What's new

Lambda Ares V2

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
I haven’t tried to classify my razors as tenor, baritone or bass so far, but I get why it might matter. You wouldn’t like the Blackland Blackbird - that’s a countertenor or falsetto.

No reason to get an Ares if you have the Athena. I am now getting shaves from my Athena that are as long lasting as I generally get from my WR2 1.55 or Rocnel Sailor. The Athena is plenty efficient for anyone when you get the optimal angle. And it shoots water from the sides, which never gets old.
I do love the water spout feature. I've never seen that before, obviously... It's an awesome design.... something unique, for me, at least.
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
It is a feature that is rivalled only by the ivory plastic knob on a Merkur Progress. Both are sufficient reasons to buy the razors regardless of anything else.
I only have one adjustable at the moment.. the Pearl Flexi, as I've mentioned.. but I do like the look of the Merkur Progress. I only have the 37C HD from them.
 
I only have one adjustable at the moment.. the Pearl Flexi, as I've mentioned.. but I do like the look of the Merkur Progress. I only have the 37C HD from them.
I’m not saying it is a must-have shaver. I’m just saying it has an ivory plastic knob. For me that makes it the most iconic razor of all - up there with the Coke bottle, the Jaguar E-type, or the Fender Stratocaster.
 
Last edited:

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
I’m not saying it is a must-have shaver. I’m just saying it has an ivory plastic knob. For me that makes it the most iconic razor of all - up there with the Coke bottle, the Jaguar E-type or the Fender Stratocaster.
I agree with you.. it makes it unique. As I've said, I would have purchased the Athena just for its beauty. It's an added bonus it shaves like it does. I would have displayed it in our house somewhere.... I have a Lie-Nielsen No. 5 Jack Plane set on a cherry plank on one of our butcher blocks... No. 5 Jack Plane - https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/no-5-jack-plane-?path=bench-planes&node=4065

I would have set up the Athena in similar fashion somewhere if it didn't shave well.
 
I am now getting shaves from my Athena that are as long lasting as I generally get from my WR2 1.55

The WR2 1.55 delivers a shave that leaves most faces super smooth for a
good 18-20 hours. Ive had a shave at 8pm and it feels like I just had a shave at 3pm the next day.
This is a razor that easily allows a 2-3 day gap between shaves depending on your requirements.

Athena, I haven't tried–and everyone says that it is a daily shaver...lasts about 8-10 hours.

I could never classify the 1.55 as a daily shaver cos there's virtually nothing to shave the next day.
 
The WR2 1.55 delivers a shave that leaves most faces super smooth for a
good 18-20 hours. Ive had a shave at 8pm and it feels like I just had a shave at 3pm the next day.
This is a razor that easily allows a 2-3 day gap between shaves depending on your requirements.

Athena, I haven't tried–and everyone says that it is a daily shaver...lasts about 8-10 hours.

I could never classify the 1.55 as a daily shaver cos there's virtually nothing to shave the next day.
What causes one BBS shave to last longer than another BBS shave? It can only be achieved by shaving more perfectly close to the skin, and cutting the stubble more flat, right? That isn’t necessarily the result of a more efficient razor - to me efficiency means getting to BBS with fewer strokes and less buffing, not necessarily anything to do with whether that BBS is more perfectly close to the skin surface. So long as I cannot feel the hair in any direction after the shave it is BBS, but there can still be differences that I am unable to feel, and these differences must determine the duration of the BBS shave.

I definitely agree the WR2 1.55 is much more efficient than the Lambda Athena. It gets me to BBS quicker, with less work than the Athena. But I am still able to cut the hair equally close to my skin with the Athena as I am with the WR2, so it doesn’t surprise me if the shave lasts just as long. I have to use more strokes and buff more, but it still gets to BBS and why couldn’t the result last just as long as the WR2?

What is more interesting to me is if my Lambda Ares will continue to give me even longer lasting BBS shaves than my Wolfman WR2. Why would that be? The WR2 is still much more efficient. I can imagine that the angle the blade cuts my hair is a factor (I shave very steep with the WR2 so the blade edge wouldn’t be cutting parallel to my skin), as well as how rigid the blade edge is so that it cuts directly at the base of the hair and is not slightly deflected by the hair (the Ares is clamped along the blade edge just 0.55mm from the edge so it must be super-rigid).

That’s not to say it is impossible for me to get a 15hr BBS shave from the WR2 rather than the 12hrs I usually get, or that I couldn’t also get 15hrs from the Athena, for that matter. But for the way I am shaving I get 12hrs from the WR2. Maybe if I used the WR2 differently (e.g. a really shallow angle) I could learn to get even longer lasting shaves than 12hrs, but I don’t have any need to and doing it might make the WR2 less comfortable or less efficient.
 
Last edited:

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
What causes one BBS shave to last longer than another BBS shave? It can only be achieved by shaving more perfectly close to the skin, and cutting the stubble more flat, right? That isn’t necessarily the result of a more efficient razor - to me efficiency means getting to BBS with fewer strokes and less buffing, not necessarily anything to do with whether that BBS is more perfectly close to the skin surface. So long as I cannot feel the hair in any direction after the shave it is BBS, but there can still be differences that I am unable to feel, and these differences must determine the duration of the BBS shave.

I definitely agree the WR2 1.55 is much more efficient than the Lambda Athena. It gets me to BBS quicker, with less work than the Athena. But I am still able to cut the hair equally close to my skin with the Athena as I am with the WR2, so it doesn’t surprise me if the shave lasts just as long. I have to use more strokes and buff more, but it still gets to BBS and why couldn’t the result last just as long as the WR2?

What is more interesting to me is if my Lambda Ares will continue to give me even longer lasting BBS shaves than my Wolfman WR2. Why would that be? The WR2 is still much more efficient. I can imagine that the angle the blade cuts my hair is a factor (I shave very steep with the WR2 so the blade edge wouldn’t be cutting parallel to my skin), as well as how rigid the blade edge is so that it cuts directly at the base of the hair and is not slightly deflected by the hair (the Ares is clamped along the blade edge just 0.55mm from the edge so it must be super-rigid).

That’s not to say it is impossible for me to get a 15hr BBS shave from the WR2 rather than the 12hrs I usually get, or that I couldn’t also get 15hrs from the Athena, for that matter. But for the way I am shaving I get 12hrs from the WR2. Maybe if I used the WR2 differently (e.g. a really shallow angle) I could learn to get even longer lasting shaves than 12hrs, but I don’t have any need to and doing it might make the WR2 less comfortable or less efficient.
I didn’t notice, how many hours do you get from the Athena? I shaved at 5PM, so I’d have to set my alarm for 3AM for a ten hour check. When I got up at 6:30AM this, I could barely feel the whiskers on my chin. At 2:15, my cheek whiskers are not visible like the are on my chin but I can definitely feel them.
 
I didn’t notice, how many hours do you get from the Athena? I shaved at 5PM, so I’d have to set my alarm for 3AM for a ten hour check. When I got up at 6:30AM this, I could barely feel the whiskers on my chin. At 2:15, my cheek whiskers are not visible like the are on my chin but I can definitely feel them.
Last shave with my Athena lasted 12hrs, which is more than I had before (8-10hrs). I used a slightly less steep angle this time and it really seemed to make the shave both closer and more efficient as well.

I generally do not expect to get longer than 12hrs BBS with any razor, but rarely I do get a bit more. A 15hr BBS shave is the most I’ve ever had before I can start to feel some regrowth in a couple of spots.

Of course your hair grows at a different rate than mine, so who knows what your equivalent to my 12hrs is.
 
Last shave with my Athena lasted 12hrs, which is more than I had before (8-10hrs). I used a slightly less steep angle this time and it really seemed to make the shave both closer and more efficient as well.

I generally do not expect to get longer than 12hrs BBS with any razor, but rarely I do get a bit more. A 15hr BBS shave is the most I’ve ever had before I can start to feel some regrowth in a couple of spots.

Of course your hair grows at a different rate than mine, so who knows what your equivalent to my 12hrs is.
And that's the only accurate answer to questions like this - "How long does your BBS shave last?" "It depends..."
 
I definitely agree the WR2 1.55 is much more efficient than the Lambda Athena. It gets me to BBS quicker, with less work than the Athena.

What do you mean "less work"...the work with any razor is the same. The more efficient razor simply produces
a BBS that lasts discernibly longer.
 
What do you mean "less work"...the work with any razor is the same. The more efficient razor simply produces
a BBS that lasts discernibly longer.
That’s different from what I mean by efficient. I mean fewer strokes, not having to go over the same area multiple times. If I can get my face smooth in two passes without needing to buff, that’s a highly efficient razor. Less efficient razors tend to require more buffing, but they are usually milder so you can buff more without irritation.

For me the result is always BBS, and the number of strokes to get there is the variable that defines efficiency. For you the number of strokes is the same and the closeness of your resulting shave is the variable.
 
Last edited:
I alternate between a 1.55 and a mild razor most times, and to my best recollection
the number of strokes it takes to get the job done is more or less the same.

No matter how much you buff with a mild razor, the BBS with the 1.55 will outlast the former.
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
Last shave with my Athena lasted 12hrs, which is more than I had before (8-10hrs). I used a slightly less steep angle this time and it really seemed to make the shave both closer and more efficient as well.

I generally do not expect to get longer than 12hrs BBS with any razor, but rarely I do get a bit more. A 15hr BBS shave is the most I’ve ever had before I can start to feel some regrowth in a couple of spots.

Of course your hair grows at a different rate than mine, so who knows what your equivalent to my 12hrs is.
That makes sense. Over the months we’ve known each other, we seem to get similar results when we use the same equipment, all things being unequal. That’s why I end up asking you so many questions.
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
I agree with you.. it makes it unique. As I've said, I would have purchased the Athena just for its beauty. It's an added bonus it shaves like it does. I would have displayed it in our house somewhere.... I have a Lie-Nielsen No. 5 Jack Plane set on a cherry plank on one of our butcher blocks... No. 5 Jack Plane - https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/no-5-jack-plane-?path=bench-planes&node=4065

I would have set up the Athena in similar fashion somewhere if it didn't shave well.
Not that it matters to anyone but me, but my Lie-Nielsen is actually this No. 5 1/2 plane: No. 5-1/2 Jack Plane - https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/no-5-1-2-jack-plane-?path=bench-planes&node=4065

I have a Stanley No. 5 Jack plane. ;)
 
Hello
I’m the one that did the Greek video for Ares and I made one in English, hope you enjoy it
Thanks for making this video, Kostas. I enjoyed it. It’s nice to get to know you, and your English is very good - don’t worry about that.

As you said, the Ares has zero blade exposure but by some magic you can still feel it. If I shave over a part of my face that is already smooth I can say there is no blade feel at all - so it really doesn’t have blade exposure - but when it is cutting hair I get plenty of feel and feedback. The genius of these razors (the Athena too) is how they can be so efficient and give so much positive feedback when they are so gentle to the skin.

I completely share your enthusiasm for Lambda razors. It is not only that the razors perform so well, it is that they are so beautiful, well made, and nicely presented. I cannot wait to see what Theo invents next.
 
Top Bottom