Pella Stainless/Coated vs. Walgreens Gem Stainless

[sarge]

I received some Ted Pella Gem stainless & coated single edge blades (#121-3) today from the ever gracious Fuzzy and wanted to make a few comments about them, compared to the the Walgreen's Gem Personna stainless single edge blades, so as to add to the general body of knowledge.

Some have maintained, in other posts on other forums, that these two blades are the same. Others , including mrguy from this site who has posted elsewhere on this subject, maintain that the two are different. Well, mrguy is correct.

I have compared the two and , as mrguy said, they are different in several ways. First, the blade spline on the Pella stainless/coated blades has a much deeper stamping of the words GEM and Stainless than the Walgreen Gems. Second, the surface of the Pella blade has a "whiter/lighter" tint , a color difference indicitive of the coating. When I scrape my pocket knife blade back and forth across the surface of the Walgreen Gem stainless blade, it leaves little traces. When I do the same on the Pella coated blade, I can't see any traces on the surface when I hold it up to the light. Although this is hardly a scientific test, it indicates , to me, that this coated surface is very slick and abrasion resistant. And third, the edge grind is different. On the Pella coated, the grind is narrower and smoother, showing fewer striations, or marks, in the grind. This is easy enough to see with the naked eye....no microscope required. Note: I have not seen or tried the Pella Gem stainless(uncoated) single edge blades, but they may very well be the same as the Walgreen Gems.

So this is the visual test. I have done two weeks of shaves, through today, with the Walgreens Gem stainless and, having them fresh on my mind, I will go directly into the Pella Gem stainless/coated to see how they compare. After I get a feel for them I'll report back with a mini review of my experiences.

I hope this is helpful information for those of you that may have had the same confusion that I had. And thanks, mrguy, for your info to help straighten things out too.

Regards, Larry


Oops! I think this should go in the Blades section. Could someone please move it if necessary, Thanks

[mrguy]

Thank you, sarge, for doing an actual comparison of the two blades! ;D I never did quite get why so many people were convinced they were the same blade when I had the two in my hand and they weren't. As far as shave quality, I prefer the Pellas, but there is nothing wrong at all about the Walgreens blades. I do use both, just a personal preference thing. I will recommend palm stropping the Pellas, at minimum before the first shave. I really do notice a vast improvement in the first shave when I strop them. I strop after each shave, but that's another debate

[cmur12]

Sarge, I look forward to your comparison with eager anticipation!

On the Ted Pella website, they talk about the difference between triple-faceted and double-faceted blades. It sounds like the Walgreen's GEMs could even be only double-faceted. As I recall, the Pella website explained that the triple-faceted blades are sharper, but the double-faceted blades are more durable.

With all of this in mind, I would love to know if the Ted Pella coated stainless blades are any sharper than the Walgreen's GEMs and if there is any difference in blade life.

Thanks again, Sarge -

- Murray

PS. Mrguy, I hand-stop, too.

[specialk]

I always felt that they were different but never got around to looking that closely at them. While I am able to get a great shave with both, I do think the Pellas provide just a little better shave.

I hand strop after each shave too.

[sarge]

How many times do you guys strop? Two times on each side like on the video?

[cmur12]

I hand-strop a coated blade around 9x per side.

If it is an uncoated, expecially carbon steel, blade, I hand-strop it around 19x per side.

- Murray

[mrguy]

4 strops per side, I don't know why. Just seems like the right number

[Possum]

5 passes per side on both SE and DE blades.

[sarge]

Well, I just finished my third day of shaving with an Ever Ready 1912 (my first and only SE razor) and a Ted Pella Gem stainless/coated blade. I just came off of two weeks shaving with the same razor and Walgreen's Gem Personna stainless blades and wanted to give a brief comparison.

Not much difference.

Wow, that was really helpful. But seriously, so far the two blades perform pretty much the same for me. I expected the Pella to maybe be somewhat sharper because the blade grind is visably smoother, with finer grind marks. I also thought it might be somewhat smoother because of the PTFE coating, which seems to be absent on the Gem Personna blade. I say this because of the marked color difference and feel of the blade. But I can't say with absolute certainty that the Gem Personna blade has no coating of any type: it's just that it looks like it doesn't.

Anyway, the sharpness and smoothness of these two blades is a virtual toss up. I can't attest to the longevity factor since I'm only through my third shave (the Gem Personna did fine for a week w/ 2 pass shaves), but I wouldn't expect that to be much different. I guess if I was pressed to make a choice, it would be the Pella simply because I can't help but thinking (as opposed to knowing) that the coating makes a difference. But if I could get the Gem Personna, or its equivalent for a better price then I would be just fine with them too. As much as I was impressed by the quality and appearance of the Pellas, I just couldn't confirm their superiority. (Obligatory YMMV) The prettiest girl is not always the best kisser.

One thing I might add is that neither of these blades seem to be quite as sharp as my favorite DE blades. Maybe I'll try the Treet blades next to see what they're like. As we all know though, sometimes you give up smoothness for sharpness.

[mrguy]

Really nice review, sarge! Who knew "not much difference" could have led to so much useful information
I wonder if my preference for the Pella blades is all in the mind as well. It seems much cooler to tell people I had to get blades from an online medical supplier, not just, "I stopped at Walgreens on the way home".

[Possum]

Sarge,

Thanks for the great review. I have been sitting on the sidelines for this discussion until you actually took the step to do a review. Your finding would more current than those I did about a year ago.

I too found little or no difference in the performance between the two blades. I did get only 5 shaves with the GEM by Personna that I got at my Rite Aid compared to 7 good shaves with the Pella. Found that the Pellas were a bit sharper but not enough to effect my shaving experience.

I have settled on the Pellas because I was able to get 200 of them for considerably less than I could get the GEM blades. That being said if I found myself without any Pellas I would not be afraid to go and buy a pack of the GEMs and use them until I replenished my Pella supply.

Thanks again for providing this very enlightening review.

[etoyoc]

Huh... who would'a thunk it?

[sarge]

My pleasure, guys.

Yeah, I will have to look into a bulk buy before long because I would like to spend less than the 50 cents+ per blade cost of the Walgreen Personnas. Not that I'm actually going to save money. I'll just spend it on shaving items that I thought I was going to save money on by spending less on shaving items. See how circular this whole thing is.

[wchnu]

Great review there Sarge thanks for all that information. I use all the different blades. Get good shaves from the all. The Pella might last longer then some of the others, I think maybe due to coating? But I still use the others.


Fuzzy