Perma-Sharp DE Blade: My Experience Using Three Different Razors

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Russian Made Perma-Sharp Double Edge Blades.   They’re packaged in a cardboard tuck.  Each blade is wrapped in paper and contained in a DE Blade-sized paper envelope. I decided to test them by using three blades in three different razors that varied in aggressiveness.  Starting with the Dreadnought Spartan DE Razor, Merkur 37C Slant Bar, and finally the Muhle R41 Rosegold Razor.  

Tools of Choice for Trying Out the Perma-Sharp Blades

The Dreadnought Spartan is a pretty mild shaver.  So, for me, this was a good razor to start this experiment.   Using a single, WTG, pass on my head and a two, WTG/XTG, pass on the face I got two shaves from this first blade.  (Side note: I almost always conclude my head shaves with a polishing pass with a HeadBlade or CR1000). Both days I had about a day and a half to two days of stubble growth.  By the end of the second shave, I started to feel as if it were tugging a bit.  So I decided to blade bank it and not use it for a third.  For the first shave I used Soap Commander’s Vision shave soap and for the second I chose the Arko Shave Stick.  I did not use a preshave oil for either shave.  Despite a little tugging towards the end of my final shave, I did not have any irritation and I had a smooth post shave feel.   

Blades Were Individually Wrapped

Using the Merkur 37C was a bit different.  Like before I had about a day and a half of growth for each shave.  With the same single pass on the head and two pass on the face I got three shaves out of this blade.  However, while shaving with this blade for the third time it felt ok and started to wonder if I made a mistake ditching the blade after only two uses with the Spartan Razor.   Shortly after the third shave I used my RazoRock Alum stick and felt that the mistake was using the razor blade for the third time.   The skin on the sides of my head and above my lip felt pretty raw for a good part of the day.  As with the Dreadnought shave session, I used Soap Commander’s Vision for the first shave but switched it up to use The Strop Shoppe’s Solsetio shave soap for the second and third shaves. 

Gear for One of the Shaves with the Merkur 37C

The last shave in this experiment was with the Muhle R41 Rosegold razor.  As with the other shaves, I had about a day and a half to two days of stubble. While I really like the Muhle open tooth comb razor, I feel that it is probably one of the more aggressive razors that I’ve used. As with the first shave session, it felt as if were slightly tugging towards the end of the second shave.  I didn’t make the same mistake as I did with the 37C of trying for a third shave especially since it is a rather aggressive razor. 

Feeling Bay Rummy for one of the Muhle R41 Shaves

For the first shave I did not use a preshave oil and decided to go with Dr. Jon’s Anne Bonny Shave soap since I was in a bay rummy kind of mood.  I got a clean and smooth shave on the head and face.  Though, I did experience a tiny bit of irritation on the curves on the side of my head (I believe this is called the parietal ridge).  For the second shave I used Sir Hare’s Head Shaving oil for my gourd and Elvado for Men’s shave soap for the face.   I liked the shave I got when using just the shave oil. Considering this was the second shave with this blade I did not have the irritation as I did with the previous shave and felt the oil helped to contribute to that.  My face also felt smooth as well despite not having used preshave oil for my face shave.

All in all my experience with this blade was positive. I found that it wasn’t as sharp as a Feather but probably a hair (no pun intended) sharper than my normal Crystal DE Blades.  Considering that I had a rather nice shave with the Sir Hair Shave oil, I’d most likely use a pre-shave oil when using this razor blade; particularly when using a more aggressive razor. Though, I doubt I would use it after two of my shaves. Of course … as with all things wet shaving, Your Mileage May Vary. 

Have you tried the Perma-Sharp DE Blades?  Leave a comment below; let us know what your thoughts are.