So you’ve got a safety razor perhaps you’ve just bought one, maybe one of our suggested Merkur razors and you’re wondering which doubled edged razor blades to get, as you don’t want to fit your DE razor with any old doubled edged razor blades, you want the best double edged razor blades.
You know what? we don’t blame you, we’re the same, we want something high quality, something that will not only remove our facial hair with ease, but also last several shaves.
If you’re like us, you want the best, so what are the best double edged razor blades?
Now before we go through what we recommend, here’s a table of double edged razor blades that we feel are some of the best double edged razor blades on the market.
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The Basics of Double Edged Razors Aka DE Razors
So you’ve entered the world of wet shaving and decided that you want to shave with a doubled edged razor, well.. Welcome aboard!
We love double edge razors ourselves, so we want to tell you come interesting things about double edged razors and some helpful tips for choosing them and how to use them.
So what is a Double Edge razor?
A double edged razor is commonly known as a safety razor or DE razor.
Safety Razors use a single blade with two sharp edges, one on either side of the blade, hence they are named double edged razors and double edge razor blades.
Now don’t worry, you won’t be running a blade against your face without protection, safety razors have a guard which protects your face from nicks and cuts, though if you technique is wrong, the guard won’t help you.
This style of razor is the old school style, something your grandfather would have used, these were the norm back in those days, however they were safely shoved aside for the much touted “easier to use” disposable options.
Why Should you use a double edged razor?
There are many reasons, too many to go into in this blog post, but we’ll give you three of the main reasons that we can think of as reasons for using a safety razor.
They are affordable. The double edge razor blades mean the blades last twice as long in comparison to those new multi-blade cartridge razors.
The razors are slimmer than a cartridge razor allowing the razor to get into the nooks and crannies in your face and neck much better than the cartridge razor.
Finally, the closeness of the shave is something that just cannot be beaten by a disposable.
Your face will never be as smooth as when its been shaved by a safety razor, well perhaps the only thing that can beat it is having a shave done professionally.
But for something you can do yourself, well you’ll give a baby’s butt some competition for who’s the smoothest.
* don’t go testing your face against babies butts!
Tips for using your double edge razor
Here’s some quick and easy tips that we advise when using your new double edge razor, these will help prevent any nicks and also promote that close shave you’ve been looking for.
- No Pressure
You’re not trying to shave off layers of your skin!
If you do apply loads of pressure it really won’t be long before you’re tweeting something along the lines of #therewillbeblood.
All your need is a bit of light pressure to get the job done, the weight of the safety razor will ensure that the facial hair is cut.
- Adjust your Angle
The ideal angle to shave with a double edge razor is at a 30 degree angle, you will want to take slow deliberate strokes with the de razor, make sure not to try it in a side to side motion.
- Stretch your Skin
You want to stretch your skin to get it as flat as possible, now you probably do this with your cartridge razor.
When it comes to a double edge razor your will want to do this even more.
Keep your skin nice and taut so that when the double edge razor goes over the taut skin you get that super close shave.
- Keep it Clean
You will want to keep your double edge razor nice and clean by rinsing both sides often, you can do this by simply placing it under some warm water between major passes during your shave.
Things to consider when looking for the best double edge razor blades
It can be tricky trying to pick the best double edge razor blades the reason for this is that the size and design of the double edge razor blade is standard across the industry, I mean that makes sense otherwise they wouldn’t fit your safety razor.
So here are a few facts that apply to almost all double edge razor blades.
- Material
Almost all double edge razor blades are made from stainless steel, some have a special coating which is usually Teflon or platinum.
There are many different types of coatings and you will find that some manufacturers will make their own.
In general, though you will find that your double edge razor blades are made of coated stainless steel.
- Price
We love the price of double edge razor blades.
The price will vary between manufacturers and the quantity you buy, but you will find that the price per double edge razor blade is less than a single $.
Which when compared to the new cartridge razors which are an eye watering price.
To us it really is no content.
Although your initial investment into a DE razor may be a bit steep, you quickly save a lot of money on the double edge razor blades.
- Packaging
double edge razor blades almost always come individually wrapped and most packs come in sizes of 5-15 double edge razor blades.
Which are then stored in a plastic box and this box is funky.
You will find that that these plastic boxes have a compartment on the back for you to store the used double edge razor blades for disposable, this compartment makes them much safer to throw away.
- Sharpness
Double edge razor blades come in a wide range or sharpness.
This ranges from sharp to OMG it can cut through anything!
A common myth is that sharper is better, this isn’t always the case.
There are a wide variety of factors that contribute to how close and comfortable a shave is and the level of sharpness of your double edge razor blades is only one.
We’ve found that a double edged razor blade that’s somewhere in the middle of the sharpness scale is usually ideal for most gents.
- Performance
As you can imagine there are a large amount of factors that affect how double edge razor blades perform, things such as the thickness of your beard, the coarseness of your beard.
Your preferred shaving soap or shaving cream.
The structure of your face and your DE razor.
Unfortunately there is no exact way to know how a double edged razor blade will perform for you, so you will find you need to do a bit of trial and error before you end up finding the perfect combination of DE razor and double edged razors blades that suite your shaving style.
- Durability
As with performance there are quite a lot of factors that affect how long your double edge razor blades will last, once again the thickness and coarseness of your beard, the type of lubricant you use.
We find that most double edge razor blades will last around 4-5 shaves.
But your mileage may vary to ours.
When considering which double edged razor blades to buy, its worth baring in mind our list above.
We recommend that you experiment with various different double edge razor blades to find the ones that suit your shaving style.
Lots of manufacturers offer sample packs, these cost very little and allow you to try many different kinds of double edge razor blades to find the best double edge razor blades for you.
Here are our picks for the best double edge razor blades
If you’ve spent any time on any of the popular shaving forms you’ll have noticed that Astra comes up a lot, These double edge razor blades seem to hit that sweet spot for most gents, they’re sharp but not too sharp.
Providing a nice comfortable shave and they’re quite durable.
The double edge razor blade itself is made from stainless steel which has been coated in platinum.
These double edge razor blades seem to pair up very nicely with the Edwin Jagger DE89 and Gillette SuperSpeed DE Razor.
100 Feather Razor Blades NEW Hi-stainless Double Edge Review
100 Feather Razor Blades NEW Hi-stainless Double Edge
Free shipping
Earlier we mentioned some double edge razor blades can reach OMG can cut through anything on our scale of sharpness.
Well, these are those double edge razor blades.
We only recommend these blades to experienced wet shavers.
The Feather double edge razor blade is a stainless steel blade that’s been coated in platinum and honed to an incredibly fine edge.
As these Double edge razor blades are so sharp they are ideal for shaving multiple days worth of facial hair growth off and do well with thick & coarse facial hair.
These double edge razor blades pair up nicely with heavier razors like the Merkur Futur.
Derby Extra Double Edge Razor Blades, 100 Count Review
Derby Extra Double Edge Razor Blades, 100 Count
$7.49 in stock
Free shipping
Derby double edge razor blades are made from hardened Swedish steel.
These double edged razor blades are then coated in Derby’s proprietary blend of chromium ceramic, tungsten.
Derby decided that single coating these double edge razor blades weren’t enough, so once they’ve been coated in their proprietary blend, they are then coated again this time with a polymer to increase the comfort of your shave.
This polymer makes these blades very forgiving which we feel makes them perfect for beginners.
