SMF

Thanks Alan!

Who's talking about blades! Did they mention the Personna Hospital Use? I hope so!

Back in October my aunt told me that she would give me for Christmas my annual shaving gear present, so I was able to take advantage of a couple of sales.

I bought DR Harris lavender soap at 10% off (along with some Gillette Thins, 7 O'Clock blues and Lord Platinums) from Connaught.

A few weeks later I bought a tub of Fitness soft soap for only $4.99 (along with some 7 O'Clock blacks, Crown blues and Big Ben blues) from ShoeBox.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this morning that the 7 O'Clock blacks came in packages of seven for the price of five. I had seen packages of six before, but not seven.

Sometimes those overstuffed packs are a means of introducing another blade. For instance a five pack of green labels with an additional two black labels.

This is sometimes announced on the pack in print large enough to read in the ad, so, it pays to click on the larger image before ordering.

Squire, I'm losing my mind, so my memory may be just flat out wrong, but as I recall in 2008 I bought a pack of five 7 O'Clock Indian greens, and it included a free Indian Wilkinson (clearly branded on the box).

I note that both your example and my example are Gillette products.

I have a new best friend today, and his name is Squire!

I received in the mail this afternoon some blades I hadn't tried before from Squire, including the Voskhod, the Ladas and the Tiger.

It was about time to shave, so I immediately took out a Voskhod and gave it a spin. The first pass was a little rough, as new blades often are, but the second pass was perfect!

I'm looking forward to seeing how these measure up over time.

Today I broke open the DR Harris lavender soap that I got for Christmas. This was the first time that I had tried a DR Harris product.

I used the same brush and the same amount of water that I have been using with Cella. I did not get a Santa Claus lather, but instead a thick and creamy soft paste. It worked quite well, and there was plenty of soap on my brush for my two passes.

I received in today's mail Personna Hospital Use blades from brothers/Gary. I'll plan to use one for my next blade, which may be Saturday.

Isn't it funny how there has been a recent spurt of new (to us) blades which are receiving high marks, such as the Voskhod, the Rapira Swedish Steel and the Personna Hospital Use?

I'm going to have to overhaul my blade hit parade.

Gary was also nice enough to share a few Personna HU blades with me ... I think I have 1 more shave left in my current Feather blade. Next up will be the Personna.

I used the first of Gary's Personna Hospital Use blades today.

The shave wasn't bad, but it wasn't comfortable either. With mild razors (the Weishi and currently the Super Speed), I haven't liked the Personnas, but this is the best of them by far.

However, when the shave was finished, darned if the results weren't excellent. I got a bbs shave with no need for an after shave balm (for which much of the credit I give to the DR Harris soap).

Because of the lack of comfort during the shave itself, I was going to list the Hospital Use in the second tier of my hit parade. But if this keeps up I'm going to have to put it in the top tier.

Speaking of the DR Harris, my face feels fine after the shave, but it doesn't feel like magic the way it does after I shave with Cella. But I've got no complaints about the Harris's performance.

Today I used another new-to-me blade which Squire had sent me, the Gillette Super Thin. Squire, what country is that from?

The shave was fairly uncomfortable, but the results were excellent.

Russell the only thing I can read on the box is the word Gillette.

LOL! I'll see if I can find anything on the web about it.

The writing does not appear to be Egyptian or Chinese, when the kids return my camera I'll post a photo.

Squire, the writing on the wrapper appears to me to be Indian. Would that be sanskrit?

More likely Hindi, as Sanksrit is no longer a spoken language.

- Murray

Murray, would the alphabet of neighboring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh appear similar?

GA, the main language in Pakistan is Urdu, which is closely related to Hindi but has assimilated a lot of Arabic vocabulary and uses the Arabic alphabet.

I'm pretty sure (but not absolutely certain ) that Bangladesh would speak Bengali and/or Hindi (Bangladesh, as I recall, means Bengali Homeland). Hindi and Bengali are modern Pakrits, languages related to the old Sanskrit much as Romance languages are related to Latin.

- Murray

Another blade Squire sent me was the Astra. It's been years since I've tried that one, and as you can see I've got it ranked fairly low on my hit parade (post of 10/11/09, p. 14).

I was curious to see how I felt about it with a couple of more years of experience under my belt, so I used it yesterday evening. And I nicked myself! First time in a long time I've done that. Not a big deal; a little kleenex and a couple of minutes took care of everything.

So the Astra won't be rising on my list!

One of my New Year's resolutions is to update my hit parade. I'll get it done before too long.

GA, which Astra blade did you try?

There is the old, highly rated Keramik, which has been discontinued, and there are two current Astras. I don't recall what they are called, but one comes in a green box (a "platinum" blade, I believe) and one comes in a blue box

- Murray