Best adjustable safety razor, your favourite

[Phil Dumont]

I own a Slim Adjustable (1961), a Rockwell 6C (i use plate 4 almost always) and a QShave (futur clone, i use about setting 3 to 3.5).

I listed them in my order of preference.

 

[StewB]

My favorite is the Parker Variant, tried Black Beauty (good but too mild), Slim and Fatboy was not impressive to me.

I've tried lots of them but kept coming back to the Variant.

I was fortunate to obtain a Variant from another fine B&B member. I think it's the best performing adjustable on the market in it's price range. Really good razor for the price IMO.

 

[Phoenixkh]

This thread and a few others keep telling me... try one of your Progress razors, or one of the Mergress razors. I've never used an adjustable. I had but sold the Pearl Flexie to fund another razor. I bought the Progress razors to have backups for our son, initially, but ended up buying my own as well. When the Mergress razors showed up on BullGoose I jumped on them because though I knew of their existence, I'd never seen them for sale "new".

There are so many people here who love their Progress razors or one of the variants like the Opgress or Mergress. I have to motivate myself to try them. Does anybody have a blade recommendation for my first use. My 4 regular blades I rotate often are the Wizamet, Perma-Sharp, Nacet and the Personna USA blades. I have a few others as well... so, which one should I try first, do you think?

 

[tm3]

Shaved with my Progress yesterday, 6th shave on a blade I don't really like and it was smooth, effortless, and BBS in 2 passes. Almost mindless, but not quite. That is on a setting of +2 (which I guess is really +1 as my razor zeroes at +1). I've shaved with it on (net) 0, +1, +1.5, +2, and have settled on +1 as the best for me, with rare exception. If it wasn't for the better "face feel" of the 34HD the Progress would be my favorite razor of all time. I attribute the feel difference to the head design and the bar but who knows.

Phoenixkh, I find that my favorite blades (Red Personna, Vokshod, Derby) all do well in the Progress, but so do my not so favorite blades (like Feather) -- which to me is another testament of how great the Progress is. If I were you I'd do my favorite first and then work back into some of those at the bottom of the drawer that you haven't gotten around to throwing away yet.

 

[tomas1870]

I had a HLS Taiga. Very nice razor, but I sold it after a while. Now, thanks to Putin, I can’t get another in the future should I want to revisit it. Very wide range of adjustment, probably more than anyone would ever need. I now have a Tatara Muramasa. Much narrower range of adjustment, but I find it quite sufficient.
Realistically I would probably be perfectly fine with one of the other current options, but I really wanted some bling.
Jack

There is a way to order from HLS also today. I'm in Europe, payed with help of some lady I belive she live in Belarus or she is from Belarus, not sure. I recived HLS Taiga about month after payment. I like it so much that after two weeks order Titanium Taiga, they shipped yesterday, so if lucky in months I have SS and Ti

 

[kingfisher]

I wonder how long it will be before we start seeing posts proclaiming the Blackland Osprey the best adjustable ever made? I think they go up for sale in about one week. So i'd guess it will be about two weeks.

 

[Island]

I'm surprised the Tatara murasema was not mentioned. I don't own it but it is well liked by others.

 

[Ranyart Finn]

My favourites...

Vintage

1. Gillette Slim
2. Gillette Fatboy
3. Gillette Super Adjustable (Black Beauty)

Modern

1. Rockwell 6C
2. Rockwell T2
3. Pearl Flexi

I've knocked the T2 a point or two off because the door mechanism takes too long to open - but it's a very nice razor.

If I had to choose one to keep forever, it would be the Slim, hands-down. Just a superb razor. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like the Black Beauty too. The Fatboy is a great razor, but for sheer elegance and ease, the Slim has it.

I have a Rex Ambassador on the way, so the above list may change. We'll see.

 

[Cheekee]

My favourites:

Modern:

Rocnel sailor. I have 7 of them. All of them shave really nicely and definitely in my favourites.

Rockwell T2 stainless. I like it a lot. Smooth and easy to use.

Tatara Muramasa Titanium. had the stainless but sold it when I got this. Superb razor for me.

Homelike Taiga. Should use this more.

Denali Adjustable. Got this as its supposed to be blade neutral in comparison to the rex ambassador (which I sold).

Rex Konsul. An adjustable slant that is smooth. Slightly clumsy blade install.

Opgress. A progress with the upgraded adjustment knob. Really nice shave.

Vintage:

Gillette Fatboy/slim/black beauty.

Haven't used these in a while. Think I have too many razors to play with now.

 

[Sascoman]

Magical adjustable- has smoothness and efficiency of WR2 - with the bonus of all the gaps

 

[FormAndFunction]

I have a Rex Ambassador on the way, so the above list may change. We'll see.

How do you like the Ambassador so far?

 

[psfred]

First one was a Slim, second was a Fatboy, and I don't think I'll stray from that. No more matching razors to blades.

Like the fatter shorter handle better on the FatBoy, even though I have large hands. Tried a SuperAdjustable and gave it away, long handle bugs me.

 

[wlshephard]

Rex Konsul at the moment

 

[LeroyR]

I had a HLS Taiga. Very nice razor, but I sold it after a while. Now, thanks to Putin, I can’t get another in the future should I want to revisit it. Very wide range of adjustment, probably more than anyone would ever need. I now have a Tatara Muramasa. Much narrower range of adjustment, but I find it quite sufficient.
Realistically I would probably be perfectly fine with one of the other current options, but I really wanted some bling.
Jack

I was lucky enough to grab my Taiga from a follow B&B member right at the beginning of the war. He wanted a little more than I wanted to spend, but I'm super glad I picked it up because it's one of my top performers. I don't love the angle it requires on lower settings, but when you open it up wide it's perfect: smooth and efficient, and allows for a steep (enough) angle. It's one of the few razors where I don't have to risk irritation on my neck from an ATG pass because it's so efficient on the WTG/XTG passes. Now if I could just get my hands on a matching OC plate...

I really want to try a Muramasa, but I feel it will be too mild for me. I should practice with some mild razors to gain proficiency, but I always reach for something with at least moderate blade feel. I just don't like mild razors.

 

[Submariner]

I only have one, so it's obviously my best --- Rockwell T2 Stainless Steel razor

 

[tomas1870]

I was lucky enough to grab my Taiga from a follow B&B member right at the beginning of the war. He wanted a little more than I wanted to spend, but I'm super glad I picked it up because it's one of my top performers. I don't love the angle it requires on lower settings, but when you open it up wide it's perfect: smooth and efficient, and allows for a steep (enough) angle. It's one of the few razors where I don't have to risk irritation on my neck from an ATG pass because it's so efficient on the WTG/XTG passes. Now if I could just get my hands on a matching OC plate...

I really want to try a Muramasa, but I feel it will be too mild for me. I should practice with some mild razors to gain proficiency, but I always reach for something with at least moderate blade feel. I just don't like mild razors.

Hello,
What numbers does work well for you? I'm still on the way to find best settings for me. I shave daily so usually used 3,5 on first pass and 2 on second and 3 but it is not there where I would like. Not sure if needed higher gap for daily shave.. it works but not so perfectly as I thought it would.
I believe it needs more time to learn to use Taiga and maybe time for me and improvement in my skills.
For example Karve Overlander works much much easier. Taiga is or not perfect shave or almost too close.
For this I like to learn from others and try if it could work for me too.
Thank you in advance for help.

 

[LeroyR]

I start on setting "7" (one full turn from 1 to, well, 1) for my WTG pass, and I go up to "11" from there (setting 4, but after the initial full turn) for XTG. If I'm feeling ballsy and try an ATG pass on my neck, I usually turn it all the way down to 2 or 3 (actual). Please keep in mind I have the titanium version, so the aggression is turned down a bit compared to the stainless version due to its lower weight; the efficiency, however, is retained.

 

[tomas1870]

I have titanium too but never used such a high settings.. perhaps I have to and will see if it works better..but for daily shave 7 (like 1,5mm) and 11 still looks too much for me.. I used Perma-Sharp blades super smooth, will see.

 

[LeroyR]

Crank it up man, you won't be sorry. Or maybe you will, just approach it with a really light touch and see how it goes. I used to use Astra SP blades (for a while they were all I used), but now I've been using Gillette Silver Blue and PermaSharp mostly. They both do well in the Taiga, as does any moderately sharp blade. I don't much care for Astras any longer since I started using sharper blades, which is unfortunate because I still have a ton of them.

 

[Happy Jack]

1. Fatboy
2. Futur
3. Slim
4. Progress