Thread: Just purchased a safety razor ? On blades

Hi all I just purchased a safety Razor from geo fatboy
for those times that I have to rush. Are there differences in the
quality of blades? Can you buy them in a hardware store or only online?
thanks in advance for all of your help. When I gain more experience hopefully I will be able to return the favor😉

well i would try a pharmacy before i tried the hardware store. wilkinson blades are readily available in most western countries. there are many other brands and you should contact your vendor and ask about a sampler pack. variety is the very spice of life and some blades work better with different faces. not an expert on DE as i use them when traveling and did not make arrangements for pre-shipping a straight.

jim

My advice is get a variety pack from one of the on-line vendors. Shave quality can vary wildly with the same razor as you change the blades. You need to find the best fit of blade-razor-you. Unless you live in a big city with a dedicated shave shop you will have little selection.

have a look on badger and blade.

cant believe i was said that they can bw very unfriendly

they will have links to us suppliers of blades. there will be representatives from some of the online stores there.


this will help you find a blade sample pack

i recomend to try astra greens
gilllete 7oClock yellow,green etc
and feathers

What razor did you purchase. All razor and blade combos are unique. It takes some experimenting to find the right combination for you. If this is your first DE, do not use any pressure pressing the razor to your face, you'll not like it. Lay it on the skin and guide it. The right combination of DE and blade will give you a very close comfortable shave. And just like a straight don't rush. DEs are not like cartridge razors at all! Good luck.

You did not list a location where in the World are you? That might help others guide you in the right direction to purchase blades locally. Try typing "double edge razor blades" in to you favorite search engine you should get a bunch of results, I was amazed when I did it. I am kind of lucky right now not being in a First World Country, DE blades are available at most markets and stores I have stopped at.

Pbsd,
Are you from Pittsburgh? South Dakota?

Do NOT go to the hardware store! I'm going to show some serious stupidity here, but I honestly did not know starting out that the razor blades you can buy at the hardware store were not compatible with Safety Razors. So don't go that route!

If you're in the US (or as I understand it, Canada or the UK) you can find Wilkinson Sword and Astra (I think it's astra...suddenly can't remember) blades at your local pharmacies/Wally-World. I'd really suggest you try these two options first until you can get good shaves with them. These will allow you to learn your technique and develop a baseline for comparing other blades. Once you feel confident with locally available blades, order in a sampler pack from any number of vendors online and compare to find the blades you like the best. If you do this first you'll waste good blades for lack of knowledge and confidence wet shaving, and you'll never know if that Feather you tried first was really crappy and too harsh, or you were just too much of a rookie to tell.

Happy Shaving!

Peace,
Jim

Originally Posted by BigJim

Do NOT go to the hardware store! I'm going to show some serious stupidity here, but I honestly did not know starting out that the razor blades you can buy at the hardware store were not compatible with Safety Razors. So don't go that route!

Happy Shaving!

Peace,
Jim

If you have a GEM or other brand of Single Edge Safety Razor, you can use hardware store SE blades in your razor.

Aloha,

Ed

If your in the states,PM and addy I will send some feathers,only DE blade you will ever need to buy.

Owning several GEM's the actual blades for them are considerably thinner than what you can pick up at the hardware store. I was strongly advised against using hardware blades, and after comparing the two I wouldn't want to use them, but to each his own I guess.

Jim