So i'm back with another monthly review! As before, each blade will be reviewed based on a 2 pass (plus touch up) shave using a Van Der Hagen long handled razor, Van Der Hagen Luxury shave soap and a generic Fento badger brush. I run through 2 of each blade and use each 4 times; for a total of 8 shaves per brand. I'll be grading based on sharpness, smoothness, longevity and consistency. Price will be a factor but only of it's very cheap or expensive since most DE blades are pretty cheap comparatively.
The blade being reviewed this month is the obscure Q-Ball Platinum Plus. It’s name is evocative of dusky billiard halls, gambling, and living life on the edge...or maybe just a clean shaven bald guy. Either way, this was another “name pick” for me. As in, i chose it simply because of its name and not reputation. I’ve had some hits (Viking’s Sword!) and misses (Tiger) using the name pick method. So where does the Q-Ball fall? Corner pocket for the win? Or a scratch so embarassing even the bartender feels bad for you? Let’s find out!
First off, the Q-Ball is one of the myriad Personna products. To me, that’s a win right out of the box. Personna seems to make very good blades in both it’s branded and unbranded lines.
Info on these are scarce but the obvious is that these are platinum coated stainless steel. A little digging revealed that they are made in the same factory as the Israeli Reds and Crystal’s. Which makes them (obviously) an Israeli blade. Outside of that, there’s really not much on them. No website, no official endorsements, no nothing. Even the packaging and blade itself are devoid of branding. Both say “Super Platinum” and the blade has a patent number on it. There’s nothing to even indicate that this is a “Q-Ball” brand blade. This isn’t unusual with Personna blades but I never fail to wonder who gets paid for their “marketing.” Regardless the big question is, how does it shave?!
The first shave with the Q-Ball was pretty top notch. Higher end sharpness, a nice glide over the skin and very minimial irritation. No nicks or weepers. If first impressions were how i did all of my reviews, i’d have given the ol’ Q-Ball a 9. It was a near perfect shave. But like an early run in pool, sometimes the rhythm just stops and doesn’t come back.
The second shave was mediocre. It seemed most of the sharpness had gone and i was stuck with a mid-pack budget blade. Shave quality was markedly down and irritation was up. Shave 3 was even worse. The blade lost even more of it’s edge and i came away with a couple weepers on my neck. It started to take on that “rough” feel that’s usually the telltale sign that it’s tossing time. Alas, for B&B, science, queen and country and the good of mankind, i complete 4 shaves for each review and it was my duty to soldier on.
Shave 4 was awful. All sharpness gone, tugging, irritation, weepers; just an awful shave. Into the blade bank it went.
The second blade. Performed even worse than the 1st. The initial shave was good but not great like the 1st shave on the 1st blade. All subsequent shaves with the 2nd blade were pretty bad in all the ways the 1st was pretty bad. Even moreso because this blade seemed duller out of the gate. I’ve never experienced such a sharp (pun intended) drop-off in sharpness before. It’s actually hard to rate how sharp the Q-Ball is simply because it started so sharp (at least on the 1st blade) and ended so dull. Out of the box i’d say they’re higer end sharp. But by shave 3 lower end. That’s the best explaination i have.
Smoothness was also all over the place. The very 1st shave made me wonder if this was going to be my favorite blade going forward. But after the initial shave the irritation ramped up all the way until i threw the blades out. Much like the sharpness grade, the smoothness ranged from friction free glide with no nicks weepers or razor burn to scrambling for aftershave to dull the pain and clean the wounds. Ok, that’s a little exaggeration but the 3rd and 4th shaves on both blades were pretty bad.
Longevity may be the worst of any blade i’ve yet tried not named Tiger (still having nightmares about that one.) The Q-Ball is a one and done blade in my opinion. 2 shaves at most. A pretty poor performance for any blade; cart or otherwise.
Consistency was also poor. The 1st shave on the 1st blade was near perfect. 1st shave on the second blade was good, but not near perfect good. The second blade just felt duller overall than the 1st. Not night and day but enough to be called fairly inconsistent.
The last factor i look at is price. You can buy 120 blades on Amazon for 27.99 which works out to about 23.33 per 100. This is Feather territory which is on the expensive end. For most blades price isn’t a huge deal (what’s an extra 5-10 bucks per 100?) but on a blade that’s one use and toss, that’s pretty steep.
Overall the Q-Ball was probably like your average pool player. Has a great run once in awhile, plays some decent games and then some nights looks like he’s never touched a cue. This is the first Personna product i’ve been disappointed in and it’s a hard one to recommed. Perhaps someone will like these but that someone isn’t me. I’m giving the Q-Ball a 4 out of 10.
Next up, the world’s most reviewed blade gets another review! It’s the Polsilver Super Iridium! I’m sure everyone is on the edge of their seats for this one so i’ll put it up shortly. Until then, happy shaving!
