Ming Shui Double Edge Safety Razor

This is the first shaver I've used and had it for eight months. I recently purchased a Fat Boy Gillette at EBay and am comparing the two.

Having used the Fatboy and enjoyed its weight, grip and the smoothness of the pull, I'm returning to the Ming Shi for a few reasons.

The Ming Shi is simply more precise. You can feel exactly where the blade is at any time, and adjust blade angle very precisely as you go. The head is flatter than the Gillette and you simply feel where you are on the road much better than the Fatboy. The razor is so well tuned you can hear each hair being cut. The razor magnifies the sound, like a guitar. And that feedback is very helpful when you are cutting through foam and trying to confirm your angle is right and you are actually cutting hair.

The FatBoy is like driving an old Cadillac. Very very smooth drive, but it slides on the road, cornering is less accurate, with more slippage, and the head is so heavy against your skin you can't hear the hairs being cut nor feel the blade as you can with the Ming Shi, and so you are not as sure of where your angle is. You have to guess and confirm after the pass. So the result is not so precise.

Having adjusted the FatBoy to my preference, the FatBoy at level 5-7 is about what you achieve with the Ming Shi. Again, the Ming Shi allows me to learn a very precise level of blade adjustment. The head is very flat, offering a much wider range of angle than the Gillette. The Grip on the Ming Shi is too slippery, but guess what? A single rubber band solves that problem giving me a grip at least as effective as the FatBoy, which has a great handle. The light weight of the Ming Shi also allows for greater precision, but also potentially the need to learn how to adjust pressure.

The Fatboy has so much mass you just let the weight do all the work, but then you may get more cuts, or less closer shave.

The Ming Shi is like driving a sports car. You feel everything on the road, you hear what's going on, and you have more control, but then the skill level to drive it is higher. It is actually not a mild shaver, if you control angle using the actual range provided by the low head design. I can get a BBS shave that is so close it lasts all day, but that requires about 3 very careful passes with lots of water, lotion and shave cream before and between each pass...lots of attention to avoid a number of nicks and cuts, and some touch up afterwards at key points: Using a Derby blade. I'm going slower, the blade is going over the skin very few times, but carefully. Result? A perfect and lasting shave where you can't feel stuble even stretching your skin very tight, even on tough spots like the upper lip and chin.

So, it's a better razor, engineered to modern technical standards. if you put in the time to figure it out.

Had I started on the FatBoy, that probably would have been easier as a first razor. Because on level 3, there are no nicks, though the shave is nothing to write home about. You get a working professional shave, just not BBS. And when you ramp up the settings, you can get BBS, but it's like trying to do microsurgery with a standard scalpel. You are using a very heavy tool to do very careful work. You get the same result, but you end up taking off more flesh.

The FatBoy is a bit more automatic, with a smooth head that protects your face but gets in the way of feeling and controlling the blade. So very close results are less reliable: More nicks for a shave that isn't as close, or a lot more nicks for a shave that is as close as the closest shave the Ming Shi will provide.

The Fatboy does allow a much faster shave and allows more passes, but quite a bit more touch up to get the places you thought you had but hadn't....When you get a nick on the Ming Shi, you know it immediately. On the FatBoy, you don't find out until you move onto another section. It's a little deceptive and so more nicks can happen....so, back to Ming Shi.

I'd suggest the FatBoy as a starter razor and the Ming Shi as the next step of skill demand. It's the Violin of shavers compared to the Bass of the FatBoy.

I bought this as my first DE razor at Sally Beauty Supply locally. I will post the things I like about first. I find it well made. No, it's not built like Snap-On wrench, but It is free of any burrs, is shiney, opens and closes well, and after using it for two months, I think it will last a long time, maybe even forever.

I've been shaving with a cartridge razor for 30+ years, although I am new to DE shaving. At first, I got a few nicks with this razor. I used Wilkinson Sword from Walmart, Derby Extra from Sally, Personna from Family Dollar, and Dorco from Dollar General over a period of about three weeks and I just couldn't get through a shave without using styptic pencil. Shaves were randomly distributed with some being "OK" and some being just short of that. I never got a good shave. Being new to all of this, I figured I just needed more practice. It never got better and changing technique and blades made no differnce. I even got a few cuts, one of them bad. One cut was on my cheek! The flat, easy to shave, impossible to cut part of my face, my cheek had a cut the full width of a DE blade!

As I was about to give up on all of this, I found a Gillette 7 O'Clock click (Indian) at an Indian grocery store for $3.00. WOW! While not a high quality item, it did allow me to get a decent shave and I don't think I could cut myself with the click if I tried. The point being, it wasn't me, it was the razor.

I see reviews about how this razor is "mild" and a good choice for a newb. Those reviews are older and maybe they changed the geometry, or it's the whole YMMV thing. But I found this razor unpredictable and bordering on dangerous. I have a purple line on my chin that will eventually fade from this thing.

I have since bought, and fell in love with, the Ri,Mei three piece razor. It is benign like the click, but gets much closer, and is a nice looking tool. For $2.00 each, it's a better bargain than the Mingshui/Shaving Factory razor. I bought two more to put up incase mine breaks down the road (doubtful). One is for my son who will be shaving in eight to ten years. I'll probably add a couple more on next time I make an Amazon order since they are only $2.00 and don't eat much and I don't see how I could find a razor I like more.

I tried the Mingshui one more time just to give it fair shake after getting more practiced in DE shaving and I got a cut on my neck and several weepers. My son uses it now, along with his own brush, soap, and bowl without a blade. This is the only thing I think the Mingshui is good for. It is handsome, well made, frustrating and frankly dangerous.

Very good value, I bought this for $ 1,73 and it came with an Ming Shi MP036 blade.