Blade Review: Personna Red (Platinum Chrome)

Nick the Knife

Nick the Knife

Krill Enabler
Grand Society
Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Location
Coffs Harbour, NSW
Ok.....I'd heard mixed feedback about these for sometime so was looking forward to giving them a try though didn't go in expecting they'd be an elite level blade or anything.

Personna-Scaled.jpg

Seems the report is that they're made in Israel and then packaged in Mexico. Come in the red cardboard pack of 5 blades and also the white plastic dispenser of 10 blades. These are one of the blades most often recommended to folks new to DE shaving so I wonder how they actually perform?

Sharpness of Blade/Closeness of shave: 5/10, UGH! These felt like one of the bluntest blades I've ever had the misfortune to use. They had no interest at all in cutting the hairs instead wanted to bounce over them or tug at them painfully. Tried 2 different razors (SLim@5 and Adams OC) and both were equally horrible. Not a sharp blade at all.

Smoothness of Shave/Comfort of Shave: 6/10, I find it very hard to give a smoothness rating when then blade is so blunt as you end up feeling rubbish regardless. That said I could sense this was perhaps the blades forte but still if its not cutting I really don't care if its as smooth as ice on ice!

Post-shave irritation/cuts: Nothing tangible but my face was irritated from where the razor tugged badly. It just made for a very unpleasant shave and I actually had to hold back from binning it on the very first usage!

Overall score for blade 6/10, and thats a very generous score.

Comments: Not a blade for me, and I am very surprised these are recommended so widely. They're not sharp, and for a blade thats a fatal flaw IMHO. Perhaps I got a bad blade, in which case I'll redo the scores in time (in no rush to use again!).

The ONLY note I will make is that for me these blades felt best when I turned the Slim down to 3. Then they didn't tug so much and still had a nice smoothness to them.....I get the feeling that they're NOT good in aggressive/big blade gap razors as they're just not as sharp as a lot of other blades but if you use them in something MILD (tech, flaretip SS, EJ) they could do reasonably well.

That said I've no idea how these could be recommended over something like an Astra SP, which is much sharper and 99% as smooth - hence the perfect new user blade.
 
Nice review Nick.

Had the exact same experience the first/last time I used it.

Couldn't finish the shave!
 
Lynchy said:
Nice review Nick.

Had the exact same experience the first/last time I used it.

Couldn't finish the shave!
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Thanks mate, well I'm relieved to know that someone's had the same experience as I know another few really like these. I first tried it in the Adams OC, which generally is VERY user friendly and it was a HORRIBLE shave...like toss away immediately material. But I thought - well maybe it just doesn't like the OC (even though I've never had this with anything else) so I tried in the slim and it was no better. @3 in the slim as a 2nd/3rd pass it was so-so but thats as good as it got. Right into the 'blade bin'.
 
I'm quite surprised.

I didn't find them to be as bad as what you have stated - of course, each to their own.

I didn't think they were terrible but I thought they were a quite reasonable blade, I like them and would not hesitate to use them.
 
I like them and use them regularly. Not the sharpest, certainly not dull, but a bit 'slower' to cut, and the chin doesn't get reduced as much til the 2nd pass goes through. But a blade that I can take all sorts of liberties with, in pressure, buffing and ATG if I feel like it, and it won't beat me up. I've used far worse.

It should be noted that this blade was completely unusable for me in any of the razors in the Vintage Shave-Off. Irritated the shit out of me.
 
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Pjotr said:
Send me a few. I'm about to embark on a search for the worst blade. RM and Mark are sending me a few of their floozies.
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Sorry I only got given two from RM.

I'll try the next one in my Slant but I do NOT have a good feeling about the results as thats a razor than NEEDS a sharp blade. Anyway wont try that prolly for several weeks as I've too many other promising blades to try and I really think this isn't going to be one that I like - I'd rather adjust my technique etc to a very sharp blade than have a very forgiving blade that I can use quite liberally....with blades I really feel the foremost quality by FAR that I seek is sharpness, everything else is very much secondary.

All this stated I'm a firm believer that blades change personality in different razors & I know Drubbing has a 34c......so is very conceivable that this works very well with the Reds.
 
JugV2 said:
PJ I've got stacks of the Reds if you want to try them?

Let me know.
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Yeah would love to. I seriously doubt they'll turn out to be floozies for me. To date I haven't encountered a blade I can't get a couple of good shaves out of.
 
Drubbing said:
...........It should be noted that this blade was completely unusable for me in any of the razors in the Vintage Shave-Off. Irritated the shit out of me.
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Wouldn't that be more as a result of the fact that you didn't really like the way any of them shaved?
 
Pjotr said:
Yeah would love to. I seriously doubt they'll turn out to be floozies for me. To date I haven't encountered a blade I can't get a couple of good shaves out of.
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I'm back at work next week so let me know when you want to drop by, I will have some for you. I'll see if I can find any other poo blades too.
 
If I recall correctly, I got my first actually reasonable wet-shave with a Red in the 34C. I got the impression then that they would be a better place for newbies to start than with a Merkur or Derby, because they were a little bit sharper and cut cleaner for me.

I've been reading a bit about corking blades, and it seems like there are two theories in mind. Corking a Feather or other sharp blade to blunt it and get a more comfortable first shave, and then corking Russian blades like Voskhod's or Rapira's to smooth out the burrs on the blade to lessen the drag and enhance smoothness. I don't know if there's any value in either of those approaches and I've never tried either, but maybe it's worth a try with these, Nick. You obviously shouldn't need to cork it to get a decent shave, but it's a good excuse to drink a bottle of wine and hey, maybe it turns this into a usable blade for people who don't like it. Maybe it doesn't, but if you're going to bin them anyway, nothin' to lose by experimenting.

I'm just interested to know if this is just a far-fetched B&B idea.
 
I think corking is B&B BS. I did try it when I wanted Feathers to work, as they were clearly the sharpest thing out there, but raped my skin. Corking made no difference at all. If anything, I think it's more likely to dull a blade prematurely.
 
Drubbing said:
I think corking is B&B BS.....
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That and "palming" is when I stopped reading the DE blade forums over at YKW. I was also almost exclusively shaving SE then so it wasn't a hard thing to do. I still have a peep just for a laugh and am gradually coming to the conclusion that nearly everything to do with DE blades is BS. The latest I've read is cryogenics. I thought that was wholly exclusive to audio equipment, which is firmly atop the summit of bullshit mountain.

It's only because I've accidently found a DE razor I really like that I'm looking in to DE blades again and from what I've experienced to date I'm convinced that the vast majority of wet shavers can get a great shave from the vast majority of available blades. I'm not saying that there aren't a few above or below average blades but I'm deeply suspiscious of the fact that what are considered above average blades are invariably out of production or really expensive or both and below average blades are always cheap or available everywhere or both.
 
Pjotr said:
I'm deeply suspiscious of the fact that what are considered above average blades are invariably out of production or really expensive or both and below average blades are always cheap or available everywhere or both.
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That sort of common sense will get you booted off forums. Trolling, that's what it is.
 
Hmmm, well I just ordered 100 of the suckers after recently having a shave with one I found down the bottom of my 'randoms' pile.
Must say, while it certainly didn't feel like the sharpest blade, it was very smooth with zero irritation. There was no tugging or skipping, just didn't mow down the stubble as efficiently as, say, a Feather.
Will see how we go once I take delivery and have a few more shaves.
 
Drubbing said:
I think corking is B&B BS. I did try it when I wanted Feathers to work, as they were clearly the sharpest thing out there, but raped my skin. Corking made no difference at all. If anything, I think it's more likely to dull a blade prematurely.
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That's good to know, but I'm still drinking the wine.

Pjotr said:
I'm convinced that the vast majority of wet shavers can get a great shave from the vast majority of available blades.
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I think you're right in terms of the result achieved, but I think it comes down to comfort for a lot of people. Lots of blades are similar in performance and the result they provide it would seem, but the ease and enjoyment of the shave is what mainly differentiates blades for me.

I'm hesitant to ask, but what's palming?
 
Mong. said:
......I'm hesitant to ask, but what's palming?
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Where you run the blade over the palm of your hand (sharp end backwards obviously) to remove any burrs etc. Chippies do it with chisel/plane blades after sharpening. It's a bit like stropping but without the leather strop.
 
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