I have heard lots of wonderful things about the Fatip Open Comb Slant (FOCS), and I have to admit that I was somewhat skeptical. This is my fourth Fatip, not counting a Schone, so I have some experience with Fatip razors. But at $38 shipped from Connaught, the gold FOCS was just too tempting to ignore. It arrived yesterday, and I must say that this is a very pretty razor. Even my wife, who is perplexed by my growing collection of shaving accoutrements, remarked that it was "a very fancy looking razor." Here are a couple of pics:
The fit and finish is clearly the best of any Fatip I have seen. I'm not sure if this is due to better QC at Fatip or just good luck. The knob at the bottom of the handle still has a few rougher spots (it pulled the washcloth it's sitting on when I picked it up after the photo), but the overall quality is quite impressive. I put a new Personna Israeli red blade in and it locked into place perfectly. With my other Fatip razors, there is some play around the pins so you need to check the alignment and possibly adjust it by hand. I've never found that to be a big deal, but it is certainly preferable to have the blade fit snugly in a perfectly aligned position.
So does it live up to the hype? There was only one way to find out. I lathered up with Mike's Orange, Cedarwood and Black Pepper using my new Yaqi Mink synthetic brush and started in on my normal 2 pass plus touchup shave. I was immediately impressed at how smooth the razor is. I'm not one to focus on shaving angles; I've always found razors to have a "natural" angle and that's what I use. There was a moderate amount of blade feel, but less than with my Fatip open comb piccolo or grande. The only negative I can report, and this is a personal preference issue, is that I find the short handle less than optimal. As you may be able to see in the second photo, the handle is rather small compared to what my wife refers to as my "butcher's fingers." I know that I can get some other handles, like the wooden one I used to have, but I am too fond of the looks of this gold razor to replace that handle.
To answer my own question - yes, it lives up to the hype. The shave was effortless and the results outstanding. Perhaps my other open comb slant, a Yaqi, is a bit more efficient, but I'm not willing to say that yet, and the Yaqi, while even more of a bargain, is not for the faint of heart. It amps up blade feel to just this side of uncomfortable. The FOCS, even on a first shave, was wonderfully smooth and produced a shave as close or closer than any of my other DE razors.
The fit and finish is clearly the best of any Fatip I have seen. I'm not sure if this is due to better QC at Fatip or just good luck. The knob at the bottom of the handle still has a few rougher spots (it pulled the washcloth it's sitting on when I picked it up after the photo), but the overall quality is quite impressive. I put a new Personna Israeli red blade in and it locked into place perfectly. With my other Fatip razors, there is some play around the pins so you need to check the alignment and possibly adjust it by hand. I've never found that to be a big deal, but it is certainly preferable to have the blade fit snugly in a perfectly aligned position.
So does it live up to the hype? There was only one way to find out. I lathered up with Mike's Orange, Cedarwood and Black Pepper using my new Yaqi Mink synthetic brush and started in on my normal 2 pass plus touchup shave. I was immediately impressed at how smooth the razor is. I'm not one to focus on shaving angles; I've always found razors to have a "natural" angle and that's what I use. There was a moderate amount of blade feel, but less than with my Fatip open comb piccolo or grande. The only negative I can report, and this is a personal preference issue, is that I find the short handle less than optimal. As you may be able to see in the second photo, the handle is rather small compared to what my wife refers to as my "butcher's fingers." I know that I can get some other handles, like the wooden one I used to have, but I am too fond of the looks of this gold razor to replace that handle.
To answer my own question - yes, it lives up to the hype. The shave was effortless and the results outstanding. Perhaps my other open comb slant, a Yaqi, is a bit more efficient, but I'm not willing to say that yet, and the Yaqi, while even more of a bargain, is not for the faint of heart. It amps up blade feel to just this side of uncomfortable. The FOCS, even on a first shave, was wonderfully smooth and produced a shave as close or closer than any of my other DE razors.
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