So today I came home from work and had a little package from shaveabuck.com... it was the new TTO OC... so I immediately went to the bathroom to shave because i've been growing out for 3 days now in anticipation for this shave (imma shave nerd) and my face felt too hairy..
I decided to put it against the gillette senator as they are similar and would shave the senator (which i find very mild but can get bbs with some work) on the left side of my face and the cadet on the right side of my face.
So here's the setup:
Head to head cadet OC TTO against a user gillette senator (another chrome OC TTO) both with personna blue blades, a rubberset 3 aluminum brush, japanese soup bowl, and Crabtree and evelyn nomad. Finished with alum block, 4711 aftershave, and 444 post shave balm
image by Heespharm, on Flickr
image by Heespharm, on Flickr
Appearance: this razor is not going to win any beauty awards. The head is not very round and the teeth are thick and long combed... like buck-teeth thick. The handle looks like double bulb connected to a barber pole stick.. Also they don't cover the full shave bar. The handle has spiral grooves which grip pretty nicely to my fingers and can feel them engaging with my fingerprints... so all in all very grippy. It feels made of cheap tin covered in a thin layer of chrome finish... that being said I would consider it about the same quality finish of the 30 dollar merkur razors... Blade exposure is much higher on the cadet than the senator
image by Heespharm, shows buckteeth
image by Heespharm, on Flickr
image by Heespharm, EDIT: forgot profile shot
Use: the tto is very smooth and operates somewhat differently from the senator. The senator only the bottom knob turns in the cadet oc tto the whole handle turns to open the bay doors... the cadet weighs in at 72.4grams and the senator at 53.3grams and compared that to my mergress which weighs 103.3g it's feels light in the hand and is a bit on the head heavy side.
Aggressiveness: Seems to me that it's a more aggressive than the senator and gillette new oc but not as aggressive as my fatip chrome grande... maybe dialed in on a merkur progress of 3-3.5 would be similar... You can really hear the hair getting shaved because its not a solid metal razor
image by Heespharm, shows blade exposure
So how did the shave turn out: I had to do less clean up passes with the cadet than with the senator... and i had one nick and that was from the senator NOT the cadet... both sides were BBS with the cadet side being a little smoother than the senator side
Verdict: Although the cadet has cheap looks and sounds cheap as it shaves, it does its job well and admirably... Given the choice of shaving with a senator OR a cadet, I would pick the cadet over the senator. If you don't like really aggressive razors (like the fatip) or don't care if the razor looks ugly, this razor might be your bread and butter...
For 30 bucks? i would give it two thumbs up...It's a nice starter into the world of OC razors... but would i put down my Mergress, aristocrat, or micromatic OC for this razor?? probably not unless I was looking for some strange!
I decided to put it against the gillette senator as they are similar and would shave the senator (which i find very mild but can get bbs with some work) on the left side of my face and the cadet on the right side of my face.
So here's the setup:
Head to head cadet OC TTO against a user gillette senator (another chrome OC TTO) both with personna blue blades, a rubberset 3 aluminum brush, japanese soup bowl, and Crabtree and evelyn nomad. Finished with alum block, 4711 aftershave, and 444 post shave balm
image by Heespharm, on Flickr
image by Heespharm, on Flickr
Appearance: this razor is not going to win any beauty awards. The head is not very round and the teeth are thick and long combed... like buck-teeth thick. The handle looks like double bulb connected to a barber pole stick.. Also they don't cover the full shave bar. The handle has spiral grooves which grip pretty nicely to my fingers and can feel them engaging with my fingerprints... so all in all very grippy. It feels made of cheap tin covered in a thin layer of chrome finish... that being said I would consider it about the same quality finish of the 30 dollar merkur razors... Blade exposure is much higher on the cadet than the senator
image by Heespharm, shows buckteeth
image by Heespharm, on Flickr
image by Heespharm, EDIT: forgot profile shot
Use: the tto is very smooth and operates somewhat differently from the senator. The senator only the bottom knob turns in the cadet oc tto the whole handle turns to open the bay doors... the cadet weighs in at 72.4grams and the senator at 53.3grams and compared that to my mergress which weighs 103.3g it's feels light in the hand and is a bit on the head heavy side.
Aggressiveness: Seems to me that it's a more aggressive than the senator and gillette new oc but not as aggressive as my fatip chrome grande... maybe dialed in on a merkur progress of 3-3.5 would be similar... You can really hear the hair getting shaved because its not a solid metal razor
image by Heespharm, shows blade exposure
So how did the shave turn out: I had to do less clean up passes with the cadet than with the senator... and i had one nick and that was from the senator NOT the cadet... both sides were BBS with the cadet side being a little smoother than the senator side
Verdict: Although the cadet has cheap looks and sounds cheap as it shaves, it does its job well and admirably... Given the choice of shaving with a senator OR a cadet, I would pick the cadet over the senator. If you don't like really aggressive razors (like the fatip) or don't care if the razor looks ugly, this razor might be your bread and butter...
For 30 bucks? i would give it two thumbs up...It's a nice starter into the world of OC razors... but would i put down my Mergress, aristocrat, or micromatic OC for this razor?? probably not unless I was looking for some strange!
Last edited:
