Vintage Travelling Blade reviews: Gillette Super Stainless 'Spoiler'

[Monsta_AU]

To say that I would rapidly buy 200 of these if they were still available probably sums it up.

Only 200?? They are still available, you just need to keep an eye out on fleabay.

There's a touch of menace to these blades though. One could almost describe it as a "toughness". It's a very sharp blade with a slightly harsh feel as it just mows through the beard. I'm going to put the harshness down to my technique, because I think it came down to the pressure I used and my skin wasn't overly irritated as though it had been scraped raw. Despite having no visual redness or irritation, a pass with an alum block woke me up. This shave is really up there as far as good ones that I've had so far. I pushed it hard though, and if history is any indication of the future, I'll get some irritation over the next couple of days to punish my desire for a BBS shave.

First rule of a new blade - NO PRESSURE! Yes these are sharp blades, the pinnacle of Gillette DE blade manufacturing if you ask me. I have tried Gillette Platinum Plus and I do not think them as good as Spoilers.

Don't push it so hard, let the weight of the razor do the work. The first shave is ultra-sharp while the second might also be a bit sharp. After that the 'Feather-ness' falls away and you get the smooth glide with effortless shaving and longevity.

Having busted out a ripper shave with the 34C, I'm feeling content to follow up with the following over the next few shaves:

Nah, Fatboy on 9 with Bobby & Proraso Red. Do the WTG and then wash off and feel. Then wind it back a little for XTG/ATG. I'd go Slim after that, but you really should go for the Fatboy with Proraso Red (my main combo of late) on the second run.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank RM and everyone else involved for this opportunity again! My only regret is not taking up DE shaving a year ago, when these were actually around.

Mate, you are most welcome. It's comments like yours that made me want to share what I thought are some pretty decent blades which are harder to find now. You can still get Spoilers and Shicks easily enough, just have to put your money where your mouth is.

 

[Nick the Knife]

~3rd or 4th shave with this blade, moved it over to a Slim. Definitely noticed that the real EDGE of it was gone. Still a good shave but lacking that WOW factor that the first few uses had. Don't know if I'll push it to the max to see how many shaves I can get from these, might pull up stumps after another 2.

 

[mr626]

So in total I got 7 shaves out of this, which is the most I've got from any blade. Thinking about it though, I really pushed it with the Spoiler due to its reputation, so I'll have to try again with some modern blades and see if I can't get a few more out of them too.

Overall, I liked the Spoiler. It is easily one of the best blades I've used in terms of sharpness, smoothness and longevity. However, I think Feathers are close enough to be considered a good in-production substitute (for me anyway, YMMV).

Thanks for the chance to try one out RM, much appreciated.

 

[Mong.]

Second shave with this blade, paired with the 34C. Omega 49 with Mike's Natural Orange/Cedarwood/Peppercorn is a combination that's started working quite well for me. I was in a hurry so I didn't have the luxury of taking it slow and enjoying the blade, but I achieved a really close and irritation free shave again. I enjoyed the feel of the blade a bit more compared to the first time, it continues to glide very smoothly through my beard growth and the lack of irritation has resulted in me getting some of the closest shaves I've managed to achieve thus far. Compared to the Perma-Sharp Super and the Super Iridium group, these are similar but noticeable superior. I usually get a little bit of irritation from them, but not this blade. Very pleasing.

There's been interesting variation between the length of time some of you guys have persisted with the Spoiler. Some of y'all are around 6 shaves, and GT got to 10. Kinda curious to see how far I can push this.

 

[JayDee]

I don't have one of the traveling blades but I did get an unused pack with a Slim I got off Ebay. Threw one in the Slim today for the first time after several shaves with an Astra SP in the Slim. What can I say but FMD 1 pass with the Spoiler was like 2 passes with the Astra and it just sliced through 3 days worth of face fungus like it wasn't even there...

Can anyone explain to me why a 49 year old blade which with the passing of the years, after all these are not hermetically sealed but exposed to the atmosphere, can outperform just about anything made these days? So much for progress!

 

[bodge]

outperform just about anything made these days? So much for progress!

Rubbish, a blade that costs mere cents to the consumer and lasts 3 times as long as a $5 cartridge is not outperforming - Gillette executive.

I had the exact same thoughts with a gillette bleueu extra. I don't have real proof, but it could be the alloy that they start with is thicker or just a better mix to allow the grind and edge to be more accurate and wear nicely. It is a shame that just about the entire male population has been swayed by marketing slick or otherwise. We may have seen even better blades had we stayed the course.

 

[Pjotr]

...............It is a shame that just about the entire male population has been swayed by marketing slick or otherwise. We may have seen even better blades had we stayed the course.

But we've been swayed by marketing slick since day one. And let's face it, unless you know what you're doing, DE shaving is not exactly fool proof whereas the three blade/throw away/cartirdge stuff pretty much is. I'm sure if they had the technology to produce cartridge razors back in 1900 we'd be talking about DE as we now do about SE shaving; some obscure off shoot and precurser to the real deal.

My opinion of why the unobtanium blades were canned is because they generally lasted too long. You can't charge twice to three times as much as your average MUM blade so you're always going to lose out.

 

[JayDee]

Shave four with the Spoiler today. The damn thing is getting better! I got a BBS with 1 1/2 passes, 1 x WTG and then all I needed was a bit of an ATG touch up under the chin, nose and that awkward bit under the bottom lip. I can feel that it has lost a bit of that "I'm gunna bite you if you aren't careful" sharpness but still hacks off the growth effortlessly. I'll get 7 -8 shaves out of it easy...

I think I'll spend the rest of the long weekend inventing a time machine so I can go back to the 1960's and buy a pallet load of them... mg:

 

[Monsta_AU]

I think I'll spend the rest of the long weekend inventing a time machine so I can go back to the 1960's and buy a pallet load of them... mg:

Only a pallet? I was thinking a whole Semi worth.

 

[Mark1966]

I think I'll spend the rest of the long weekend inventing a time machine so I can go back to the 1960's and buy a pallet load of them... mg:

Tell me how you go - I've got a few things to add to your shopping list mg:

 

[JayDee]

Shave 7 with the Spoiler this morning. It fell off the cliff after the first pass in my opinion. After shave 6 I was still pretty happy with the blade, I could feel it going off but slowly, so I thought. It went OK on the first pass but really struggled to finish the job after that. Can't complain though as it gave me 6 BBS shaves...

 

[Mong.]

I've had four shaves with the Spoiler so far, and not much has changed. I discontinued these for a week so that I could finally try a Feather, and it was handy to be able to compare the sharpness of these two blades. The Feather is dangerously and umcomfortably sharp for me, but it did give me a very close shave with only a small amount of irritation. I don't believe that the Spoiler possesses many of the same attributes as the Feather, but I have achieved extremely close shaves with both blades. Although I would consider both of them to be high on the 'sharp' spectrum, the Spoiler is completely different for me in terms of comfort and enjoyment. It's less sharp but much more comfortable, a noticeable improvement on my favoured Perma-Sharps and Super Iridium's. Like everyone has said already, it's quite clearly an exceptional blades that ticks all the right boxes for me.

It's actually a little hard to elaborate more on these. It's just a good combination of sharpness and smoothness, and that works really well for me. The main thing distinguishing these from other blades for me is just how close I can get with these and still avoid irritation. It is fair to say that I've had the closest and most consistent shaves of my short wet-shaving time with these, but it's my ability to get a BBS shave with zero irritation that impresses me. I can usually get a BBS shave with anything I commonly use now, but it will quite often come at the expense of a small red neck patch. That's not the case with these, and that does contribute significantly to my shaving enjoyment.

I enjoyed it a little more in the 34C than with the Fatboy on 7. I'm going to dial it back to 4 and see if I like it a bit more. I tried briefly in the Tech and it was fine, but really, nothing gained over the 34C. Nice and mild and smooth though. I could be pretty happy just using a Tech, it's a nice razor that seems to work well for me with pretty much everything. I should try a Feather in it, perhaps.

I'm going to have one more shave with this tonight or tomorrow, then I'm going to bench it for a little bit and jump across to the Personna or Schick for comparison.

 

[Mong.]

I had a brilliantly smooth and enjoyable shave with this again this morning. Fatboy on 3 (made it exceptionally mild, cut through the beard like butter), Mike's Natural Orange/Cedarwood/Peppercorn and the Omega 49. It's been a bit hot down here this week, so it was nice to scrape my face clean. Most enjoyable shave with this so far. That makes five shaves down, and the Spoiler is getting benched now for a little while. I'm going to push on to the Schick.

 

[Nick the Knife]

I know it's not the SAME Vintage Gillette but the SUper Silver that was kindly put into the rotation by someone has been excellent. I've been using it in my Merkur 37c and its a real pleasure to use. Highly recommended, nice sharp/smooth balance.

 

[Pjotr]

I know it's not the SAME Vintage Gillette but the SUper Silver that was kindly put into the rotation by someone has been excellent. I've been using it in my Merkur 37c and its a real pleasure to use. Highly recommended, nice sharp/smooth balance.

That was me via Mark. Glad you're finding it a good blade. I liked it too.