Excellent. I'll have to stop over and take a look at some of his other offerings.
THEHTGAM/PPF/PH0ENIX/D0UGLAS/H0DGES/FRANCES Thread
- Thread starter jiaconianni
- Start date
Excellent. I'll have to stop over and take a look at some of his other offerings.
I ordered the PAA DOC Evolution Aluminus exactly because of how efficient it's supposed to be. The Charcoal Goods razors are way out of the price range for me, as good as they may be - the Evolution Aluminus already hit the upper level there.
I also have the (pretty cheap) Rapira Platinum Lux razor instead of the iKon Tech and while it's very good (about on par with the R41), I do have a preference for open combs.
My son gave me 2 PAA soaps (SpeakEasy and Cavendish) for Christmas and both are great performers. I've been switching back and forth between the 2 since Christmas (so about 2 1/2 months), shave 6 - 7 times a week, bowl lather, 2-pass shaves. I've used up almost, but not quite 1/2 +/- of each. I do go a bit overboard making lather.
So, for me (YMMV, of course), 2 PAA soaps represent about 5+ months of shaving.
I use Gondolier AS splash regularly. Love the scent!
I have a few of their soaps and aftershaves, although I prefer tallow soaps mostly for after face feel,
PAA products are very nice.
PAA products are very nice.
I also got it as a gift from my wife. I really like the scent, simple barbershop with a floral/amber-ish twist.
If you like the soaps, you'll love the aftershaves. I've now got 16 of them, in full bottles, and find them to be the best family of aftershaves on my counter, including Myrsols, Floids, Pinauds, even Wm Neumanns (which are also awesome).
I find PAA's soaps performance second to absolutely none. Their balms are incredible also, in addition to the aftershaves/colognes. I will say however, I wish they had samples only because there are so many. The aftershave samples are what they want you to use for the scent but it's not a great comparison IMO. My fav scents from them are Sangre de Drago, The WOW Factor, 11235 and Grove which is a seasonal. Grove is one of my top 5 scents from any artisan. I want to try N and High Jump 47.
Try raising the angle of the head, by lifting your hand higher with the Prismatic. It's pretty smooth and not very aggressive.
Thoughts?
Vodka?
Blade Comparison Test: Silver Star (from Lord of Egypt) and Astra Super Platinum
Each blade in a PAA Bakelite Slant.
The PAA Bakelite Slant is an interesting and increasingly popular slant bar razor. However, it appears to be one of those razors that's a little blade fussy. So I've been testing a series of blades in it. I do the same shave prep, shave one half or my face with one blade, the other half with the other blade.
The Blades:
I've recently become quite fond of this blade. Another fan of the PAA Bakelite slant has described it at some length. In my RR Wunderbar slant it's wonderfully smooth and efficient. Would it outperform the Astra in the PAA Bakelite slant?
I've used the Astra SP for a few years, and in every razor I have own, at different times. It's always a solid, reliable blade. Not always the sharpest, or longest lasting but very smooth. It's also invariable cheap to buy.
Shave Prep:
I always wash my face and soften my beard with two washes in very warm water with a glycerin soap. Then I use a pre-shave oil. For all my tests, for consistency, I use an Arko shave stick and my Stirling Kong synthetic brush.
The Shave:
Both blades on a three pass (WTG, XTG and ATG) shave produced a decent shave. Nothing like as close, comfortable and efficient as my darling RR Wunderbar, but then PAA Bakelite slant is a $20 razor.
I found that the Silver Star was very, very good but the Astra was just a shade more comfortable to use.
Both blades worked well on all passes, but I once again found the Astra just a tiny bit smoother.
I'm not saying the Astra SP is always a better blade. However, if you use the PAA Bakelite slant I think you will find it pairs with the Astra SP very well. This combination of low cost, the Astra blades are cheap and readily available, and the PAA Bakelite Slant is only $19.95, may make this a strong contender as a low cost, lightweight travel razor.
Each blade in a PAA Bakelite Slant.
The PAA Bakelite Slant is an interesting and increasingly popular slant bar razor. However, it appears to be one of those razors that's a little blade fussy. So I've been testing a series of blades in it. I do the same shave prep, shave one half or my face with one blade, the other half with the other blade.
The Blades:
I've recently become quite fond of this blade. Another fan of the PAA Bakelite slant has described it at some length. In my RR Wunderbar slant it's wonderfully smooth and efficient. Would it outperform the Astra in the PAA Bakelite slant?
I've used the Astra SP for a few years, and in every razor I have own, at different times. It's always a solid, reliable blade. Not always the sharpest, or longest lasting but very smooth. It's also invariable cheap to buy.
Shave Prep:
I always wash my face and soften my beard with two washes in very warm water with a glycerin soap. Then I use a pre-shave oil. For all my tests, for consistency, I use an Arko shave stick and my Stirling Kong synthetic brush.
The Shave:
Both blades on a three pass (WTG, XTG and ATG) shave produced a decent shave. Nothing like as close, comfortable and efficient as my darling RR Wunderbar, but then PAA Bakelite slant is a $20 razor.
I found that the Silver Star was very, very good but the Astra was just a shade more comfortable to use.
Both blades worked well on all passes, but I once again found the Astra just a tiny bit smoother.
I'm not saying the Astra SP is always a better blade. However, if you use the PAA Bakelite slant I think you will find it pairs with the Astra SP very well. This combination of low cost, the Astra blades are cheap and readily available, and the PAA Bakelite Slant is only $19.95, may make this a strong contender as a low cost, lightweight travel razor.
Blade Comparison Test: Silver Star (from Lord of Egypt) and Astra Super Platinum
Each blade in a PAA Bakelite Slant.
The PAA Bakelite Slant is an interesting and increasingly popular slant bar razor. However, it appears to be one of those razors that's a little blade fussy. So I've been testing a series of blades in it. I do the same shave prep, shave one half or my face with one blade, the other half with the other blade.
The Blades:
I've recently become quite fond of this blade. Another fan of the PAA Bakelite slant has described it at some length. In my RR Wunderbar slant it's wonderfully smooth and efficient. Would it outperform the Astra in the PAA Bakelite slant?
I've used the Astra SP for a few years, and in every razor I have own, at different times. It's always a solid, reliable blade. Not always the sharpest, or longest lasting but very smooth. It's also invariable cheap to buy.
Shave Prep:
I always wash my face and soften my beard with two washes in very warm water with a glycerin soap. Then I use a pre-shave oil. For all my tests, for consistency, I use an Arko shave stick and my Stirling Kong synthetic brush.
The Shave:
Both blades on a three pass (WTG, XTG and ATG) shave produced a decent shave. Nothing like as close, comfortable and efficient as my darling RR Wunderbar, but then PAA Bakelite slant is a $20 razor.
I found that the Silver Star was very, very good but the Astra was just a shade more comfortable to use.
Both blades worked well on all passes, but I once again found the Astra just a tiny bit smoother.
I'm not saying the Astra SP is always a better blade. However, if you use the PAA Bakelite slant I think you will find it pairs with the Astra SP very well. This combination of low cost, the Astra blades are cheap and readily available, and the PAA Bakelite Slant is only $19.95, may make this a strong contender as a low cost, lightweight travel razor.
Each blade in a PAA Bakelite Slant.
The PAA Bakelite Slant is an interesting and increasingly popular slant bar razor. However, it appears to be one of those razors that's a little blade fussy. So I've been testing a series of blades in it. I do the same shave prep, shave one half or my face with one blade, the other half with the other blade.
The Blades:
I've recently become quite fond of this blade. Another fan of the PAA Bakelite slant has described it at some length. In my RR Wunderbar slant it's wonderfully smooth and efficient. Would it outperform the Astra in the PAA Bakelite slant?
I've used the Astra SP for a few years, and in every razor I have own, at different times. It's always a solid, reliable blade. Not always the sharpest, or longest lasting but very smooth. It's also invariable cheap to buy.
Shave Prep:
I always wash my face and soften my beard with two washes in very warm water with a glycerin soap. Then I use a pre-shave oil. For all my tests, for consistency, I use an Arko shave stick and my Stirling Kong synthetic brush.
The Shave:
Both blades on a three pass (WTG, XTG and ATG) shave produced a decent shave. Nothing like as close, comfortable and efficient as my darling RR Wunderbar, but then PAA Bakelite slant is a $20 razor.
I found that the Silver Star was very, very good but the Astra was just a shade more comfortable to use.
Both blades worked well on all passes, but I once again found the Astra just a tiny bit smoother.
I'm not saying the Astra SP is always a better blade. However, if you use the PAA Bakelite slant I think you will find it pairs with the Astra SP very well. This combination of low cost, the Astra blades are cheap and readily available, and the PAA Bakelite Slant is only $19.95, may make this a strong contender as a low cost, lightweight travel razor.
Nice review. I have found that the Astra SP blade works the best for me with the PAA Bakelite Slant also. I tried other blades and the shave seemed very rough then I tried the Astra and I couldn't believe how close and smooth the shave was.
Yes, I keep finding the same thing. It's almost mysterious how much this balde and razor like each other. Any idea whym or what the characteristic is of the Astra that makes this so?
I wonder if our resident blade geek @ShavingByTheNumbers could throw some light on the subject.It's one of the mysteries of shaving.
Are you there Grant?
