Super Tian Li Blue Blades Razor Blade Review

Super Tian Li Blue Blades Razor Blade Review

I had quite a bit of interest to test the Super Tian Li Razor Blades, I even had two people send me the blades to test.

These razor blades are made in China, and the majority of the text on the box is in Chinese. They are made by Zhe Jiang Ji Li Hardware Co. Ltd which actually has it’s own website. It would be nice if more DE razor blades had an actual company website to get a little more information about the product or company.

That said, I am not sure really how helpful the website was to me. The description for Super Tian Li Blue Blades Razor Blade says made of stainless and carbon steel, and I’m not sure how a DE razor blade could be both. My education and understanding is that stainless steel and carbon steel are mutually exclusive terms, and that something could not be both. Perhaps it is some sort of low alloy stainless steel.

I am also not sure what they mean by “Blue Blades”, maybe someone can shed some light in the comments section. The only materials term that comes to mind is the bluing of steel for corrosion protection, but this has a characteristic of leaving the steel blue and these razor blades are not blue. There are also several wise cracks that could be made about Zoolander, old westerns and even British missiles when it comes to Blue Steel, but I will leave those alone for now.

(Note: As I am proofing this post I am realizing there are other blades that use the term Blue such as Gillette Silver Blue. If anyone has some insight please comment below).

Fresh out of the pack the sharpness measured 67. For information on what this means check out Razor Blade Sharpness Testing. This is by far the least sharp razor blade out of the package to date, and all of the readings were very high. You can click this link to see a Razor Blade Sharpness Comparison Chart with the other blades tested so far.

I have not had the best of luck with DE razor blades on the lower end of the sharpness scale, and I was legitimately concerned about using this blade. I was debating setting up another safety razor with a Voskhod for backup but decided against it.

Another red flag for me was that the inner wrapper and even the razor blade itself was kind of dirty, you can see this in the picture. It has been 8 years since my last tetanus shot and I think they’re good for 10, so again I pushed on.

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.

The first shave with the Super Tian Li Blue Blades Razor Blade actually wasn’t too bad! It was obvious that it wasn’t overly sharp to me and it did drag a bit, but it wasn’t nearly as “tuggy” as I expected it to be. In this case since I know it is not very sharp, I personally deduce that it is actually quite smooth.

It was by no means a fantastic shave, but it was relatively close and left me with no irritation. All things considered I had a decent shave and was happy to get through the first shave with all my fears.

After the first shave, the sharpness increased to 61, which is a pretty standard increase that we see of about 10%. As of right now most coated blades have increased their sharpness after the first shave, the current hypothesis is that the blade edge becomes more exposed as the coating wears off. This results in a sharper cutting edge, although the smoothness may decrease as the coating disappears. I have no idea what the coating may be as I do not read Chinese, maybe it has something to do with the Blue Blade.

The second shave was about the same. I knew the Super Tian Li was not overly sharp and it shaved accordingly.

After the second shave the sharpness measured 60, which for all intents and purposes is the same as after shave one at 61. It seems to be increasingly common for a DE razor blade to gain level of sharpness after the first shave and the level off a bit.

Initial Sharpness = 67
Average Sharpness = 63
Edge Retention = 0.90
Smoothness = 4/5

Overall Subjective Rating = 3/5

100 Silver Blue Double Edge Razor Blades Made in Russia by 7 O'clock

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All in all the Super Tian Li Blue Blade Razor Blade gave me 2 decent shaves. They are not as sharp as I like a DE razor blade to be, and I did not like the fact that they blades and inner packaging seemed dirty.

While I personally would not seek out any more of these blades, I can definitely see some people liking them if they have a thinner and/or lighter beard. I also believe they are amazingly cheap, so that is also a positive.

Check out more Razor Blade Reviews or look into how the Razor Blade Sharpness Testing works.

Have you tried Super Tian Li Blue Blades Razor Blades? Be sure to leave your overall rating, the community appreciates your vote!

 

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