Item Description
I recently purchased a new Parker 22-R gunmetal finish TTO DE safety razor. The razor seems well-made and attractive, but how does it shave? Read on!
The razor is quite heavy, 2.5 ounces. It has an attractive finish, and, being a TTO, was quite easy to load. The grooves on the handle provided an excellent grip while shaving. The vinyl travel case that came with the razor was also quite handy.
Now for the real question: how was the shave? Frankly, this razor shaves like a bush-hog...like a bear just out of hibernation in the spring jumping on the first salmon of the year! After my first shave, my face was extraordinarily irritated, and I had several decent-sized cuts. I had been using a borrowed Gilette ’67 Superspeed with good results, excepting the occasional stupid mistake on my part, for two weeks, and had reached the point that I could get a very close shave with little irritation. However, using the same blades, shaving soap, and technique with the Parker yielded uncomfortable shave after uncomfortable shave. After a week, I reverted to cartridges to give myself a break and let things heal up a bit.
Thinking that I was just a new guy and didn’t know what I was doing, I lent the razor to a friend to try. He has been wetshaving for over 20 years, and is a wealth of knowledge and experience. He shaved twice with the razor using the same blades and soap I was using, and reported back to me. His verdict was not quite as harsh as mine, but he said that, in order to get good results without irritation or cuts, he had to use so little pressure as to be cumbersome, and had to grasp the handle at the extreme furthest end from the head. He reported that the Parker was an extremely aggressive razor not for the faint of heart, and that he would not want to shave with that every day.
To summarize: spend the extra $15 and buy a decent Merkur, or spend the time on e-bay and find a vintage razor instead of forking out $24 for this face-mangler.
The razor is quite heavy, 2.5 ounces. It has an attractive finish, and, being a TTO, was quite easy to load. The grooves on the handle provided an excellent grip while shaving. The vinyl travel case that came with the razor was also quite handy.
Now for the real question: how was the shave? Frankly, this razor shaves like a bush-hog...like a bear just out of hibernation in the spring jumping on the first salmon of the year! After my first shave, my face was extraordinarily irritated, and I had several decent-sized cuts. I had been using a borrowed Gilette ’67 Superspeed with good results, excepting the occasional stupid mistake on my part, for two weeks, and had reached the point that I could get a very close shave with little irritation. However, using the same blades, shaving soap, and technique with the Parker yielded uncomfortable shave after uncomfortable shave. After a week, I reverted to cartridges to give myself a break and let things heal up a bit.
Thinking that I was just a new guy and didn’t know what I was doing, I lent the razor to a friend to try. He has been wetshaving for over 20 years, and is a wealth of knowledge and experience. He shaved twice with the razor using the same blades and soap I was using, and reported back to me. His verdict was not quite as harsh as mine, but he said that, in order to get good results without irritation or cuts, he had to use so little pressure as to be cumbersome, and had to grasp the handle at the extreme furthest end from the head. He reported that the Parker was an extremely aggressive razor not for the faint of heart, and that he would not want to shave with that every day.
To summarize: spend the extra $15 and buy a decent Merkur, or spend the time on e-bay and find a vintage razor instead of forking out $24 for this face-mangler.
