Item Description
I have now had the all stainless version of this razor in my possession for about a month, and have shaved with it every day (with no days off). In that time, I have sold off all my other razors. More on that in a bit. First, the rating criteria:
Price: Let's get this out of the way: The Pils is not inexpensive by any stretch of the imagination. The company that makes Pils consider themselves to be the manufacturers of Artisanal shaving products. All of their products are well designed and use top notch materials, but you do end up paying for it. At the time of this writing, the Pils retails for about $235 US, with the gold model selling for about $300. For that kind of money, you could own 10 decent Red Tips, or any other mix of vintage Gillettes. Or one rhodium--plated Brit. Price will be a huge deal breaker for many on this razor--I dinged it accordingly here.
Quality: Top notch. The fit and finish of the handle, base and cap are topnotch, as are the materials. The stainless finish is a faint brush finish, which helps hide any small scratches that might come from daily use. Raw finish, and not coated. Razor cleans up easily. Weight is about 160g, which is definitely the heavier end of the scale.
User Friendly: A very easy razor to use. Blade changes are easy, and once you find the proper shave angle daily shaving is automatic. The head profile is actually shorter than most other razors, so getting in and out of tight spots is easy.
Grip: In sticking with the overall design and finish of the razor, Pils chose not to knurl the handle, keeping it smooth, much like the handle on a Merkur Futur. I thought this would make the razor difficult to grip, but I find that dry or wet it grips well. Add soap to the mix and the grip becomes slippery--but a quick rinse under the faucet solves that. I actually rinse the handle before I start, as I find it makes for a superior grip. It would be even better were it knurled; perhaps Pils will add a knurled handle later. I dinged it a few points here because a knurled grip would make the razor perfect in my opinion.
Ease of blade replacement: To replace the blade, you simply spin the head counter-clockwise, which releases the threaded top cap. There are two pins on the base that the blade is aligned to, once the blade is placed you pop the cap back on and give it a spin. To tighten, grip the cap ends with your fingers and tighten ever so slightly. Once the blade is placed, you never have to touch the blade again. Pretty neat.
Aggressiveness: I found the Pils to be middle of the road overall. You do have the ability to hold the blade at a steeper or shallower angle--within limits-but it seems to shave best at the steepest angle. Shaves are close and smooth, but not at the price of losing a layer of skin. Once I switched to the Pils my razor bumps cleared right up, an I find I have significantly less irritation post shave. Not sure how the rating scale works here, would a more aggressive face slicer earn more points than a mild shaver? I don't consider overly aggressive razors to be beneficial, so I'm giving the Pils high points here because I find it to have just the right amount of aggressiveness.
Adjustability: Not applicable.
Balance: As the head is quite heavy, balance is more toward the head of the razor. Finding a workable grip is easy, and when shaving ATG I find that I can grip it by the end, the end cap providing just the right amount of tactile feedback. I know some don't like the way the endcap is placed, but the tactile feedback it provides is very helpful.
Comments: I have shaved with most Merkurs, The EJ razors, and most Gillettes. After shaving with the Pils for a week I sold off all my other razors, including a #16 and #58, and a whole box of Kronas. I found that the Pils gave a shave superior to any other razor I had used up to this point. As I am a minimalist (not a collector), and am only interested in performance, this made perfect sense. I'd rather own one $200 razor that gives the best performance, than own 10 $20 razors that only give adequate performance. So this is probably the ideal razor for the minimalist; but not necessarily the collector. But given that you can easily spend $200 on a vintage Gillette, I don't think the price is as much of an issue as some make it out to be.
Blade selection: Blade selection for me turned out to be somewhat interesting. I assumed that my favorite blades would perform as ably as always, but in a few cases that was not true. I found that testing a number of blades--including blades that had not worked in the past--yielded some surprising results. I found that in addition to working well with NOS blades the Pils made inexpensive blades able--and in some cases--superior performers. At this time, I have gotten excellent results using the following:
Iridium Super
Bic Platinum
Shark Stainless
Personna 74
So if you do end up purchasing a Pils, you might plan on testing a variety of blades to find the ones that work best for you.
Conclusion: The Pils is an outstanding razor, if you can get past the price tag. Cut out your Starbucks for a month, sell off those unused razors, and you can easily afford it. But be forewarned: It may cure you of RAD entirely.
Price: Let's get this out of the way: The Pils is not inexpensive by any stretch of the imagination. The company that makes Pils consider themselves to be the manufacturers of Artisanal shaving products. All of their products are well designed and use top notch materials, but you do end up paying for it. At the time of this writing, the Pils retails for about $235 US, with the gold model selling for about $300. For that kind of money, you could own 10 decent Red Tips, or any other mix of vintage Gillettes. Or one rhodium--plated Brit. Price will be a huge deal breaker for many on this razor--I dinged it accordingly here.
Quality: Top notch. The fit and finish of the handle, base and cap are topnotch, as are the materials. The stainless finish is a faint brush finish, which helps hide any small scratches that might come from daily use. Raw finish, and not coated. Razor cleans up easily. Weight is about 160g, which is definitely the heavier end of the scale.
User Friendly: A very easy razor to use. Blade changes are easy, and once you find the proper shave angle daily shaving is automatic. The head profile is actually shorter than most other razors, so getting in and out of tight spots is easy.
Grip: In sticking with the overall design and finish of the razor, Pils chose not to knurl the handle, keeping it smooth, much like the handle on a Merkur Futur. I thought this would make the razor difficult to grip, but I find that dry or wet it grips well. Add soap to the mix and the grip becomes slippery--but a quick rinse under the faucet solves that. I actually rinse the handle before I start, as I find it makes for a superior grip. It would be even better were it knurled; perhaps Pils will add a knurled handle later. I dinged it a few points here because a knurled grip would make the razor perfect in my opinion.
Ease of blade replacement: To replace the blade, you simply spin the head counter-clockwise, which releases the threaded top cap. There are two pins on the base that the blade is aligned to, once the blade is placed you pop the cap back on and give it a spin. To tighten, grip the cap ends with your fingers and tighten ever so slightly. Once the blade is placed, you never have to touch the blade again. Pretty neat.
Aggressiveness: I found the Pils to be middle of the road overall. You do have the ability to hold the blade at a steeper or shallower angle--within limits-but it seems to shave best at the steepest angle. Shaves are close and smooth, but not at the price of losing a layer of skin. Once I switched to the Pils my razor bumps cleared right up, an I find I have significantly less irritation post shave. Not sure how the rating scale works here, would a more aggressive face slicer earn more points than a mild shaver? I don't consider overly aggressive razors to be beneficial, so I'm giving the Pils high points here because I find it to have just the right amount of aggressiveness.
Adjustability: Not applicable.
Balance: As the head is quite heavy, balance is more toward the head of the razor. Finding a workable grip is easy, and when shaving ATG I find that I can grip it by the end, the end cap providing just the right amount of tactile feedback. I know some don't like the way the endcap is placed, but the tactile feedback it provides is very helpful.
Comments: I have shaved with most Merkurs, The EJ razors, and most Gillettes. After shaving with the Pils for a week I sold off all my other razors, including a #16 and #58, and a whole box of Kronas. I found that the Pils gave a shave superior to any other razor I had used up to this point. As I am a minimalist (not a collector), and am only interested in performance, this made perfect sense. I'd rather own one $200 razor that gives the best performance, than own 10 $20 razors that only give adequate performance. So this is probably the ideal razor for the minimalist; but not necessarily the collector. But given that you can easily spend $200 on a vintage Gillette, I don't think the price is as much of an issue as some make it out to be.
Blade selection: Blade selection for me turned out to be somewhat interesting. I assumed that my favorite blades would perform as ably as always, but in a few cases that was not true. I found that testing a number of blades--including blades that had not worked in the past--yielded some surprising results. I found that in addition to working well with NOS blades the Pils made inexpensive blades able--and in some cases--superior performers. At this time, I have gotten excellent results using the following:
Iridium Super
Bic Platinum
Shark Stainless
Personna 74
So if you do end up purchasing a Pils, you might plan on testing a variety of blades to find the ones that work best for you.
Conclusion: The Pils is an outstanding razor, if you can get past the price tag. Cut out your Starbucks for a month, sell off those unused razors, and you can easily afford it. But be forewarned: It may cure you of RAD entirely.
