Green Cult Steel Razor

[Mr. Shavington]

I wasn't aware Sailor made the AS-D2 for Feather.

I remember reading about the head design of the AS-D2 razor here on B&B. I'm sure I misread the information. I know I was left with the impression, the head was plated over ____. I thought it was plated Zamak but I am glad you corrected me. I hate passing on misinformation. Is it even plated? I've read the description on several sites and it doesn't appear that it is plated...But then there are these two threads (at least).

Feather AS-D2 Marine Grade SS - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/feather-as-d2-marine-grade-ss.444492/

And another: Feather stainless and bleach - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/feather-stainless-and-bleach.276524/page-5#post-3871938

Ach. Did I say Sailor? That’s a fountain pen maker. Haha. I meant Feather.

Yeah, the Feather AS-D2 is stainless steel with a satin finish which I’ve read is actually a powder coating but I don’t really know for sure. It looks nice anyway and the coating must be durable - I’ve had mine for ten years and it looks like new.

Edit: I just read your links and it seems to show it‘s matte chrome plated, not powder coated. Interesting that they plate or coat the stainless steel, but it seems to keep the finish looking nice.

 

[Phoenixkh]

Ach. Did I say Sailor? That’s a fountain pen maker. Haha. I meant Feather.

Yeah, the Feather AS-D2 is stainless steel with a satin finish which I’ve read is actually a powder coating but I don’t really know for sure. It looks nice anyway and the coating must be durable - I’ve had mine for ten years and it looks like new.

Edit: I just read your links and it seems to show it‘s matte chrome plated, not powder coated. Interesting that they plate or coat the stainless steel, but it seems to keep the finish looking nice.

I was thinking Rocnel... instead of Sailor. LOL.... The mind is a horrible thing to waste... but alas, that seems to be the condition of mine.

An interesting note, at least to me. The Feather AS-D2 was Brian Mulreany's main razor before the Claymore Evolutions got to ESC. The Claymore Evo replaced the AS-D2 as his main razor. When I first met him online, he had been using his for 6 months for every shave.

 

[Mr. Shavington]

I was thinking Rocnel... instead of Sailor. LOL.... The mind is a horrible thing to waste... but alas, that seems to be the condition of mine.

An interesting note, at least to me. The Feather AS-D2 was Brian Mulreany's main razor before the Claymore Evolutions got to ESC. The Claymore Evo replaced the AS-D2 as his main razor. When I first met him online, he had been using his for 6 months for every shave.

Most of my conversations these days go like, “I saw a movie with that guy in it, you know, the one who was in the other thing where the man died”, and my friend will say “you mean the one who’s married to that woman?”, and I’ll say “yeah, that’s the one”.

Cognitive decline or just too much stuff in our heads? The thing is it doesn’t seem to matter much - we always understand exactly what the other person means.

 

[Guido75]

26.03.2023

Razor	Blade	Brush
Green Cult 2 level II	Gillette 365 (5)	Omega Super Badger
Pre-shave	Soap & Bowl	Post-shave
Cold splash	Mike’s Barbershop Proraso Green	Cold splash

Efficiency (scoring details here)	Quality
8/10 (~20 minutes)	10/10 (Exfoliation)
Effectiveness	Comfort
9.5/10 (BBS+)	10/10 (GlideFest)

Notes to today’s shave:

Every part of the gear was just performing at its best today for the perfect Sunday shave! This razor is just amazing at level II. Looking forward / being scared to use the GC1 somewhere next year - or maybe get level III too.

Further details can be found in my journal here.

Enjoy your shave!

 

[desmoface]

Wow, I gotta say I'm impressed. I ordered the GC and Saponoficio Varesino from YourShaving.com on 3/19, which was a Sunday, 8 days later I received the order. I don't get orders that quick from stateside retailers, let alone a retailer from Spain. If the razor and the soap are as impressive as yourshaving.com, I'm in for a real treat.

 

[desmoface]

First shave with the GC and #2 plate is in the books. I probably shouldn’t have used a brand new razor and new shaving soap, but I’m not too bright like that. If my Karve Overlander and Edwin Jagger DE89 are pussycats, the GC is a Sabre Toothed Tiger, LOL.

The SV soap is fairly fragrant and that historically doesn’t work with my skin, and while I don’t have any post shave irritation, I wouldn’t call the shave particularly comfortable. That’s a shame because it creates a dense, thick lather.

That said, the GC is efficient, and I got the sense that you just need to respect it as it feels like it could bite if you get complacent. I don’t see myself using it much as I guess I prefer mild razors. I’d like to try it with a 1 plate though, so if anyone wants to swap a 1 for a 2, let me know.

 

[gdawg55]

First shave with the GC and #2 plate is in the books. I probably shouldn’t have used a brand new razor and new shaving soap, but I’m not too bright like that. If my Karve Overlander and Edwin Jagger DE89 are pussycats, the GC is a Sabre Toothed Tiger, LOL.

The SV soap is fairly fragrant and that historically doesn’t work with my skin, and while I don’t have any post shave irritation, I wouldn’t call the shave particularly comfortable. That’s a shame because it creates a dense, thick lather.

That said, the GC is efficient, and I got the sense that you just need to respect it as it feels like it could bite if you get complacent. I don’t see myself using it much as I guess I prefer mild razors. I’d like to try it with a 1 plate though, so if anyone wants to swap a 1 for a 2, let me know.

The GC needs very light to no pressure while shaving due to its heft. Easy to get irritation if you go at it with added pressure. Having said that, I find I get less irritation using the level III plate compared to the II for some odd reason. May take you several shaves to get used to the GC.

 

[CoreyWoodmancy]

I’ve never heard of this one but it looks really nice!

 

[desmoface]

Well, here's your chance, it's going up on the BST forum along with the soap. One use on each

I’ve never heard of this one but it looks really nice!

 

[Cannon Cocker]

Fair enough, and I am certainly no expert either. But isn’t every metal alloy made from molten metal, almost by definition? And the blocks would surely be hammered into shape, which causes stress fractures. So a block of stainless steel shouldn’t be as strong as a stainless steel object formed from injection moulding of the molten metal.

I think the problem with zamak is nothing to do with die casting, but rather that the zinc alloy can corrode and crumble into sparkly dust. That’s an issue with the alloy’s inherent properties, not the production process.

There are basically two different way to make a stainless bar that was used to make that razor cap. It either starts from a poured ingot, reheated and reduced (usually rolled) to a bloom, reheated rolled to a billet and then reheated and rolled into a bar. Or it can be poured and casted into a billet then reheated and rolled into a bar. Each time the steel is reheated that reheating process relives the stress that the rolling put into the steel.

Stress fractures are not a common occurrence in the making of stainless steel. They can happen when the steel is stressed way past its plastic deformation point. It is usually seen when the steel receives a too severe quench or the forming is too severe. The impact by dropping a razor onto a hard surface can cause a fracture in the weakest area of a fastener which is exactly where that cap screw fractured.

 

[spacemonkey42]

Green Cult 2.0 w/ plate II in the BST, someone should grab it

FS: Greencult 2.0 Razor with # 2 Plate & Saponificio Varesino Manna di Sicilia Shaving Soap

Hello, today I'm offering up for sale a couple of items I literally received today. I used each one time, this evening, and determined that they aren't for me. The razor is beautiful, but it's a bit too aggressive for me, I guess I prefer my razors mild. As far as the soap, it smell fantastic...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[desmoface]

Yeah, someone grab it, or offer something else cool in trade, maybe a Simpson synthetic brush?

 

[V12Stu]

So, an update after I received my GC 2.0 Level II from YS in Spain last Friday, along with a jar of MdC Nature, also new to me.

The MdC soap is awesome - but that's for another thread.

I'm coming from a Muhle R89 which was my entry into DE shaving a few months ago so please bear in mind that I remain somewhat inexperienced in the art of DE shaving and I have no experience of other razors. That said, I got to the point where I felt I wanted something more efficient than the R89 and ended up ordering the GC.

Unwrapped the GC 2.0, loaded a fresh Astra SP and it was 2 passes to BBS on the first shave, which I've never had before - so it was quite a surprise. That was instead of the normal 4 passes with the R89 - wow, the GC 2.0 is efficient!

That said, I had many weepers and a really red and sore neck afterwards. Altogether, it was the most efficient shave I'd ever had but also one of the least comfortable - actually quite uncomfortable, not enjoyable and painful afterwards. I guessed I had used too much pressure, not being used to the hefty weight of the razor and still being quite new at this.

Second shave, same blade, same soap but I worked really hard to minimise the pressure I exerted on my face with the razor to the bare minimum. It felt like I was almost holding the razor off my face. 3 pass shave this time but it still gave me a really red and sore neck - just not quite as bad as last time. I was sore and really disappointed.

I then read @desmoface having a similar experience above and I thought maybe I'd ended up with a razor that was just too aggressive for my face with its positive blade exposure. I also thought about listing it on BST at that point but I decided to persevere - in the interests of gaining experience if nothing else.

So I thought about the positive blade exposure. I also thought about the neutral angle where both top cap and SB are in contact with the skin which is what made the R89 work to its best and I believed to be correct technique. I knew it wasn't down to pressure of the razor on my face after the second shave. So it had to be the positively exposed blade scraping my skin with the neutral angle I was using. Maybe my skin was just too sensitive for it but surely, there had to be a way of taming this razor......?

After some more research and reading on B&B, I discovered steep angle shaving and how this might overcome the discomfort I was experiencing. The arguments and diagrams in some of the posts made sense. I examined the lather slots on the GC's SB and they seem to be cut to allow shaving at a steeper angle. So, thought I'd give it a go on the 3rd shave. I have to admit, though, I went into the 3rd shave with trepidation and slightly reluctantly - the last couple of shaves were pretty rough and sore afterwards.

The result of shaving with a steeper angle? One of the most comfortable but perfectly close shaves I've had, with minimal neck irritation. A very comfortable DFS+. Looks like I've learned something......

Fourth shave tomorrow where I'll try it again. If it's as good as the last shave, I shall be joining SASA and keeping the razor for sure!

My apologies for long post but I hope the account above helps others who may find themselves in a similar situation as me. I'm [almost] sold on the steep angle technique and will report back after the next shave. For me at least, it seems to be what will make the GC 2.0 really work - fingers crossed.

 

[APBinNCA]

@V12Stu

No need to apologise for the length of post, that was just a perfect post. I am really happy that you found a solution that allowed you to keep moving forward with the razor. The steep angle is not my preference, but I don't have a GC and it's the traditional technique promoted by Gillette. A lot can depend on what angle the hairs grow out of your face and the best way to figure that out is try different things. It's great to see the thought process that led you to the solution(hopefully).

 

[Phoenixkh]

So, an update after I received my GC 2.0 Level II from YS in Spain last Friday, along with a jar of MdC Nature, also new to me.

The MdC soap is awesome - but that's for another thread.

I'm coming from a Muhle R89 which was my entry into DE shaving a few months ago so please bear in mind that I remain somewhat inexperienced in the art of DE shaving and I have no experience of other razors. That said, I got to the point where I felt I wanted something more efficient than the R89 and ended up ordering the GC.

Unwrapped the GC 2.0, loaded a fresh Astra SP and it was 2 passes to BBS on the first shave, which I've never had before - so it was quite a surprise. That was instead of the normal 4 passes with the R89 - wow, the GC 2.0 is efficient!

That said, I had many weepers and a really red and sore neck afterwards. Altogether, it was the most efficient shave I'd ever had but also one of the least comfortable - actually quite uncomfortable, not enjoyable and painful afterwards. I guessed I had used too much pressure, not being used to the hefty weight of the razor and still being quite new at this.

Second shave, same blade, same soap but I worked really hard to minimise the pressure I exerted on my face with the razor to the bare minimum. It felt like I was almost holding the razor off my face. 3 pass shave this time but it still gave me a really red and sore neck - just not quite as bad as last time. I was sore and really disappointed.

I then read @desmoface having a similar experience above and I thought maybe I'd ended up with a razor that was just too aggressive for my face with its positive blade exposure. I also thought about listing it on BST at that point but I decided to persevere - in the interests of gaining experience if nothing else.

So I thought about the positive blade exposure. I also thought about the neutral angle where both top cap and SB are in contact with the skin which is what made the R89 work to its best and I believed to be correct technique. I knew it wasn't down to pressure of the razor on my face after the second shave. So it had to be the positively exposed blade scraping my skin with the neutral angle I was using. Maybe my skin was just too sensitive for it but surely, there had to be a way of taming this razor......?

After some more research and reading on B&B, I discovered steep angle shaving and how this might overcome the discomfort I was experiencing. The arguments and diagrams in some of the posts made sense. I examined the lather slots on the GC's SB and they seem to be cut to allow shaving at a steeper angle. So, thought I'd give it a go on the 3rd shave. I have to admit, though, I went into the 3rd shave with trepidation and slightly reluctantly - the last couple of shaves were pretty rough and sore afterwards.

The result of shaving with a steeper angle? One of the most comfortable but perfectly close shaves I've had, with minimal neck irritation. A very comfortable DFS+. Looks like I've learned something......

Fourth shave tomorrow where I'll try it again. If it's as good as the last shave, I shall be joining SASA and keeping the razor for sure!

My apologies for long post but I hope the account above helps others who may find themselves in a similar situation as me. I'm [almost] sold on the steep angle technique and will report back after the next shave. For me at least, it seems to be what will make the GC 2.0 really work - fingers crossed.

I'm also inexperienced when it comes to wet shaving. Somehow, with zero instruction, I started out holding the handle parallel to my face... and moved the handle up until I could feel the blade engage... and move it up or down until I find the sweet spot.

After some time here, I was told... you are supposed to put the top cap on your face and move the handle down... that is the "accepted" method, if you will. All I know is... the way I do it is probably wrong, but I end up shaving on the steep side of the sweet zone. For the razors I love, including the Green Cult 2.0 Level 2, that works quite well for me.

I will say... you might want to spend a few dollars and buy just the Level 1 plate before you decide to sell the Green Cult 2.0. I ended up buying one as an experiment, knowing I would pass it along to a friend here. I knew it would be more on the mild side, less efficient than I prefer. It performed as I expected. I had a couple very nice shaves with it.... but it's more mild than I like or need. I already have a .86 base plate for my Blutt BR-1. That makes the Level 1 plate redundant for me, but I loved how smooth and comfortable it was... just not quite efficient enough for my face and whiskers...

The other thing I did... as I usually do... I switched out the handle to the Timeless Ti Crown.... A good titanium handle often cuts off an ounce of weight. For me, that makes the razor mor maneuverable, and I find, improves my shaves. Timeless does have a scratch and dent list.... so if you are interested, the matte finish Ti Crown handles are more affordable. I have both the polished and matter finish handles. I match them to the finishes on my razors. I polish the matte finish ones by hand... they lighten up a bit with each polish with Simichrome polish. This is just a thought. Personally, I love the look of the Ti Crown.. and they fit my hand perfectly.

 

[V12Stu]

I'm also inexperienced when it comes to wet shaving. Somehow, with zero instruction, I started out holding the handle parallel to my face... and moved the handle up until I could feel the blade engage... and move it up or down until I find the sweet spot.

After some time here, I was told... you are supposed to put the top cap on your face and move the handle down... that is the "accepted" method, if you will. All I know is... the way I do it is probably wrong, but I end up shaving on the steep side of the sweet zone. For the razors I love, including the Green Cult 2.0 Level 2, that works quite well for me.

I will say... you might want to spend a few dollars and buy just the Level 1 plate before you decide to sell the Green Cult 2.0. I ended up buying one as an experiment, knowing I would pass it along to a friend here. I knew it would be more on the mild side, less efficient than I prefer. It performed as I expected. I had a couple very nice shaves with it.... but it's more mild than I like or need. I already have a .86 base plate for my Blutt BR-1. That makes the Level 1 plate redundant for me, but I loved how smooth and comfortable it was... just not quite efficient enough for my face and whiskers...

The other thing I did... as I usually do... I switched out the handle to the Timeless Ti Crown.... A good titanium handle often cuts off an ounce of weight. For me, that makes the razor mor maneuverable, and I find, improves my shaves. Timeless does have a scratch and dent list.... so if you are interested, the matte finish Ti Crown handles are more affordable. I have both the polished and matter finish handles. I match them to the finishes on my razors. I polish the matte finish ones by hand... they lighten up a bit with each polish with Simichrome polish. This is just a thought. Personally, I love the look of the Ti Crown.. and they fit my hand perfectly.

View attachment 1630078

Thanks Kim - I appreciate your suggestions. I had also thought about the Level I plate and for sure, if I can't master the Level II, I'll get hold of one and see if it suits me better. That said, I am optimistically hopeful that I can master the Level II after the last shave and the new technique I have learned about.

I had also thought about using the lighter weight handle from the R89 with GC 2.0 head just to see what a lighter handle felt like with the heavy head - I'd read some of your posts and others doing this. Another experiment to try along the way and if it's to my liking I'll look at the handles you mentioned.

In terms of riding the cap that you also mentioned - or at least starting with the handle horizontal and dropping the angle until you feel the blade, I tried this a little with the R89 to get the correct angle. For whatever reason, my brain doesn't seem to be wired up correctly to maintain an accurate and consistent angle this way whereas steep angle shaving seems to come naturally. It's strange how we're wired up so differently.

Thanks again for the suggestions - I'll let you know how I fare with the GC 2.0 II over the coming days......

 

[spacemonkey42]

Way to keep with it, @V12Stu! I struggled with the Green Cult, but have come a long way too. I'll try steeper as well when I go back to it. As @Phoenixkh mentioned, plate I is also a good option if you don't want to have to concentrate as hard on the angle. He generously shared his plate with me. It has half the exposure, which makes it less aggressive.

Another thing that helped me, which I learned here, is to choke up further on the handle. Find the balance point where the head becomes weightless, offset by the weight of the handle. The Green Cult is a lead brick of a razor, so offsetting that weight was my initial challenge. Finding that balance point really helped me. I also tried a lighter handle. I haven't yet figured out which helps more, because a lighter handle can't offset that heavy head.

 

[Guido75]

Nice long read @V12Stu and way to go steep! The GC2 at level II is an amazing razor. I get consistent good shaves although the razor does need a good blade to do so.

You’re getting better results already, but if the irritation remains even with very light touch I would be inclined to (contrary to what you might think) use a sharper blade (Personna) or settle for less passes on the neck. A 2.5 shave (with 2 passes on the neck, chin and moustache) and 3 passes on the cheeks (last pass ATG) might get you a great DFS s as well.

Enjoy,

Guido

 

[desmoface]

I’d love to try the #1 plate, and I may seek one out if mine doesn’t sell. $77 shipped from their esty shop is a bit steep, so I’ll probably hold off on that. Maybe someone on the forum will offer one up for sale at some point.

 

[Reinholder]

The V1 Greencult has quickly become one of my favorite razors. Very aggressive, but easy to control.