Which DE Blades Fit a TC4 Titanium Safety Razor?

TC4 titanium razor blades — which double-edge blade actually pairs cleanly with a Grade-5 titanium razor head? This page is a live DE blade compatibility test database, run by ORMIXA on our own Vector razors. Every wet shaving forum thread on TC4 titanium razor blades eventually arrives at the same question: what blade should I use with my razor? Most answers are anecdotal — “I love Astras”, “Feathers are too sharp”, “Voskhods are underrated.” All of that is one person’s experience, usually after one shave, often on a razor totally unlike yours.

The Vector TC4 titanium safety razor used in this database is manufactured by Guangzhou Yanyang Technology Co., Ltd. (the ORMIXA trademark owner) and sold under license by ECE Innovate Homes LLC. We are systematically testing every double-edge blade we can get our hands on — multiple shaves each, scored on a fixed rubric, with video evidence per session. This page is the live database.

Early stage: This database currently has 8 completed pairing tests (Astra Superior Platinum, Personna Stainless Steel, Feather Hi-Stainless, Gillette Nacet, Gillette Silver Blue, Voskhod, Wilkinson Sword Saloon Pack, Wilkinson Sword Classic). Cycle per pairing: 1–2 weeks of shaving (3 scored shaves at a ~72-hour target spacing; actual hours are logged per session) plus write-up and review — new pairings have landed on a roughly 2-3 week cadence. Bookmark this page — it is updated on a rolling basis.

Why We’re Doing This

Three reasons.

First, the Vector is our razor — manufactured for ORMIXA by Guangzhou Yanyang Technology, tested on our own bench. We should know — concretely, with data — how the razor performs across the full range of DE blades a customer might mount in it. “I tried Astras once and they’re fine” isn’t enough. This project forces deliberate, scored use across every major mass-market blade on the same razor platform — the Vector, with the material variant logged per test.

Second, buyers keep asking. Which blade with this razor? is the single most common question aimed at any razor maker — all over r/wicked_edge, retailer Q&A, and our own inbox. Until now the honest answer was “try a sample pack.” A documented database — fixed rubric, video evidence, first-party testing disclosure — is a better answer than passing the buck.

Third, calibration. The interaction between a blade’s coating, its edge angle, and the Vector’s cap/baseplate geometry only shows up after multiple blades have run through the same head. Each tested blade sharpens our read on what the geometry is actually doing — input for the next razor we manufacture.

A Note on the Razor Used

Every test in this database is conducted on the ORMIXA Vector razor. The Vector ships in two material versions:

• Vector 316L — 316L stainless steel (precision-machined)
• Vector TC4 — TC4 titanium alloy

Current pricing is on the Vector product page. Both versions share the same blade gap (0.76 mm) and head geometry. The differences are material-driven:

• TC4 dampens vibration more (you feel less blade chatter)
• 316L carries roughly 70% more mass (104 g vs 60 g), so it supplies more of its own cutting pressure per stroke
• Finish wear patterns may differ over years of use

For blade compatibility scoring, these material differences are irrelevant. A blade that scores high on the Vector TC4 will score high on the Vector 316L — the cutting geometry is identical. So this database serves owners of both versions equally.

(URL slug uses “tc4-titanium” because that’s the SEO-relevant keyword — but the data applies to all Vector owners.)

Mild DE razor specifications — the 0.76mm blade gap razor profile

For DE shavers who care about exact geometry (and you should — blade gap matters more than handle material), the Vector is a mild DE razor with a closed comb 0.76 blade gap profile. Full specifications:

The 0.76 mm blade gap and 0.14 mm exposure put the Vector in the mild-to-moderate aggression range. This band covers the comfort zone for most DE shavers — from beginners learning angle control to experienced users who want a daily driver without the bite of an open-comb aggressive head.

Material differences (weight, vibration dampening) do not affect blade scoring — see Razor Note above.

DE Blade Compatibility Test Methodology

Variables we control

• Razor: ORMIXA Vector — TC4 or 316L variant, logged per test (shared head geometry). Specifications:
  • Blade gap: 0.76 mm
  • Blade exposure: 0.14 mm
  • Blade angle: 32°
  • Guard: closed comb, 1.84 mm span
  • Aggression: mild-to-moderate — daily-driver territory rather than aggressive open-comb
  Results transfer 1:1 to the Vector 316L variant — same blade gap and head geometry. See A Note on the Razor Used above.
• Pass pattern: WTG → ATG (2-pass). See “Why 2-pass instead of 3-pass” below for rationale.
• Pressure: minimal — let the razor’s weight do the cutting.

Why 2-pass instead of 3-pass

Every test runs a 2-pass routine (WTG → ATG). We do not include an XTG transition pass.

In testing on the Vector platform, XTG adds marginal closeness benefit but increases irritation likelihood. The 2-pass routine matches our actual daily shaving habit, and consistency across all 13 cluster compatibility tests matters more than adopting a “theoretical standard” we don’t actually use.

Note: 2-pass on a 0.76mm blade gap mild razor still achieves SS-to-DFS levels for most blade/skin combinations. BBS targets require XTG, which is outside this test’s scope.

Pre-shave routine (default protocol)

• Cold water splash for 5 seconds (no warm soak)
• ARKO shaving stick applied directly to face
• Lather with TA2 Titanium Line 26mm two-band badger brush (cold water)
• No pre-shave oil, no warm towel, no cream

Why this matters: the default is pinned so blade behavior dominates the result. Where a session ran a different soap or brush, the entry’s session cards and Methodology Notes say so — deviations are disclosed per entry, never hidden. Your routine may differ — adjust your interpretation accordingly.

Post-shave routine

• Cold water rinse
• Alum block applied (consistent across all tests)
• Sting/heat sensation noted as part of irritation scoring

Alum block is part of SOP because it’s part of our actual routine and gives a quick weeper detection signal — visible sting on micro-cuts you didn’t notice during the shave. Without it, irritation data would be less precise.

Variables we document but can’t control

• Beard growth at each shave: the target is 72 hours since last shave from Shave 2 onward, with Shave 1 on a longer baseline. Real life intervenes — actual hours have ranged roughly 72–146h and every session’s true interval is logged on its entry’s session cards and Methodology Notes.
• Skin condition: any visible irritation / dryness from prior shave
• Use number: shave 1, 2, or 3 of 3 for that blade
• Room temperature & humidity (logged from a shelf hygrometer)

Scoring Rubric

Each dimension is scored 1–10 per session. The blade’s per-session total is the sum across the five dimensions; final score is the average across the 3-shave cycle. Maximum: 50 points per shave.

Scoring notes. Scores are our contemporaneous in-session calls, anchored to the bands below but not computed from them — a session’s number weighs where the blood points landed, the alum reaction, and how the skin read afterward, and the session notes always carry that context. Scores are never adjusted retroactively; where an entry’s call reads lenient or strict against the band text, its Methodology Notes say so. Read the numbers together with the notes.

Closeness (1-10)

• 10/10: True BBS, 48+ hours before re-shave needed
• 9/10: BBS, 4-6 hour peak window
• 8/10: DFS+ (very close, mild stubble in 12-18h)
• 7/10: SS (Socially Smooth) — what most people consider “well-shaved”
• 6/10: Mild stubble visible to touch
• 5/10: Clearly under-shaved
• 1-4: Failed shave

Smoothness (1-10) — drag/glide during the shave

• 10/10: Glass-on-glass, blade fully invisible to face
• 9/10: Effortless, no perceptible drag
• 8/10: Smooth with occasional micro-drag in difficult areas
• 7/10: Noticeable drag in 1-2 spots
• 6/10: Persistent drag requiring re-lather
• 5/10 or below: Painful pulling

Irritation (10 = zero irritation)

• 10/10: Zero weepers, zero alum sting, zero sensation
• 9/10: Zero weepers, light alum sensation only
• 8/10: 1 weeper OR mild post-shave tightness
• 7/10: 1-2 weepers OR alum heat sensation (warm not burning)
• 6/10: Razor burn within 2 hours
• 5/10 or below: Significant nicks, persistent burn

Audible feedback (1-10) — sound of blade vs hair

• 10/10: Crisp, satisfying click-cut
• 9/10: Clear cutting sound, no scraping
• 8/10: Mostly clean, occasional scrape
• 7/10: Mixed clean cut + drag sound
• 6/10 or below: Mostly scraping, blade not engaging

Lather compatibility (1-10)

• 10/10: Blade and lather work together, zero interference
• 9/10: Excellent, no clogging
• 8/10: Good, occasional rinse needed
• 7/10: Workable but blade clogs
• 6/10 or below: Lather/blade fight

Total: out of 50

(Longevity is captured in the Test Period Summary table’s “Fresh / Peak / Late” rows rather than as a single dimension — degradation shape over the 3-shave run is more informative than a one-number longevity grade.)

What we deliberately don’t score

• “Premium feel” — too biased.
• Packaging — irrelevant to the shave.
• Brand prestige — the entire point is to ignore this.

Test process

1. New blade installed. Baseline shave on 1-week stubble (Shave 1, recorded).
2. Same blade used for exactly 3 consecutive shaves. Shaves 2 and 3 are spaced 72 hours apart. This covers the full performance arc:
   • Shave 1 (fresh): coating breaks in, baseline cutting power read on 1-week stubble.
   • Shave 2 (peak, +72h from Shave 1): community reports and our own testing both point to this as where most blades hit their best performance window.
   • Shave 3 (late, +72h from Shave 2): degradation signals, when most experienced wet shavers swap blades.
3. Score recorded immediately, before reading prior session notes.
4. Final score = average of all 3 sessions (out of 50 per shave).

Why exactly 3 shaves with 72-hour spacing?

• Sample size discipline: 3 is the minimum to capture a degradation curve (start / peak / decline). 2 isn’t enough; 4+ provides diminishing marginal data. Vendor claims of “5-7 max use” overstate real-world replacement habit (community polls skew toward replacing at 3-5).
• 72-hour spacing: at 72h the stubble has reached a 3-day length (roughly 0.5–4 mm) — long enough to reveal a blade’s true cutting character, short enough that hair density remains within a daily-shave reviewer’s frame of reference. 24-48h growth is too forgiving (most blades feel similar). 96h+ growth is too long (different mechanics — closer to beard-trimming territory).
• Skin recovery: 72h between sessions allows complete recovery from any micro-irritation. Faster cadence accumulates skin trauma that confounds blade-attributable scoring.
• Real-world relevance: “every 2-3 days” is one of the most common DE shaving cadences (per B&B forum threads), so testing at 72h matches actual user behavior — not artificially-easy 24h baby-stubble conditions some review sites use.
• House prerogative: it is our razor and our test bench, so we set the testing condition that exposes the most performance differences. 72h is the stress test.

Data Source Note

The methodology above isn’t pulled from thin air — it draws on community consensus and published references where they exist:

• A 3-day beard runs roughly 0.5–4 mm — per the Gillette beard length guide.
• Skin recovery threshold and “best shaves at 2-4 days growth” reports — recurring threads on Badger & Blade and r/wicked_edge.
• Blade replacement habit polling — reader polls on Sharpologist and wet-shaving forums cluster around a 3-5 shave swap habit.

These references inform the test cadence (72h between sessions) and the test cycle length (3 shaves total). They do not dictate the scoring rubric — that’s calibrated against what actually moves a blade’s perceived quality on the Vector TC4 specifically.

Important Caveats

This database is maintained by a single ORMIXA tester. Results reflect:

• Test-team technique and pressure habits
• The specific TC4 razor used — blade gap 0.76 mm, exposure 0.14 mm, closed comb (see full spec table above)

Your experience with the same blades may differ. Treat this database as a starting point — a way to narrow down which sample packs are worth ordering — not as absolute rankings.

We genuinely welcome contradicting experiences in Reddit threads or by email. Counterexamples make the database better.

Disclosure

Internal lab testing. Not sponsored. ORMIXA does not receive commercial consideration from any DE blade vendor for inclusion, ranking, or review in this database.

Sources

• AZoM — Titanium Alloys Ti6Al4V (Grade 5) datasheet: density & elastic-modulus data for the TC4 alloy
• American Academy of Dermatology — How to Shave: technique & irritation-prevention guidance
• Cleveland Clinic — Razor Burn: cause of post-shave skin irritation
• ORMIXA blade-test shave logs — one skin profile, fixed rubric (methodology above)

ORMIXA products are sold by ECE Innovate Homes LLC and manufactured by Guangzhou Yanyang Technology Co., Ltd. under trademark license.

ORMIXA does not sell razor blades. Every blade tested in this project is purchased at retail, with our own money. None of the blade brands listed here have any commercial relationship to ORMIXA, ECE Innovate Homes LLC, or Guangzhou Yanyang Technology.

If you think the first-party testing framing biases the methodology, fair concern. Three countermeasures:

1. Every session is recorded on video — full raw shave footage, not edited highlights. Videos are linked from each cluster pairing data point as they publish.
2. Methodology is published before testing. Results are scored against the published rubric — no retroactive adjustment to favor specific blades.
3. The current top-scoring pairing is not with a blade ORMIXA sells. If a Vector × Russian-factory-blade pairing scores higher than a Vector × premium-Japanese-blade pairing, that is what the database publishes.

Send your own data — we’ll compare.

Current Safety Razor Blade Comparison Database

Sorted by pairing score, descending. Click any row for the full pairing data.

Additional rows are added as cluster compatibility tests go live — see the Currently Testing Queue below for what’s in the pipeline.

Currently Testing Queue

Thirteen blades, 13 weeks. Each entry below has been purchased at retail and either tested or scheduled. Weeks correspond to the 72-hour-cadence cycle (3 shaves over 7 days = 1 week per blade, with overlap on writing weeks).

• W1 — Voskhod Teflon Coated (Russia) — compatibility test published 2026-05-03 → read the pairing data
• W2 — Wilkinson Sword Saloon Pack (India, Gillette India distribution) — compatibility test published 2026-05-13 → read the pairing data
• W3 — Wilkinson Sword Classic (Germany, Polish-market distribution) — compatibility test published 2026-05-23 → read the pairing data
• W4 — Astra Superior Platinum (Russia, P&G) — compatibility test published 2026-06-07 → read the pairing data
• W5 — Gillette Silver Blue (Russia, P&G) — compatibility test published 2026-06-23 → read the pairing data
• W6 — Gillette Nacet (Russia, P&G) — compatibility test published 2026-07-04 → read the pairing data
• W7 — Personna Stainless Steel (red box, Germany) — compatibility test published 2026-07-17 → read the pairing data
• W8 — Feather Hi-Stainless (Japan, blade-stamped) — compatibility test published 2026-07-28 → read the pairing data
  Note: the tested pack is the standard Hi-Stainless — a white plastic case with a black-and-white label, carrying no “Platinum” marking. That is what separates it from the Platinum-labelled variant of the same line.
• W9 — Derby Extra (Turkey) — queued
• W10 — Iridium Super / Wizamet (Russia) — queued
  Note: Wizamet Super Iridium is widely regarded in the wet-shaving community as the successor to the legendary Polsilver Super Iridium; we will box-verify the provenance when the test runs.
• W11 — Dorco Prime Platinum (South Korea) — queued
• W12 — Treet Platinum (Pakistan) — queued
• W13 — Gillette Platinum, Russian pack (Russia) — queued
• W14 — Shark Super Stainless (Egypt) — queued
• W15 — Gillette Platinum, Chinese pack (China) — queued
  Note: same product name as W13, different pack and stated origin. Running both lets the database say whether the name travels with the performance — a comparison the English-language wet-shaving press rarely gets to make, since the Chinese pack is hard to buy outside Asia.
• W16 — Derby Premium (Turkey) — queued
• W17 — Gillette Perma-Sharp (Turkey) — queued
• W18 — BIC Chrome Platinum (Greece) — queued

Taken together the tested and queued packs span ten production regions — Russia (6 blades), Turkey (3), Germany (2), and one each from India, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, Egypt, China and Greece. Regions listed for queued packs are what the packaging is expected to say; each one is box-verified at test time and the entry is corrected if it does not match.

Beyond W18 the shelf still holds Dorco HQ, both Gillette 7 O’Clock variants, Super Treet Platinum, Rapira Platinum Lux and Gillette 365. Sharp and mild packs are deliberately alternated rather than grouped, so skin has a recovery window between the demanding ones.

If a blade you care about isn’t on either list, email us and we’ll add it to the buy queue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the rankings change?

Yes. As we accumulate more shaves on each blade and as new blades enter the database, rankings shift. The ranking table at the top is the current state, and it re-orders as data lands.

Why test on a TC4 titanium razor specifically?

The razor’s material affects vibration dampening, perceived weight, and how blade feedback transmits to your hand. Titanium dampens differently than zinc or stainless.

Do these results apply to the Vector 316L (stainless steel)?

Yes — directly. Same blade gap (0.76 mm), same head geometry. A blade ranked #1 here will rank #1 on the 316L.

The only context where material matters: TC4’s vibration dampening makes harsh blades (e.g., Feather) feel slightly less aggressive. On a 316L, the same blade transmits more feedback to your hand. Expect slightly stronger blade feedback if you’re a 316L owner reading TC4-specific notes.

Are these results applicable to non-Vector razors?

Partially. The biggest variable for blade behavior is blade gap. The Vector has a 0.76 mm gap with 0.14 mm exposure, which sits in the mild-to-moderate aggression range — the comfort zone for most daily-driver DE shavers.

If your razor has similar parameters (gap 0.5–0.85 mm, exposure under 0.2 mm, closed comb), these rankings should transfer reasonably well. If your razor is significantly more aggressive (gap > 1 mm, open comb), the ranking order may invert — sharper / harsher blades that we rate down may suit your setup better, and the smoother blades we favor may feel underpowered on a more aggressive head.

How can you trust this?

Every test session has video evidence and methodology is published above. See the Disclosure section for the full bias acknowledgment and countermeasures.

When will [specific blade] be tested?

See the queue above. New cluster compatibility tests are added as each blade clears the full 3-shave test cycle — the physical test cycle (exactly 3 shaves at 72-hour spacing = 7 days of shaves per blade) is the bottleneck on cadence.

How do you source the blades you test?

Test packs are purchased through verified retail distributors with broad DE blade selection. Counterfeit Voskhod and Astra packs exist on every large marketplace, so seller reputation is cross-checked before each order. ORMIXA pays retail price for every pack — no manufacturer samples, no affiliate links.

By editorial policy, ORMIXA does not provide blade purchase recommendations to readers. This database documents how specific third-party blades pair with Vector razors — it is not a buying guide for the blades themselves.

Best Double Edge Blades for Titanium Razors — Selection Method

“Best double edge blades titanium razor” is a heavier question than it looks. A ranking only transfers if the razor, the rubric, and the shave count behind it are fixed and disclosed.

Our method runs the opposite direction: same Vector head geometry (material variant logged per test), fixed rubric, multiple shaves per blade, video evidence per session. The “best” is whatever survives that protocol. Voskhod TC4 compatibility data is published (40/50); Derby Premium is queued at W10. As more pairings clear, the ranking re-orders here in this database — no fixed list, no affiliate-pressured shortlist.

About This Project

ORMIXA started this project because everyone kept asking the same question — “what blade?” — and the honest answer was “we don’t know, we never tested systematically.” This database is the fix.

Every test runs on our own daily-driver Vector — the material variant (TC4 or 316L) is logged per entry.

Read the full ORMIXA story →

Want to Try TC4 Yourself?

If you want to validate this testing methodology with your own blades, the Vector is the razor platform behind every test in this database (TC4 or 316L variant, logged per entry).

ORMIXA Vector TC4 →