The other day, I saw a commercial advertising that their blades cost only $2 a blade. Really?! For those of us who like good old saftey razors, even 50¢ is “pricey.” There are lots of choices out there, and you want something that just feels right on your face. The best way to do this is to get a sample pack, and try a bunch of blades to find the right one. Luckily, I’ve already done this so you don’t have to!

This can be a time-consuming process, and if you don’t want to bother with all that, you can take my word for it. Here’s the run-down, given my priorities, but you might not care about the same things as me, so make sure to check out all the blades.

Rankings

Time for the overall rankings (drum-roll, please)…

In order of preference from most to least, we have:

1. Personna Platinum
2. Goodline
3. Timor
4. King C. Gillette
5. Astra Superior Platinum
6. Merkur Super Platinum
7. Rapira
8. Rockwell
9. Lord Super
10. Wilkinson Sword Classic
11. Feather New Hi-Stainless
12. Bolzano Superinox

Astra Superior Platinum

Verdict	A- — fairly sharp, but extremely long lasting.
Durability	15–20 shaves.
Made In	Russia

If someone told me these blades were just repackaged versions of the King C. Gillette blades, I would 100% believe it. While not quite as fancy as the Gillette blades, they come at a much more affordable price — I can actually secure 100 of these for just $13 (2023 prices), which is approximately five times cheaper than the Gillette blades. Notably, you can’t just pick them up at a drug store, unlike the more expensive variety.

Like the Gillettes, these come gooed to the wrapping, which meant I had to open up the blades periodically to clean out hairs that were stuck to it.

These aren’t the very best in terms of sharpness or smoothness, but they are pretty solidly above most of the competition. Because of the low price, good sharpness, and amazing longevity, you really feel like you’re getting a great bargain with these blades. Considering all the comparison with King C. Gillette here, you can consider this a tie, but the fact that I can get those in a local store, coupled with the fact that I prefer to buy something like the Personna blades in bulk means the Gillette probably edges the Astra blades narrowly behind.

Bolzano Superinox

Verdict	F — do not buy this!
Durability	4–5 (???)
Made In	Egypt

Honestly, I could not possibly discern at what point this blade might become “dull” because it was so amazingly dull to begin with. This blade offered some of the worst shaves I’ve ever had. It was so bad, I just had to stop using it.

With this blade, you have two choices — either shave the same spots on your face… over… and over… and over again… or you can just press into your face really hard. Both options offer disaster in terms of razor burn and nicks that will last more than a day. If you attempt to use a light touch, the blade just kind of glides over half your hairs, removing the shaving cream from it.

I am deadly serious when I say that I want nothing to do with these blades. I don’t know what these cost, because I honestly can’t be bothered to look. Sorry. If anyone would like a package with 9 unused Bolzano Superinox blades, you can have mine. I’m out.

Feather New Hi-Stainless

Verdict	D — not nearly aggressive or durable enough.
Durability	4–5 shaves.
Made In	Japan

I’ll be honest, I really wanted to like this blade most of all. I’m glad I did not just jump straight to the 100 razor pack of these, though. I had high hopes for these because the marketing behind this plays on the pedigree of samurai swords (seriously) and medical-grade steel.

Unfortunately, what I found was a blade that was not nearly sharp enough for my tastes, and that didn’t stay sharp for very long. I found that I had to press a bit with this blade, which left me constantly and uncomfortably waiting for the blade to finally cut — into my skin.

One nice thing about these are the box they come in. If you don’t have a blade safe, they have a nifty little place in the box for discarded razors. Alas, the packaging is not all good. These are the goopiest razors I’ve encountered so far — there is a tremendous amount of some substance adhering the blades to the paraffin wrapper. This of course causes all your cut hairs to gum up the razor.

By the fourth of fifth pass across my face, my razor was starting to stick. There are certainly many blades that last more than five shaves. With a price point in the middle of the pack (2023: $4.00 for 10), there’s not much need to choose these blades, in my opinion.

Goodline

Verdict	A- — great blades, very novel packaging, but pricey!
Durability	15+ shaves.
Made In	Germany

The Goodline Double-Edge razor is actually a store-brand razor blade — it’s from CVS here in the USA. I chose to check it out not with the intention of using it every day (although that’s reasonable, too), but because it seems quite novel for travel, or if you’ve run out of your favorite branch that’s may not hang out in local convenience stores.

The packaging, while using a bit more material than some of the other plastic containers on the market, might contain a bit less plastic in it. Where it really stands out, however, is the handy press-and-slide mechanism, which keeps your fingers from getting harmed, and means that you don’t have to fumble over a little envelope to get at a new razor. Even better, because of the absent wax paper, these blades are not cursed with any goo, which is a personal annoyance of mine.

Beyond this, the razors are quite simply really great. Since they seem to be made in Germany, I partly wonder if they are made in the same factory as the Personna Platinum blades, which I have really enjoyed using. Like those, the Goodline blades last and last, and they do so with great smoothness and sharpness. The only real downside to these are that they cost — $7.59 will get you 10 blades (in 2023), which means you get about 20 blades with the same amount of cash that would get you 100 Personna Platinum blades.

Ultimately, I’d recommend these blades for any use — daily or away from home use — just be aware you can get really great blades for every day use for a much lower price.

King C. Gillette

Verdict	A- — pleasantly surprised!
Durability	15–20 shaves.
Made In	Russia

This blade surprised me a little, as I was expecting it to be somewhat average. It’s fairly expensive (2023: about $6.50 for 10), but is available in brick-and-mortar convenience stores — I got mine at CVS — which is nice, if you’re just looking to pick up a bunch of blades whenever you need them. It seems to be geared toward a bit of an upscale clientele, with its packaging and branding. The box of 10 comes in a fairly spacious (but cardboard, no plastic) box, and the Gillette website uses romanticized verbiage about “going back to their roots” (paraphrased), and so on.

The blade itself gave a reasonably smooth shave, and for a pretty long time. I honestly didn’t start feeling any dullness until about the 15th or 20th pass over my face. Despite being expensive, they may actually last a long time for just a 10 count package.

One annoying feature was that each blade is adhered to the individual wrapper, so that when you remove it, you are left with two tiny circles of adhesive on the bottom. This collects little beard hairs as you shave time and time again. It’s not a big problem, but it’s worth mentioning.

Gillette has outsourced all its blade manufacturing to St. Petersburg, Russia, which may be an issue for some in today’s geopolitical world of the Russia, Ukraine conflict. There was also some talk online about how they may just be the cheaper branded Gillette blades with fancier packaging — I can only find those blades online, though, so far.

Ultimately, though, these blades are expensive, but convenient. Middle-of-the-road sharpness, and pretty high durability means that I’d buy these again in a pinch.

Lord Super

Verdict	B — solid; a good middle-ground blade.
Durability	7–8 shaves.
Made In	Egypt

All I can say about this blade is that it does its job without complaints. It is neither breathtakingly sharp, not amazingly smooth, but it does trim your hairs, and it doesn’t slice up your face. It doesn’t last a month, but it lasts longer than a week. It’s not exciting, but it’s worth buying — and it has a good price point at around $1.50 for 10 (2023). You can get 200 of them for around $20! You could spend years without having to ever think about what razor blade you were going to use. Problem solved.

These blades also do not suffer from the “goo” that some of the other ones suffer from. They are simply placed in their wax paper wrapping, and you pull it out (clean) and drop it onto your razor. No sticking hairs, nothing.

I feel like these blades will not be too many people’s “favorite,” but they will work well for absolutely everybody. If you can’t decide what to buy, and see these, go for it.

Merkur Super Platinum

Verdict	B+ — Excelent shave; medium durability.
Durability	4–6 shaves.
Made In	Czech Republic

The Merkur Super Platinum blade shaves like you want a razor to shave. It sweeps over hairs in one pass, with very little pressure, and you are left with very little nicks or razor burn. I was looking forward to trying these blades out, and they did not disappoint. This is the “good.” What’s more is they contain basically no plastic, which was something I dinged my preferred razor blades for (e.g., Personna).

Where they fall a little short is in durability and cost effectiveness. Around the fourth or fifth shave, you could tell they were starting to get a little sticky around the thicker areas of facial hair. If they lasted longer, they would be one of the best blades I’ve tried, but alas, they didn’t. What makes this worse is that these are some of the most expensive blades I’ve tried. They don’t seem to be purchasable in bulk quantities, and so you’re left paying $8.00 for 10 (2023 prices). This is more than four times what I can secure a pack of Personna blades for, and they last half as long. It’s an 8× cost multiplier.

All told, these blades are very nice for a fancy occasion or something, but you certainly wouldn’t rely on them to be your daily shave. There are similarly performing blades for a fraction of the cost, or reasonably performing ones for even less. The general review comments I’ve seen for these are “too expensive,” and I tend to agree.

Personna Platinum

Verdict	A — Excels in every respect.
Durability	10–15 shaves.
Made In	Germany

Even taking this razor out of the package, it visibly looks sharp… and it is. This blade is a true favorite of mine. It is sharp enough that I never have to press into my skin to cut hairs. It is smooth enough that I rarely give myself any after-effects. It is among the top contenders in terms of durability. There’s not a lot of goop on the blade, which I personally dislike, as you may have noticed. Even the packaging is thoughtfully done with the little container for keeping spend blades. It’s made in Germany, so here in the USA, there’s little concern about supply.

If I had one bad thing to say about it, it would be the fancy package that I previously cited as a plus. It’s really the only bit of plastic in the entire product, and it would be really nice to be able to say it consists of nothing more than a little paper and some metal. This is very very minor, of course. If I had one thing I would personally change, that would be it.

I cannot say enough about this blade, and even the price point is pretty reasonable. I can get a 100 pack for just $18.00 (2023 prices), which is just 18 cents per blade! One of the knock against some other razors is that the price is nice, but you can’t get them in bulk, which I can with the Personna blades. So I will. These are my blade of choice.

Rapira

Verdict	B+ — very durable and a smooth shave.
Durability	15+ shaves.
Made In	Russia

I actually hadn’t heard much about this blade, and so I had almost no expectations when trying it out. I have come here to say that I was pleasantly surprised by it. It is definitely not the sharpest blade, but it’s sharp enough. What it is is a very smooth blade, and it seemingly never dulls. You can easily get shave number 15 with the same quality as shave number one.

This blade has some nice intangibles as well. If you’re looking for a blade that has very little plastic packaging, these come packaged entirely in paper wrapping. They have no perceptible amount of goo on the blade, unlike some others, that very little soap and hair build up happens after a number of shaves. In fact, you can even wipe the blade without having to be careful about putting goo on the edge of the blade.

This is a solid blade, and I recommend giving it a try. The only thing I’d wish for is a little more sharpness. The price for these, however, can’t be beat for such a respectable blade. You can get a 100 pack of these for $15 (in 2023 prices).

Rockwell

Verdict	B — durable and fairly sharp.
Durability	7–8 shaves.
Made In	Canada

This razor is worth a look. My main “complaint” is that I really can’t find this in a more bulk packaging. If you notice the photograph, it comes in a package of 5. I like the blade, but I don’t know if I’d personally spend a lot of time and energy seeking out a place to sell a set of 100.

What’s good about this razor is that it’s fairly sharp. I didn’t have to cover the same are of my face multiple times, for the most part, reducing razor burn. Even still, I didn’t leave with the impression they were super smooth. They did last an above average number of passes across my face, and at $1.00 (2023 prices) for 5, they’re not terribly expensive.

In the end, these blades are average in cost, above average in longevity, and made close to home in Canada. As a bonus, they are not adhered to the wrapper with goo, which I personally hate. You might find yourself a fan of them.

Timor

Verdict	A- — durable and very smooth.
Durability	10–15 shaves.
Made In	Germany

This is a damn fine razor blade. It’s reasonably sharp, and that sharpness lasts a pretty above-average amount of time before I notice any dullness. Where this blade really stands out, however, is how smooth it is. The first bunch of times I shaved — including one time where I was messing with (read: “failing with”) my lather — I didn’t nick myself, or have any razor burn whatsoever. Respect.

If I can say one thing bad about it, that would be that the packaging placed its goop in the exact wrong places. Unlike some blades that are gooped beyond recognition, this one only used a tiny amount, so hairs didn’t really get stuck into the razor too badly. The goo was on both sides, however, and it made it difficult to remove the blade from its wrapper. I actually had it fall onto the floor, just barely missing my foot.

As a plus, the packaging has that nice plastic case, where you can stash old blades if you don’t have a blade safe. This could also be counted against it, though, if you’re looking to avoid adding plastic to the world.

The blades look nice, feel smooth, are made in Germany (i.e., not subject to any possible shortages due to political intrigue, like the Russian-made blades), and (as of 2023) cost only $4.00 for 10 blades. I am able to get them in bulk packages of 100 or 200 blades, as well, which takes the price down to just $0.29 per blade. I can highly recommend these blades — you won’t go wrong buying them!

Wilkinson Sword Classic

Verdict	B — very smooth, generally average.
Durability	5–10 shaves.
Made In	UK

My thoughts on this blade is that it’s fairly average in most respects. I have no huge complaints to pick with it. It is average in terms of durability. It is average in terms of sharpness. It is above average in terms of smoothness, though.

Regarding the smoothness, Wilkinson Sword blades achieve this (supposedly) by adding a layer of Teflon to the blade. I am honestly not thrilled about this, as well as it seems to work, since Teflon is made with a “forever chemical,” called PFA, and it don’t really fancy the idea of something that may break the skin on my face also adding more of it to my bloodstream. For me, this is a deal breaker.

If you don’t care about this, they are reasonably priced (2023: usually less than $5.00 for 10), but not cheap. They are made in the UK, and the are pretty solid.