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Rapira Platinum Lux - the Razor not the Blade

Had my first shave with the Rapira this morning using a Rapira Swedish SuperSteel blade and ABC soap and while it is impossible to judge a razor by one shave I was impressed . I have a R41 2013 , a Shavecraft Tech and a Piccolo in my rotation and the Rapira does belong in the same conversation . IMO it is not as aggressive as the Tech but smoother, the Rapira was efficient and smooth and a real find for $10 CAD .While not replacing the R41 2013 as my preferred balance of smooth and efficient it will find a place in my den. Nice to know you don't need to spend a lot to find a good performing razor.
Glenn

Well said. As I mentioned in my post above, I also find that a negative for the RPL is I have to rinse it out much more frequently than the R41 or Shavecraft Tech. Do you notice that as well?
 
Well said. As I mentioned in my post above, I also find that a negative for the RPL is I have to rinse it out much more frequently than the R41 or Shavecraft Tech. Do you notice that as well?

Well I've just spent a week with the Rapira, trying to love it and see what the hype is about. Mine is nowhere near as aggressive as some here have reported and when I compare my blade gap and exposure to the photo early in this thread, they are nothing alike.

So clearly there are huge manufacturing tolerances and it's pot luck what you get, somewhat similar to the cheap Chinese razors.

I finally gave up on the Rapira after trying to shave a few weeks growth from the back of my neck because I couldn't get to the barber.

Had to dismantle the razor between each stroke to remove the hair. First time I've had to do that with any of my DE razors.
 
Well said. As I mentioned in my post above, I also find that a negative for the RPL is I have to rinse it out much more frequently than the R41 or Shavecraft Tech. Do you notice that as well?

I rinse frequently so I didn't have a problem with clogging , I would rate mine in the Piccolo range of aggressiveness and just as smooth but not as smooth or aggressive as my R41 2013. All in all a nice razor and as [MENTION=72927]Ozziedoc[/MENTION] said it is inexpensive and probably has a variation in the quality of the shave for each razor. I'm also a steep angle shaver and the Rapira seemed to like a steep angle and 2 passes and limited touch ups gave me a very respectable shave, better than I expected.

Glenn
 
Mine arrived today from voskhod.eu and it ended up pretty much a bummer. $7 down the drain. The safety bar is weird and looks like it's a defective piece. One side is flatter and the other side is bent inward much more.

$FullSizeRender 2.jpg $FullSizeRender.jpg

The blade gap on the left edge is clearly way more than on the right edge. Maybe I should use one edge fully for first pass and the other (smaller gap) for subsequent passes :\
 
Mine are not quite bent the same either, but somehow the blade is evenly gapped on both sides. So I'd have to assume there's some kind of slight defect in that cap as well or something?
 
So after an email, voskhod.eu was awesome enough to dispatch a replacement razor free of cost. And they dispatched the metal handle variant this time. Looking forward! Hope the head is perfect this time.
:thumbup: That's great. Keep us posted please.
 
I received my YingJili 8306L today.

I also ordered the Rapira Platinum Lux double edge safety razor, and the YingJili double edge safety razor through eBay. They are the identical razor (with different names ("Rapira" / "YingJili") on the caps). I only paid $1.73 for the YingJili razor, which had 1 YingJili razor blade included. . . I paid $7.75 for the Rapira Platinum Lux (plastic handle) razor, which had 5 Rapira Platinum Lux razor blades included. . . Both razors were shipped to my home for free & no tax was charged. Both are (the same) excellent shaving razor!!!
They look very similar, but none of the three parts are identical to each other.

So now we can say there's a razor to rival the Shavecraft Tech for less than $2.00

It says a lot about branding that somehow in my mind the Rapira PL seems way cooler than the Yingjili.
I like the all over shinier finish on the YingJili:
View attachment 693755

But I doubt if I'll bother shaving with it. It looks to me like no challenge for the RPL whatever.

Here (again) is the business profile of my RPL:
$RPL-Feather-Profile.jpg

And here's the business profile of the YingJili 8306L:
$Y-4.jpg
Which looks very mild to me.

Just for the record the RPL weighs in 14% heavier at 28.7g (the YingJili 8306L being 25.1g).
 
I received my YingJili 8306L today.


They look very similar, but none of the three parts are identical to each other.


I like the all over shinier finish on the YingJili:
View attachment 693755

But I doubt if I'll bother shaving with it. It looks to me like no challenge for the RPL whatever.

Here (again) is the business profile of my RPL:
View attachment 693756

And here's the business profile of the YingJili 8306L:
View attachment 693758
Which looks very mild to me.

Just for the record the RPL weighs in 14% heavier at 28.7g (the YingJili 8306L being 25.1g).

Whoa! So they're not the same razor after all? And the Yingjili is mild???
Thanks for the clarification - so the Rapira PL is still out in front, in a class of its own!
 
My Yingjili arrived today and as [MENTION=106012]1Cal[/MENTION] has observed, it is most definitely NOT THE SAME as the Rapira PL.

Again appearances are deceptive but it's all in the geometry.

The baseplate of the Yingjili is different from the Rapira PL although the handle and top cap look very similar.

The Yingjili and the very similar Baili as well as all the plastic handled Tech-like clones are mild razors.
As we've said before, the Rapira PL looks almost identical but it is super fierce, so don't be fooled!
 
I bought this $6 razor (shipping included) based on reading this thread because it was categorized as hyper-aggressive and smooth, and in the same league as the Muhle R41 and iKon Tech. Since I'm on an aggressive razor kick these days, getting one was a no brainer. The fact that two people here that recommend the razor are also big fans of the Knockout razor means the Rapira might also be a good fit for me.

Mine took less than 2 weeks to come from Russia, and there are no obvious bends or serious QC issues. My first shave was with a Feather with about 55 shaves on it (Excalibur!)

Aye Caramba is this thing fierce. It does feel a lot like my R41, raw and powerful. The iKon Tech feels equally aggressive to me, but a touch more refined.

The handle is the biggest surprise. It's lightweight plastic, long and tapering, which makes the razor very top heavy with almost zero weight on the handle, and for some reason, it really works well. Who would have thunk.

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So the second Rapira razor (steel handle) arrived today. No defects this time, alignment and blade gap were both even and perfect. I took it for a ride immediately on my one week's dense growth. Used Trigodon's Calm Seas soap and a Wilkinson Sword blade (with 1 shave on it). The razor effortlessly mowed down everything in sight on the cheeks and the neck. But...

The shave on the chin and under the nose was awful. It took 4 passes on the chin and the razor was struggling. And I wasn't looking for a BBS shave. The razor couldn't even cut the whiskers on the chin to a decently close enough level. In the end enough was enough and the ultimate insult - I picked up a Gillette Fusion cartridge razor to get the chin done. Plenty of burns on the chin. No weepers or nicks. The razor isn't as fearsome as I thought it would be. Will try another shave in 3-4 days with Feather. Maybe the Wilkinson died right after the first shave. It usually gives me two good 3-pass shaves. Of all the variables, I feel the blade wasn't sharp enough. The lather was good, as usual and the angle was comfortable too on the Rapira. This was without a doubt, my worst shave ever.
 
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