Rapira Platinum Lux Razor Blade Review
I’ve been very interested to try any of the Rapira DE blades, so I was excited when the Rapira Platinum Lux Razor Blade was voted as the next razor blade to test. I have been having positive experiences with both platinum coated blades, and blades made in Russia.
Fresh out of the pack the sharpness measured 44, which is right about average. For information on what this means check out Razor Blade Sharpness Testing. You can click this link to see a Razor Blade Sharpness Comparison Chart with the other blades tested so far. All of the readings were fairly consistent which is something that I like to see as it suggests to me that it is a smooth blade.
As we are starting to get a decent number of razor blades tested now, it is possible to start seeing trends in the data. Most of the blades so far have had the average of 44-46 out of the package and this makes sense to me.
The majority of DE razor blades will have very similar results and fall into the “average” spectrum of a normally distributed bell curve. What will likely be of most interest are the blades that end up being either very sharp relative to the others or the ones that are not very sharp.
The first shave with the Rapira Platinum Lux razor blade was great. I had an excellent 3 pass shave with no irritation and almost zero feedback with my Osma Alum Block.
Note that I shave my head as well as my face and have a pretty thick growth – except for the top of my head. This means that one of my shaves might equal two of someone that just shaves their face, or even more if they have a thinner beard.
After the first shave, the sharpness increased to 38. You will notice in the other razor blade reviews as well that most blades so far tend to sharpen up with use as the coating wears away. As the coating is often responsible for the “smoothness” of the razor blade, I have found that some blades can increase in sharpness while loosing smoothness, although that is not always the case.
The second shave was basically the same as the first, I was able to get a very smooth 3 pass shave on both my head and face. While the second shave was great, I’m not sure if I would go for a third shave with this blade.
After the second shave the sharpness decreased just slightly to 39, which for all intents and purposes is the same as 38. I’ve said many times that I like consistency in razor blade sharpness and the Rapira Platinum Lux is was able to achieve that.
Initial Sharpness = 44
Average Sharpness = 40
Edge Retention = 0.89
Smoothness = 5/5
Overall Subjective Rating = 5/5
Platinum Coated. Made in Russia.
The Rapira Platinum Lux razor blades had very similar performance regarding sharpness to a few other blades that I really enjoyed. If you have tried (and liked) Rapira Platinum Lux then you might enjoy Wilkinson Sword, Personna Platinum “Israeli Reds”, or Crystal razor blades.
On the other side of the coin, if you enjoy any of these 3 other blades and haven’t tried Rapira Platinum Lux Razor Blades then you might want to give them a try – I recommend them either way.
Check out more Razor Blade Reviews or look into how the Razor Blade Sharpness Testing works.
Have you tried Rapira Platinum Lux Razor Blades? Be sure to leave your overall rating, the community appreciates your vote!
2 thoughts on “Rapira Platinum Lux Razor Blade Review”
Comments are closed.
I’ve been rotating blades for a year+, to find my “go to blade” and have tried most of the blades in this review , except the Gillette line. Last week, I tried the Rapira Plat Lux and had my closest shave w/ no irratation. This is the first blade that truly “glided thru my whiskers (4 days growth), there was no audible feed back and no fear of being cut. So far, these are the most comfortable and closest shaving blades I’ve tried
.
My #2 blade is the Personna Red – have ordered some Crystals.
#3 is Astra SP – will have to try the Astra SS.
Have used 3-4 Voshof (sp?) blades. They test at 5/5 and see lots of good reviews, but for me they were on the low side of average. YMWV is true.
Feather is too sharp for me. I have a constant fear of being cut.
Razor is Rockwell 6s, so once I find a blade – I have to experiment to find the best blade exposure.
Thanks for all your work putting this site together.
They are arriving this week. I m a Muhle R-41 user and Polsilver is my go to blade now. GSB 2ND, I’ll get back to let you know how they work. I’m sure they’ll be just fine.