razor blades, all science-like

on the advice of The Internets, I ordered a razor blade sampler pack from here. I also ordered a new brush and some shaving cream, and the guy was nice enough to throw in a free shave soap and a book on shaving which I read the other night while drinking rye, blogging, and listening to my headphone amp. it was like a hobby circus.

anyhow, the new brush is really nice (technically i got two new brushes but only one of them from that guy. from him i got an Omega (Italian, of course!) brush, which so far is by far my favorite of the three (technically 4) brushes that I now own) but it's with the blades that I am now getting all sciency. i'm taking notes each day with the goal being to find the perfect blade. according to the book which i read, the blade accounts for 70% of the goodness or badness of a shave, while the razor only counts for 30%. there's another 80% missing from that equation, imho, that deals with the cream/soap and the brush, but that's a different set of experiments.

so far, i've ruled out my longtime standby the Merkur Stainless. The first blade I tried blew it away: the Treet "no-name", which I think is what "they" call the Treet Blue Special, though I dunno why they call it that since it says no such thing either on the blade, the individual blade wrapper, or the box of blades. The blade is kind of bluish, though. This particular one is made of Carbon Steel and is thus sharper than a stainless blade, but, in the second conclusion I've drawn from my study, is only good for one shave. Maybe two but that's pushing it.

The price for 100 Blue Specials is under twelve bucks, so I could easily buy a year's supply of single-users without breaking the bank.

Fortunately for me, I have other hobbies, too.