So I finally bought the venerable Wilkinson Sword Classic DE Razor

[barbicidal]

After years of reading people extol it's virtues, I finally gave in and bought one for $10 bucks shipped from eBay. See, I'd been reading about it for so long, saw it in plenty of videos and SOTD posts. But I couldn't get past that "it is a MILD razor" that everyone mentions in all posts about. Ive got a dense, coarse beard and "mild" is offputting.

But, after getting a free Razorock Tech and being blown away by it I pulled out my old Gillette tech and had great shaves with that for a month. So that made me rethink my thoughts about the word "mild" as its applied to razors and I figured "hey. Might as well try this thing everyone talks about."

It came in today, I put a 5th shave Feather in it to tackle 48 hours growth. WOW. 3 passes, with no-lather touchups. No blood. No nicks. No alum burn. Gave me an effortless BBS. I liked it so much I ordered two more before I put on my aftershave balm because I would easily pay $30 for one of these (I've paid $30 for razors that werent worth it to me).

Anyone out there had a bad experience with this thing?

 

[RandyC]

A scan of eBay gives me 3 different choices. Could you post a picture to narrow the search?

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

 

[Highspeedlane]

Never used one but it's always good to read positive reviews of a new acquisition. Congrats on the shaves.

 

[barbicidal]

A scan of eBay gives me 3 different choices. Could you post a picture to narrow the search?

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

From the seller chocolate_uk
I ordered it on the 14th and it reached me here in the states on the 23rd.

 

[adamchur]

For as long as I could remember they sold them in Boots the chemist in the UK for about £5.
In 1996 when I dropped my Remington Straight Razor in the sink and rendered it useless for shaving because there was a nasty kink in the cutting edge, I bought a Wilkinson Sword Classic and used it every day for about 3 years - until I got suckered into trying out the Gillette Mach 3 on special offer, and ended up getting brainwashed into upgrading to the newer and better Mach 3 Turbo, then the newer and better M3, and finally to the newer and better M3 Power - until I came back to my senses and started DE shaving again in November 2014

For what is basically a no frills 2-piece DE razor, the Wilkinson Sword Classic is probably the best value for money - it's cheap to buy, virtually indestructible, very efficient to shave with, yet virtually harmless unless your hand slips.
IMHO - it's equally useful as a starter razor or as a travel razor

 

[RandyC]

View attachment 764042

From the seller chocolate_uk
I ordered it on the 14th and it reached me here in the states on the 23rd.

Sweet, thanks!

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

 

[RandyC]

This was the main other option that had me confused:

I see now that it isn't a Wilkinson razor.

There's also some colored ones.

 

[dil_5]

This was the razor that I received for Christmas and my first De. It has given me my best shaves ever and also my worst. I think it may be because the blade appears to lay flat rather then curved so there doesn't seem to be much of a margin of error with angle, it's either right or wrong there's no in between. Also the light weight makes it tempting to apply pressure. I'm currently using a Parker 26c and have a slim on the way but will be going back to this razor once I've developed technique as I know this razor can give a lovely shave if you hit the sweet spot with angle and pressure. As a side note I hated the blades that came with it but that may be because they were the 1st de blades I ever tried and I'm being a bad workman and blaming tools.

 

[BigJ]

Congrats!

 

[zoidberg]

Anyone out there had a bad experience with this thing?

No bad experiences to report from myself. It is my first DE razor which I purchased from a high street chemist for £3.20, which I have been using most days for the last 6 months.

It is on the mild side of things but with a blade on the sharper side of things I get a 3 pass BBS without too much bother.

 

[BSAGuy]

Well done on the Wilkie.

 

[DougK]

It's one of my favorite DE razors, no doubt. I have a backup still sealed in the original package in case something happens to the one I'm using.

 

[engblom]

The myth that coarse beard requires aggressive razor has been repeated by so many so many times. It is not a strange thing you avoided mild razors. But now you have found the truth .

It is the blade cutting the whiskers, not the razor.

 

[Bookworm]

Man, and here I was sharpening the guard bar. You mean all I had to do was use a blade?