After nearly 30 years of cartridge shaving, a misguided shopping trip for a bearded friend resulted in me being the owner of a KCG safety razor.
Not one to let an oppotunity pass I looked into whether anyone still uses safety razors to shave with and here I am taking my first steps down the rabbit hole.
I am very new to this having only been shaving with a safety razor for nearly two weeks. I was not going to start a journal but I have followed the advice of the forums and recently purchased a blade sample pack to see if there was any difference to the different baldes. I am now on to my third blade and thought given my advancing years it would be good to have a permanent record of the journey.
So my initial DE shaving was with the KCG razor and one of the KCG blades that it came with. Being new to the whole game I was not sure what to expect. The first day was a bit scratchy but the next was not too bad and whether it was technique or blade was feeling better smooth, not pulling but with blade noise on the stubble. By day five it was feeling less smooth so I switched to my first sample blade, a Muhle.
I was not expecting much as most posts do not rate these blades but the shave was smooth. Very smooth and little stubble noise. It was so smooth and the reviews that this balde was not sharp made me think it may not be cutting. However after the shave was finished, it was a DFS. The blade remained smooth for another coulple of days and after 4 shaves I was getting more feedback and noise on the blade. Overall a great little blade.
Today I started the next blade in my pack (moving in order of sharpness or that is what I am lead to believe anyway). The next blade is a Parker in a black packet. First comments is that the blade was nearly impossible to get out of the little black plastic thing. A similar design to the Muhle which you could just slide a blade out of, but the Parker appears to have wrapped their blades in paper wider than the plastic container. Anyway this has no effect on the shaving experience.
The shave was okay, the blade felt smooth, not as smooth as the Muhle, but smooth and less ragged than the KCG and my alum feedback at the end was higher than I had for the Muhle shaves so I was expecting a DFS. It was close but the shave does not feel as close as previous shaves I have had. Still well above a SAS but not as smooth, still a very slight stubble feel that I didn't have on the Muhle or on the good KCG shaves.
I will keep using the blade, usually get four good shaves per blade so far so will see how it goes. It may improve after the first shave.
Other than the initial two KCG shaves all shaves have been with the KCG razor using Tabac shaving soap applied with a Frank Shaving synthetic brush. Shave prep is a hot shower and splashing more hot water on face prior to shaving soap.
Not one to let an oppotunity pass I looked into whether anyone still uses safety razors to shave with and here I am taking my first steps down the rabbit hole.
I am very new to this having only been shaving with a safety razor for nearly two weeks. I was not going to start a journal but I have followed the advice of the forums and recently purchased a blade sample pack to see if there was any difference to the different baldes. I am now on to my third blade and thought given my advancing years it would be good to have a permanent record of the journey.
So my initial DE shaving was with the KCG razor and one of the KCG blades that it came with. Being new to the whole game I was not sure what to expect. The first day was a bit scratchy but the next was not too bad and whether it was technique or blade was feeling better smooth, not pulling but with blade noise on the stubble. By day five it was feeling less smooth so I switched to my first sample blade, a Muhle.
I was not expecting much as most posts do not rate these blades but the shave was smooth. Very smooth and little stubble noise. It was so smooth and the reviews that this balde was not sharp made me think it may not be cutting. However after the shave was finished, it was a DFS. The blade remained smooth for another coulple of days and after 4 shaves I was getting more feedback and noise on the blade. Overall a great little blade.
Today I started the next blade in my pack (moving in order of sharpness or that is what I am lead to believe anyway). The next blade is a Parker in a black packet. First comments is that the blade was nearly impossible to get out of the little black plastic thing. A similar design to the Muhle which you could just slide a blade out of, but the Parker appears to have wrapped their blades in paper wider than the plastic container. Anyway this has no effect on the shaving experience.
The shave was okay, the blade felt smooth, not as smooth as the Muhle, but smooth and less ragged than the KCG and my alum feedback at the end was higher than I had for the Muhle shaves so I was expecting a DFS. It was close but the shave does not feel as close as previous shaves I have had. Still well above a SAS but not as smooth, still a very slight stubble feel that I didn't have on the Muhle or on the good KCG shaves.
I will keep using the blade, usually get four good shaves per blade so far so will see how it goes. It may improve after the first shave.
Other than the initial two KCG shaves all shaves have been with the KCG razor using Tabac shaving soap applied with a Frank Shaving synthetic brush. Shave prep is a hot shower and splashing more hot water on face prior to shaving soap.
