I’ve been following Leisureguy’s protocol for evaluating new blades. This involves using your “best” blade as the benchmark, and then trying a new blade for one week at a time. If the new blade is better than your current favorite, it becomes the new benchmark blade. If not, you return to another week of shaving with your favorite, before trying the next “new” blade. This protocol has worked well with blades that were significantly worse than my benchmark Treet Blue Special. But for blades that are closer in performance, one week is too long because I forget what the benchmark blade shaved like. What I’m doing now is to alternate between the favorite blade and the new one each day in what in science is called an ABABAB design. This way I get a much closer comparison from day-to-day before deciding which blade is superior.
I did this today with a fresh Zorrik, comparing it to my still fresh-in-the-memory Treet from yesterday. Oddly, while the blade still didn’t feel quite as smooth as the Treet , it nevertheless produced an outstanding 9.7 shave using the same Tabac kit as yesterday. Hmmmmm!