ORMIXA

Voskhod Teflon Coated: 3-Shave Test on Vector TC4

3-shave test of the Voskhod Teflon Coated DE blade on the ORMIXA Vector TC4 titanium safety razor. Day-by-day scoring, video evidence, and final verdict.

By ORMIXAPublished May 3, 2026

Voskhod Teflon Coated, three shaves on the ORMIXA Vector TC4. Shave 1 was almost invisible; Shaves 2–3 dropped, but the drop was driven by my technique, not the blade.

On the Vector TC4 with my 2-pass routine (WTG → ATG, target SS), Voskhod hit a near-perfect Shave 1 then settled into the mid-7s for Shaves 2 and 3. Average rolled up to 40/50. This is the first blade in the TC4 Titanium Safety Razor Blade Compatibility Project; rankings against other blades will appear here as they pass through the same test cycle.

Background

Voskhod (“Восход” — “Sunrise” in Russian) blades are made by Mostochlegmash, a state-owned factory in Tula, Russia, that has been producing razor blades since the Soviet era. The Teflon Coated variant has a thin PTFE film over a stainless steel core.

Test Conditions

Results also apply to Vector 316L — same blade gap and head geometry. See the methodology for material-specific perception differences.

Test Period Summary

3 shaves total. Shave 1 is a 1-week-stubble baseline; Shaves 2 and 3 are spaced 72 hours apart. Pass pattern: WTG → ATG (2-pass) each session.

Shave 1 — Fresh

2026-04-27 · 1-week stubble

Closeness
9/10
Smoothness
9/10
Irritation
9/10

Effortless first stroke; no drag. WTG and ATG felt almost imperceptible. One weeper on the chin from technique variance during ATG (first day on a new camera rig). Touch: SS.

Shave 2 — 72h

2026-04-30 · 72h growth

Closeness
7/10
Smoothness
7/10
Irritation
6/10

Drag noticeably increased during WTG when I let lather/stubble accumulate without rinsing. 1 nick at corner of mouth (WTG, technique-caused). 1 weeper on the neck (WTG, lubrication-caused). ATG was clean once I tightened up rinse cadence. Touch: SS.

Shave 3 — 76h

2026-05-03 · ~76h growth

Closeness
7/10
Smoothness
7/10
Irritation
7/10

Aggressive rinsing and a second lather kept the neck clean — no neck nicks or weepers this time. ATG produced 2 nicks at the upper lip (technique). Touch: SS.

Day-by-Day

Shave 1 (2026-04-27, 1-week stubble baseline)

Voskhod went on the Vector TC4 and the first stroke felt like nothing was there. No drag, no pull. WTG passed clean across cheeks and neck — efficient, the kind of session where you actually feel the blade is doing its job without announcing itself.

ATG transitions on Vector at 0.76 mm gap usually take a careful angle. Voskhod made that less of a challenge — followed the contour without me having to overthink it. Jaw line still showed some stubble after 2-pass, which is expected on 1-week growth and within SS scope.

One weeper on the chin during ATG — technique variance, not blade fault. First time recording with a new camera rig and I caught myself watching the framing instead of the stroke. Recovery point for Shave 2.

Alum block went on with light heat — the warm-not-burning kind except for the chin weeper. By 30 minutes the face was clean with mild tightness; by 4 hours, fully neutral.

Touch: SS. Scores: Closeness 9 / Smoothness 9 / Irritation 9 / Audible 9 / Lather 9.

Shave 2 (2026-04-30, 72h growth)

On-face contact was still smooth and unfeeling — same as Shave 1 in that first half-second. But during WTG the drag was noticeably higher than Shave 1. Not the blade itself; lather and cut stubble were accumulating on the head, and I let them sit longer than I should have between strokes.

That accumulation produced two events on WTG: a nick at the corner of the mouth (the head pulled across un-rinsed lather and tugged skin) and a weeper on the neck (insufficient pre-pass lubrication). My right side neck has spiral-pattern hair growth that nicks easily if the lather thins out. Both are technique-caused, not blade-caused.

ATG, after I tightened up rinse cadence, completed cleanly. No new nicks or weepers on the second pass.

Alum stung at the two damaged points and stayed mild everywhere else. 30 min: clean, mild tightness. 4 hr: neutral.

Touch: SS. Scores: Closeness 7 / Smoothness 7 / Irritation 6 / Audible 9 / Lather 8.

Shave 3 (2026-05-03, ~76h growth)

First-stroke feel was identical to Shave 2 — no perceptible change. Where Shave 3 diverged from Shave 2 was in my prep: rinsed the head more frequently, lathered twice, paid more attention to the neck.

The neck stayed clean for both passes — no nicks, no weepers, even on the spiral-growth side that bled in Shave 2. That part of the improvement was clearly technique; the blade itself wasn’t meaningfully different from Shave 2.

ATG, however, produced 2 nicks at the upper lip. The upper lip contour requires precise angle control and I didn’t fully compensate for the slightly increased drag a 3rd-use blade has compared to a fresh one. Still classifiable as technique error rather than blade dulling, but the margin is narrowing.

Alum stung at the upper-lip nicks. The Shave 2 cut points (mouth-corner and neck) still registered mild heat — skin had not fully healed in 72h. The rest of the face was mild.

Touch: SS. Scores: Closeness 7 / Smoothness 7 / Irritation 7 / Audible 9 / Lather 8.

What I Liked

The blade gets out of the way

First contact across all three sessions was the same: no perceptible drag, no scraping audible against the hair. Voskhod doesn’t announce itself. That’s the kind of edge where smoothness scores cleanly without me having to think about it — and where a beginner can build the angle muscle memory without fighting the blade.

ARKO + Voskhod played well together

Cold-water lather from the ARKO stick stayed thick through both passes; the blade didn’t clog at any session and I didn’t need to mid-pass re-lather (when I rinsed properly). Lather compatibility scored 8/10 averaged — no fight between the cutting edge and the soap chemistry.

Alum reaction stayed in the warm-not-burning band on intact skin

On undamaged areas the alum reaction was mild across all 3 shaves. Where alum did sting was the nicks and weepers from technique errors — not from large-area irritation. That’s a different signal than “the blade is rough on you.”

What I Didn’t Like

Drag tolerance falls off if you let lather/stubble accumulate

Shave 2 demonstrated this directly — under-rinsed strokes produced a nick + a weeper on what should have been a clean WTG pass. With a sharper blade (e.g. Feather, untested in this database yet) the same technique error might have been worse. With a blunter one it might have just dragged without cutting. Voskhod sits in a band where lather hygiene has high leverage on the result.

Score floor for me is a high-7, not 8+

I went into this test wanting 3 shaves of 8+ across the rubric. I got that on Shave 1 and lost it on Shaves 2–3. I think this is recoverable with tighter prep (see Final Verdict), but as the data sits today, Voskhod’s real ceiling on my face is unconfirmed.

Difficult Areas

First Entry in the Series

Voskhod is the first blade through the database. Cross-blade comparisons (vs Astra Superior Platinum, Derby, Feather, Personna, etc.) appear as those blades complete their own 3-shave test cycles. The pillar database has the ranked queue:

→ Full TC4 Blade Compatibility Database

Who Should Buy Voskhod

Consider Voskhod if you…

Look elsewhere if you…

Where to Buy

This test pack was sourced from a Taobao listing in mainland China — that’s where most of the blades in this database come from, for the reasons covered in the pillar’s sourcing FAQ. Counterfeit Voskhod packs exist on every large marketplace, Taobao included — seller reputation matters more than platform.

For international readers: I won’t recommend vendors I haven’t bought from myself. The current wet-shaving forums (Badger & Blade, /r/wicked_edge) maintain rolling per-vendor authenticity threads that age better than a static list here would.

ORMIXA has no commercial relationship with Voskhod or any DE blade vendor.

Video Evidence

Three sessions, raw footage, no edits:

Methodology Deviations from Standard

Transparency about what was not standard in this 3-shave run:

These are flagged because hiding them would undermine the methodology. If something in the data looks surprising, the answer might be here.

Final Verdict

After 3 shaves on the Vector TC4: 40/50, with the caveat that the score is technique-limited rather than blade-limited.

The Shave 2–3 score drops were dominated by my technique errors (insufficient rinse cadence, under-lubricated neck, ATG angle on upper lip), not by blade dulling. The next Voskhod test pack will repeat this protocol with a tighter pre-shave routine — if Shave 3 holds at ≥ 8 / 10 across closeness and irritation, I’ll know the real blade life. Until then, this 3-shave run is the floor, not the ceiling.

For now, Voskhod earns a buy with caveats: forgiving edge, good lather chemistry, sensitive to lather hygiene. A second round will calibrate whether the Shave 2–3 plateau is the blade or the operator.

Vector 316L owners: this scoring transfers 1:1 to your razor. The cutting geometry is identical — only the in-hand feel differs.

Disclosure

ORMIXA designs and operates the Vector TC4 razor used in this test. ORMIXA products are manufactured by our partner factory Guangzhou Yanyang Technology Co., Ltd., which owns the ORMIXA® trademark and licenses it to ECE Innovate Homes LLC for direct-to-consumer sales in the United States.

ORMIXA does not sell razor blades. This test pack of Voskhod was purchased at retail. Voskhod has no commercial relationship to ORMIXA, ECE Innovate Homes LLC, or Guangzhou Yanyang Technology.

If you think the manufacturer-as-tester framing biases the methodology, fair concern. Video evidence is linked above for every session, methodology was published before testing started, and the ranking will include blades whose makers are direct competitors to Voskhod. Send your own data — we’ll compare.

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