Blind edge test! Ugly razors, fine finishes.

[Dilbone]

In terms of shipping right now I even had an issue with FedEx the past 2 weeks. Item was shipped from Utah Feb 10th with 2 day shipping, arrived at North Salt Lake facility on the 11th and never left in terms of tracking. 15th I got a notification that weather systems were impacting the Memphis sorting facility with no estimated delivery date. Notification yesterday said it got to the sorting facility 25minutes from me in Ohio with a delivery date of Feb 22nd. It just showed up on my doorstep.

It seems things are so hit and miss with UPS, FedEx, and usps right now it's a crap shoot for nearly every delivery haha.

BTW, I've enjoyed following all of these blind evaluations. This was a great idea.

Sent from my SM-G981V using Tapatalk

 

[global_dev]

Would have thought post jan shipping would be better, but this weather is crazy

 

[Tanuki]

The razors did arrive on Saturday, but Sunday was too hectic in the Tanuki household for a nice calm, deliberate ugly razor evaluation. Plus Saturday's shave was late. I waited too long for the mail. Skipping Sunday's shave gave me a good crop to harvest today.

The six razors paired up nicely for Round 1. Two Gold Dollar 66s; two razors featuring black scales and serious (but even) hone wear; and the two in Heat 1, each with squared faux ivory scales and less even hone wear.

Right side: the return of the Sperry&Alexander

And left side: the Wester Bros Anchor Brand debutante

The little crack at the pivot pin in the Wester scales loosened them a little, but not enough to affect the shave. I do enjoy secure scales when stropping, so I was a little prejudiced against the Wester, after doing 20 laps linen and 40 laps horse on my 3" Tony Miller strop.

All prejudice was banished immediately by the shave comparison. I take a 'meet in the middle' approach to my two SR passes.

First, top down above the jawline and bottom up neck to jaw. Then reverse. That translates to WTG then ATG above the jaw, and every whisker for itself in the maelstrom that is my neck.

I usually do a touch up of the most recalcitrant spots on my neck. When in a hurry I go directly to a DE or SE razor. When I have time, I'll work a little on advancing my skill at shaving odd angles on the concavities of my neck with an SR.

Pass 1: Wester didn't seem any smoother than Sperry, but after washing off all lather, my fingertips and face feel told me that Wester had done significantly better stubble reduction.

Pass 2: Now Wester was the smoother operator. Both razors were delivering nice long strokes, but again Wester gave a closer result in the tougher terrain on my neck.

Touch up: I switched sides with the razors. They each were able to deliver some improvement. I finished off with a Gem SE to level the playing field in case I can run Heat 2 tomorrow.

Bottom line: Wester wins, Sperry is out unless the other 4 razors leave the third spot on the podium in doubt. I will re-oil these blades and let them rest.

 

[Tanuki]

This thread is pretty quiet! I been contributing to the silence by finding time to do evening edge test shaves, but then grabbing some shut eye instead of posting results.

Here is another part of the problem:

Tuesday evening test. About 30 hour stubble.

The second side-by-side test pitted the two Gold Dollars, black-scaled 66 on the left and red 1996 on the right. I don't know if I should blame the finish honing or Gold Dollar's grind and blade design, but both razors were trying hard to deliver the most irritating SR shaves I can remember.

Stropping, prep, and lathering were all exactly to my ugly razor test standard protocol.

The razors are heavy, but I regularly enjoy my heavier 6/8 and 7/8 razors. The 66 scales were more comfortable in my hand. Both Gold Dollars handled easily enough on strop and face. The grind and edges looked fine to the naked eye.

It wasn't that they were failing to shave my stubble. I got a mid-range DFS performance everywhere but my neck whorls and the extremely tender skin right under my lower lip, where the razors tugged.

Post-shave, the alum stung big time. I washed it off with water rather than anything alcohol based, then went straight to the Nivea balm. I seldom use balm.

The 66 beat the 1996 by a small margin in the sharpness/effectiveness contest.

 

[Tanuki]

Wednesday evening shave test. About 22 hour stubble.

Shapleigh Hardware No. 53, right side

Gebr. Weyersberg Ohligs-Solingen 2211, left side

I considered taking a day off for face recovery. Prepping with a boar told me that the irritation had not entirely subsided. But the strong menthol I melded into the Col Conk Lime prep soap soothed a bit.

I was prepared for the worst. Surprisingly, these razors seemed to soothe my face too. I think that was a psychological reaction to the absence of any further irritation from these ugly blades.

Getting down to business: the pivot on the Shapleigh 53 was nice and tight. Not so on the Weyersberg 2211, so both shaving and stropping took a little extra care in handling.

None the less, the 2211 impressed both in smoothness and sharpness, especially on the first pass. Shaving an irritated face is no way to judge the absolute smoothness of an edge, but it is a great advantage in comparing the smoothness of two edges. So I guess it was a good thing that the Gold Dollars delivered equivalent amounts of irritation.

The 53 was no slouch, and again the margin between these edges was narrow. The alum was not a useful test, but it did verify some recovery from the Gold Dollar assault.

I will let my face fully recover now. Once that is accomplished, I will do a couple ebony/ivory showdowns and rank the four vintage razor edges. I think those four razors present a very fair and balanced test bed for comparing finish honing.

I don't know what is going on with those Gold Dollars, unless @SliceOfLife is trolling me and finishing with a belt sander. I like to think I would be able to spot that with the naked eye. They are retired from this test.

 

[SliceOfLife]

The gold dollars are a pretty big upset actually, and I think it speaks more to the razors than to the finishes which will become clear at the end of this thing.

Definitely wasn't trying to make that point, but it's the only thing I can think would explain the results which again will make sense when I reveal the finishes...

The other showdowns are almost exactly what I would have expected... But I don't want to assume anything until we see the final matchups.

 

[Tanuki]

I was very surprised by the Gold Dollar shaves. My first real SR shaving was with a PIFed Gold Dollar, maybe a modded 66. The blade resembled this 66 mod photo Slash McCoy posted:

It was not a great razor, but it had received a very good Method edge long before I was given it.

I'm about to start Round 2. All Ws.

Wester v Weyersberg for the gold is Heat 1.

 

[SliceOfLife]

So here's some further info to get people interested and guessing at what the reveals might be (not reveals, but could be a bit of a spoiler so it's in spoiler tags)

Spoiler

This round has three undefeated finishes, One finish that has bounced around a lot (depends a lot on the razor it seems), One finish that has been a consistent middle-of the pack 2nd and third placer, and One new finish to the competition (but not completely new)

 

[Tanuki]

I'm refusing to be spoiled, at least until I have one more shave finished. Meanwhile, today's results are in!

This was a very satisfying shave; the process, the result, and the knowledge to be gained.
Gebr. Weyersberg, from the Ohligs neighbohood in Solingen, took responsibility for the right side ('ebony'). The Wester Bros, also from Germany, anchored on the left ('ivory'). Strop/prep/lather protocol was rigorously followed. Credit to Tony Miller, an anonymous horse, Col. Conk, a lime tree, and the Tabac/Omega 10065 team. And @SliceOfLife , of course.

The playing field - day and a half stubble

Pass 1/below the jaw - bottom to top. The easy pass on the toughest challenge. Both ebony and ivory had some tougher cutting to do. Shorter strokes, but no tugging and good reduction from both razors. Ebony felt a little more comfortable and effective. My fingertips declared a closeness tie, with the more hideous right side neck whorl removed from the issue. There are a couple square inches there that are out of bounds when a shave evaluation is made.

Pass 1/above the jaw. Easy territory, WTG, ebony very slightly smoother. Closeness a tie.

Pass 2/above the jaw. ATG, the real test up here. Ebony is smoother, more easily effective. But it is BBS both sides.

Pass 2/below the jaw. top to bottom. The more difficult pass down here. Longer strokes, no tall stubble, but harder to keep the blade angle. I'm getting a great, close shave from ivory, but ebony is feeling super smooth, to the point that I apply a little extra lather to the maelstrom and go for some careful short strokes from several odd angles to do the cleanup 100% SR.

Alum, Osage Rub rinse, and a touch of Pinaud VIBR gave me a minor jolt that was at least 50% an echo of Gold Dollar day. An hour later I am feeling no irritation and a lot of smooth skin.

Fine margins again, but Weyersberg ebony gets the nod over Wester Bros ivory. Any SR that encourages me to do cleanup on the right side of my neck is a champion.

I think this defines the top two steps of the podium, but...

Next up: Sperry&Alexander ivory vs Shapleigh 53 ebony.

And I may even give the Gold Dollars a look in before I send them back, though I doubt I'll finish a shave with either one.

 

[Tanuki]

The second ebony/ivory shave is in the books. I believe I can rank the four vintage ugly razor edges.

But first: 'ebony' Shapleigh 53 versus 'ivory' Sperry&Alexander, taking on about 30 hours of growth.

This shave doesn't require a lot of discussion. The Shapleigh clearly outperformed in both smoothness/comfort and closeness after two passes. Due, in my judgement, to the Sperry&Alexander edge falling well off from the first shave standard while the Shapleigh shave 2 was only slightly reduced in quality.

Rankings:
1 the Gebr. Weyersberg 2211
2 Wester Bros Anchor
3 Shapleigh Hdw 53
4 Sperry&Alexander

The first three are a tight group, with the S&A an easily distinguished step down.

The next decision: do I revisit the Gold Dollars? If I do, I won't be committed to finishing a shave with them. They might never make it below my jawline.

Time to go read the spoiler!

 

[SliceOfLife]

I just settled into the tub for a nice soak when I noticed this thread had been updated. I'm 99% sure I remember offhand what each finish was, but I don't want to do a reveal and then have to correct it when I get out, so I will reveal the top four later tonight.

I will say that the four vintage razors used were chosen because they're all fairly similar performing in my opinion and all very good shavers. I also checked them under the scope to make sure I wasn't missing any chips or pitting, and did one shave test before restropping and sanitizing them to make sure that they were effectively finished.

The gold dollars were required to be a part of the test rather than using exclusively vintage razors for a reason that will become apparent on the reveal. Both were stock grind angles, and as such will probably be about one and a half to three degrees duller vs the vintages I chose.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Ok... Now the great Reveal!

Left to right down the list:

#1 (GW 2211... aka Trumpet) Pierre Du Sud Ouest (Still Undefeated)

#2 (Wester Bros... aka The other Manganese) (Thuringian) (A solid Redemption story, Three straight Close second/third place finishes after a bad razor disrupted its performance on the first go round. I always view these as virtually identical to PDSO's, but it's looking like blind-tested PDSO's just slightly edge them out.)

#3 (Shapleigh... aka 53) Black Translucent Ark (w/ oil) (Arks been all over the place this test, and I blame that on my attempts to completely blind finish (IE no testing the edges before shipping out) and Arks being less straightforward to guarantee you've maxxed out blindly. This should be a fair ranking as I did test this edge before shipping... and no surprise it is in third in a very close battle... behind my two favorite finishes.)

#4 (Sperry... aka ManGanEse) Extra Fine Coti (w/ oil) (I didn't expect a big fall off anywhere in this test... but there it is. I do prefer water finishes on these ultra-fine coticules, but wanting to give the most potential to the edge, I decided to let oil be the finalist here... and perhaps that was a mistake.)


#5 ??? Finish Gold Dollar

#6 ??? Finish Gold Dollar

 

[SliceOfLife]

Just let us know when you decide you're done with the gold dollars and I'll reveal them as well.

 

[LJS]

#2 (Wester Bros... aka The other Manganese) (Thuringian)

That is a very mottled looking thuringian - what color do you call it?

 

[SliceOfLife]

It's a dark blue. The tan color is actually a series of freckles that are scattered on it... There's so many that they represent more of the stones surface on that side than the base stone color. There's just a smattering of them on the opposite side which is a very dark blue-green.

 

[Tanuki]

Just let us know when you decide you're done with the gold dollars and I'll reveal them as well.

I gave the Gold Dollar 66 (black scales) a test tonight. Stropped 20/40 linen/horse. Robust razor, 'robust' bevel, so I tried a far more robust stropping than I would give to any of my other straights.

I allocated the GD just one quadrant: left side, below the jaw, two passes. I can not call it comfortable, but I experienced less irritation than the first outing. There was less sting from alum and alcohol. Stubble removal was good.

However, twenty minutes later I was sitting at the dinner table distinctly feeling the irritation, even though I was in the middle of meal time conversation and conviviality. So robust stropping seemed to help, but it did not transform the edge.

I am calling myself done with the GDs and ready for the reveal. And ready for a touch of balm on the lower left.

 

[SliceOfLife]

The GD66 was 0.1 diamond paste on balsa. It's won two prior matchups, but it seems against premium vintages and premium finishes, it finally dropped one.

The gd1996 was the Jnat with slurry finish that won the Jnat showdown... Also undefeated prior to this matchup... Perhaps the gd1996 does not favor that Jnat edge very well.

 

[Tanuki]

I just don't know what to say about the Gold Dollars and my face not playing nice. If I had a microscope I would definitely be trying to do a visual inspection.

My modded/PIFed GD never required me to take a recovery day. I PIFed it along to a friend without a qualm.

Given that it will be a few days before I get to the post office, I may even give the GD1996 a second outing, without the heavy stropping I gave the GD66 for its second test.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I'll definitely scope them when they get back... I've had a very hot and cold time with GDs this past year. Some times they seemed just like a vintage razor... Others they seemed like junk steel... Maybe my luck has been bad with them... Or maybe I just don't have the patience for them.

 

[Tanuki]

I'm back from a quick trip out of town. The Gold Dollars and the favored four should be back in the mail tomorrow.

I stropped the GD 1996 20/40 linen and Kanayama 30000 shell. Shave tested one pass on one side of my neck and bailed out.

The GD side-by-side results were not a fluke. I am very interested in what high magnification reveals. Other than that, getting to enjoy the other finalists was a true pleasure!