Merkur blade review? Anyone??
- Slickster514
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:50 am
- Location: Montreal (Canada) / London (UK) - hopefully soon
Merkur blade review? Anyone??
Has the good old Merkur blade ever been reviewed by Squire or anyone else on this board? Can't seem to locate anything.
- fallingwickets
- Clive the Thumb
- Posts: 8813
- Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 11:59 am
Other than the Swedish Gillettes of course....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
-Tye
Contributing Member to the Cause
- Slickster514
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:50 am
- Location: Montreal (Canada) / London (UK) - hopefully soon
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
-Tye
Contributing Member to the Cause
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.
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.
Good shaving,
Gary
Gary
- fallingwickets
- Clive the Thumb
- Posts: 8813
- Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 11:59 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
clive
de gustibus non est disputandum
- KAV
- Posts: 2607
- Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 6:57 pm
- Location: California, just above L.A. between the Reagan Library and Barbra Streisand's beach house
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.
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.
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
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
I believe in this case it means that the blades are made by someone other than Merkur.jpkunst wrote:I don't know what "they are jobbed out" means. Can anyone enlighten me?marsos52 wrote:squire wont do a review on merkur blades... for a few reasons but mostly because he feels they are jobbed out
Thanks.
-Tye
Contributing Member to the Cause
- KAV
- Posts: 2607
- Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 6:57 pm
- Location: California, just above L.A. between the Reagan Library and Barbra Streisand's beach house
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.
'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.
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- Duke of Silvertip!
- Posts: 27393
- Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2005 1:02 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
Regards,
Gordon
- Slickster514
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:50 am
- Location: Montreal (Canada) / London (UK) - hopefully soon
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.
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.
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- Duke of Silvertip!
- Posts: 27393
- Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2005 1:02 pm