 2 manufacturers in each known country -- so Egypt might have 1 or 2, Germany might have 1 or 2, India, China, etc. The difference between each brand of blade has to be slight changes in the bevel grind, changes to the steel that's used, and probably some relatively major changes in coatings. The style of printing/packaging might change but I'm not sure if they even get printed/packaged in the same building or if they get sent off for that process. I'm sure it depends.
I'd like to know why certain blades like these V12's are so incredibly smooth feeling to me. They don't bother my skin at all, are very sharp, and whatever grind they have works great for my whiskers.
Yeah, I would think that there aren’t many actual producers of blades and that many blade companies are just having blades made and selling them. Perhaps grinding angle, coating type, and type of band-steel, can be specified to make a blade perform differently from others.
Trying out a variety of different razor blades from all over the world is indeed fun - thanks to RBC, I tried a lot of the known ones but also the more exotic ones like Gillette Minora, Winner, and almost the entire range of Lord (Egypt) and Treet (Pakistan). The latter were my first contact with a fully black DE blade called "Black Beauty". It was uncoated carbon steel, so it caught rust fairly quick but the shaves weren't bad while it lasted. Now I am inspired to dig into my blade drawer and find some exotic ones to try out for my shave later - I'm all set with blades, but sometimes a little bit of experimenting can spark tons of fun!