Merkur blade review? Anyone??

Slickster514 · Post by **Slickster514** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:53 am

Has the good old Merkur blade ever been reviewed by Squire or anyone else on this board? Can't seem to locate anything.

fallingwickets · Post by **fallingwickets** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:07 am

search must be malfunctioning for the reviews and opinions about merkur could probably fill a bucket or two

clive

if you want to cut to the chase and make a long story short, merkur is the best blade ever manufactured

Tye · Post by **Tye** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:12 am

fallingwickets wrote:search must be malfunctioning for the reviews and opinions about merkur could probably fill a bucket or two

clive

if you want to cut to the chase and make a long story short, merkur is the best blade ever manufactured

Other than the Swedish Gillettes of course.... $\:D/$

-Tye

iancevans · Post by **iancevans** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:12 am

it was the best of blades, and the worst of blades...

Slickster514 · Post by **Slickster514** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:16 am

Come on, seriously.......

Tye · Post by **Tye** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:30 am

Blade reviews are subjective just like anything else in this little OCD we have all acquired. Personally, I find Merkur blades tough sledding. I think they aren't real smooth and I am more prone to irritation when I have used them than I am to others blades. Clive on the other hand really likes them and thinks they are grande. It's all a matter of choice. Get a pack and review them for yourself. Don't go by what some other guy says is the be all, end all.

-Tye

gsgo · Post by **gsgo** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:37 am

There seem to be lots of mixed reviews on the Merkur Super Platinum.

I find it to be a good blade and have had no trouble using it, fairly smooth and sharp and I would easily get up to 5 shaves from a single blade. It prices out around $0.45 a blade so some consider it on the expensive side and in some pretty lofty company with Feathers and Gillette 7'oclocks.

I think it's a blade that one needs to buy and try for oneself as everyone's opinion will vary.

fallingwickets · Post by **fallingwickets** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:42 am

there have been so many reviews and opinion polls about merkurs that I find it hard to believe you cant find a few threads to wade through. Its one of those blades gents either love or hate....no real middle ground with merkur. As Tye says, buy a few and see for yourself. Its the only way you'll ever know for sure. if you dont like them, I'll use them

clive

CK · Post by CK » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:48 am

they are the only blades that don't irritate my face. expensive though

KAV · Post by **KAV** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:09 am

I recently returned to DE safety razors via a Merkur HD and platinum blades. And being ignorant until I logged onto this forum with THUS SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA playing in the background, my 'shaving creme' was a can of Barbasol from the $1 store I had been using with disposables.
My first attempt left crop circles. Honing my preparations gave some improvement. Then my package with a decent brush and cake of Trumper's rose arrived. I created a wet foam that put Julia Child's merangues to shame. My Merkurs skated like Sonja Hennie leaving a smooth face I last saw the summer before my first whisker appeared.
You have to have a modicum of quality in EVERYTHING before you can find SUPERIOR in one item.
I'm trying other blades, it's part of this routine turned recreation.

marsos52 · Post by **marsos52** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:42 am

squire wont do a review on merkur blades... for a few reasons but mostly because he feels they are jobbed out

all i can say and have said many times before, for me they shave me great and i have been using them since the 1970's. and they have not ever changed..

it is not the smoothest blade but its comfortable to me and shaves me to bbs everytime with any razor i choose to use

the only other blades i can say the same thing about is the vintage gillettes

also the merks get a bad wrap here. but there was a time when most liked them. that changed as import blades came availble

there are a few import blades that are good but for me not anywhere
as good as a merkur

they get shot down here but many vendors tell me they sell more merkurs than the others they have for offer

try it you may like it

marc

Seamaster · Post by **Seamaster** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 12:19 pm

I suspect the overwhelming majority among those who have tried them could review Merkur blades in one word.

jpkunst · Post by **jpkunst** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 12:33 pm

marsos52 wrote:squire wont do a review on merkur blades... for a few reasons but mostly because he feels they are jobbed out

I don't know what "they are jobbed out" means. Can anyone enlighten me?

Thanks.

Tye · Post by **Tye** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:20 pm

jpkunst wrote:
marsos52 wrote:squire wont do a review on merkur blades... for a few reasons but mostly because he feels they are jobbed out
I don't know what "they are jobbed out" means. Can anyone enlighten me?

Thanks.

I believe in this case it means that the blades are made by someone other than Merkur.

-Tye

marsos52 · Post by **marsos52** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:30 pm

exactly

but they maybe and maybe not. if they were i would have to think the blade would not be consistent. and for all the years have had been using them they never changed

marc

KAV · Post by **KAV** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:47 pm

Jobbed out doesn't automatically imply junked out.
'THE AMERICAN LEGEND' Harley Davidson is assembled from virtually 100% imported parts.
The fine swedish knife company Fallkniven produces all of their blades in Japan, where technology for their chosen metallurgy is.
I feel a cultural comfort and conceit knowing my MERKURS ae forged by some Wagnerian dwarf who also forged Siegfried's sword.
If they are instead hammered out in Nepal by kamis and passed as Duetschand Uber Alles with a hidden markup I might take pause.

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:55 pm

Squire won't review them because he believes that not only does Merkur not make them, or not make many of them, but that they are jobbed out to different companies and so, any review he might do would only be pertinent to that particular lot....from whatever company it happened to be made by. Marc, of course, disagrees. As a long time user of them he insists that they seem to have remained consistant. Merkurs were most members 'blade of choice' when the older shave forums started up because; a) most members were very new to this, and Merkur was the blade that their vendor sold/recommended, and b) because the good blades that had been available in the US for decades had largely disappeared by then, and other options were not known, nor easily available. Personally, I used mostly Wilkinsons since the '60s. Tried Merkurs a few different times and didn't much like them...they seemed less sharp and rougher. I did find that they seemed to work better in the Merkur razors than they did in the Gillettes, but the vintage Gillette razors were what I used.
Regards,
Gordon

Slickster514 · Post by **Slickster514** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 4:08 pm

Well, thanks for the comments. I'm currently using using them now, and I will review them when I feel ready, which shouldn't be too long

Like many other have said, it was the free blade that came with the razor, so there's almost an automatic bias formed when you self-butcher your face on your very 1st few DE shaves. However now, for me, two years later......stay tuned.

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 7:32 pm

I do hope you are not using the blade that came IN the razor. That is NEVER a good idea regardless of the brand.
Regards,
Gordon

spinyeel · Post by **spinyeel** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:31 am

I've found them pretty decent,but they are over priced. Can't see how they got such a bad reputation really.