LRod's Acquisition and everything else Thread!

[LRod]

Larry, I’ve found that the behavior of a blade can differ between razors. I am curious if you share this experience.

Absolutely!
A more precise & scientific test for me would be to use a particular blade in various different razors. But I honestly don't have the patience for that, Lol!!
My point in my blade test is to simply try out all the blades I have at least a couple of times. To see what great blades I might have been missing out on. And the Rex Envoy was a good candidate because it seems to work well with any blade.

 

[LRod]

Interesting shave with the English Gillette Tech last night!
I used the same Sputnik blade that I used 2 days ago. Again, what a great blade!
Something about these English Gillette Tech's must be different than their American counterparts.
I've had a few Made in the USA Tech's and they weren't very efficient. This new one was very efficient!
Extremely smooth, easy going & efficient shave with great results.
I was expecting it to not get me to the level of closeness that I seek. But it left me very surprised!
Now I want to try it out with a really sharp blade (like a Feather). I'll be doing that soon!
I've had Gillette Tech's, Superspeeds & adjustables and I'd say that this one gave me the best shave.
I have to rate it as excellent!

 

[Guido75]

English Gillettes have a tendency to be more effective than the US counterparts. At least in my experience. Which is not to say my prewar Tech is a slouch. Not in the least - it is definitely on par with the English flat bottom and also on par with actually most of my modern razors.

Guido

 

[LRod]

English Gillettes have a tendency to be more effective than the US counterparts. At least in my experience. Which is not to say my prewar Tech is a slouch. Not in the least - it is definitely on par with the English flat bottom and also on par with actually most of my modern razors.

Guido

Now that you mention it, I recall reading about it at some point. So I guess it is definitely different! It's weird though because I don't really see an increase in gap. Maybe it's got more blade exposure? Or somehow a different geometry?
All my other Techs were post war so I never experienced any of the pre war models. I rarely use anything vintage!

 

[Guido75]

My English postwar is actually the most effective one even though the gap and exposure are similar to the others. No idea how that works specifically, but it does.

 

[Phoenixkh]

I have mixed feelings about selling my 2 #77 replated, boxed Flat Bottom Techs and my #44 NEW Raised Flat Bottom razors... That said, at the moment, I seem to be satisfied limiting my razors to modern CNC designs. My RAD is coming to a close... I think... but I've been wrong before.

I have that stainless steel La Faulx razor head on its way from France... delayed now by a day for some "uncontrollable events". I have a Kai Captain Excelia barber razor showing up today.... and my name will be at the top of the Wolfman list in April, if I guessed correctly for the WR4.

Larry and Guido.... I've been watching your collections and am interested by not tempted to acquire any of those razors for myself. I'm not sure why. I ask myself that question fairly often... What changed? I haven't come to any firm conclusions but if I hazard a guess, I think it's because I'm enjoying the phase I'm in at the moment: choosing a razor on a whim and knowing I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the shave, no matter which razor I chose.

I still have a few razors stored in those thin, clear plastic, fishing tackle boxes but they are out of sight... and out of mind. I don't feel the urge to start any new trials with them. The only one that might deserve more time in the near future is the ATT Windsor I have... but the only plate available when I got it was the SSRH. I am still a bit confused about the Windsor base plates but when Black Land resurrects ATT, I might be able to figure it out. I've only used the Windsor a couple times and I didn't have very satisfying shaves with it. I do have a couple aluminum Windsor Pro plates... and their SB90 stainless steel plate. I could experiment with them to find the right efficiency for me, perhaps, but I don't feel in a rush about it.

All of this to say... I really am enjoying both your journals. I look forward to your new posts. It's fun for me, watching how others are progressing in their own search for the right gear and reading about the enjoyment you guys have when the razor and blade click.

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

My RAD is coming to a close... I think... but I've been wrong before.

Oh you think it is do you, I think you will find that you are mistaken about a great many things young skywalk, cough, I mean Kim.

You want this......Don't You?

Or this perhaps?

A nicely constructed light sabe, cough, I mean flashlight, which contains unlimited power!

Nope, I don't think your RAD is over, and we most certainly no Larry's RAD aint over, he burns up RAD like a semi truck burns up diesel at 5 miles to the gallon.​

 

[Phoenixkh]

Oh you think it is do you, I think you will find that you are mistaken about a great many things young skywalk, cough, I mean Kim.

You want this......Don't You?

Or this perhaps?

A nicely constructed light sabe, cough, I mean flashlight, which contains unlimited power!

Nope, I don't think your RAD is over, and we most certainly no Larry's RAD aint over, he burns up RAD like a semi truck burns up diesel at 5 miles to the gallon.​

I haven't done very well with the only adjustable I've tried... the Merkur Progress in a couple variations. I think the Osprey is gorgeous but I'm not inclined to buy one at this point.

Flashlights? I'm set. I love the Fenix PD35.... I have two models. They have enough power for my needs. I found a great holster for them... to wear on my belt. It's the only one Lee Valley Tools sells, if you want to check them out.

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

I love the Fenix PD35

When I was picking out my light, I had a look at Fenix lights, cause I did like what they offered for the price. They make a lot of nice lights, and offer a reasonable amount of lumens and candella for price. I looked up your light..

PD35 Kim's Light

1700-Lumens​

If I had decided on Fenix instead, this was the model I would have bought...

E35R Rechargeable

3100-Lumens​

 

[Phoenixkh]

When I was picking out my light, I had a look at Fenix lights, cause I did like what they offered for the price. They make a lot of nice lights, and offer a reasonable amount of lumens and candella for price. I looked up your light..

PD35 Kim's Light
View attachment 1786879
1700-Lumens​

If I had decided on Fenix instead, this was the model I would have bought...

E35R Rechargeable
View attachment 1786882
3100-Lumens​

I don't need that much power... The 1700 is up from the second generation PD35 that I bought originally and that's almost too much for me, for how I use flashlights.

 

[LRod]

Oh you think it is do you, I think you will find that you are mistaken about a great many things young skywalk, cough, I mean Kim.

You want this......Don't You?

Or this perhaps?

A nicely constructed light sabe, cough, I mean flashlight, which contains unlimited power!

Nope, I don't think your RAD is over, and we most certainly no Larry's RAD aint over, he burns up RAD like a semi truck burns up diesel at 5 miles to the gallon.​

Nice Chris!
I've come to the conclusion that I don't think RAD ever ends. Ever!!

 

[LRod]

I have mixed feelings about selling my 2 #77 replated, boxed Flat Bottom Techs and my #44 NEW Raised Flat Bottom razors... That said, at the moment, I seem to be satisfied limiting my razors to modern CNC designs. My RAD is coming to a close... I think... but I've been wrong before.

I have that stainless steel La Faulx razor head on its way from France... delayed now by a day for some "uncontrollable events". I have a Kai Captain Excelia barber razor showing up today.... and my name will be at the top of the Wolfman list in April, if I guessed correctly for the WR4.

Larry and Guido.... I've been watching your collections and am interested by not tempted to acquire any of those razors for myself. I'm not sure why. I ask myself that question fairly often... What changed? I haven't come to any firm conclusions but if I hazard a guess, I think it's because I'm enjoying the phase I'm in at the moment: choosing a razor on a whim and knowing I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the shave, no matter which razor I chose.

I still have a few razors stored in those thin, clear plastic, fishing tackle boxes but they are out of sight... and out of mind. I don't feel the urge to start any new trials with them. The only one that might deserve more time in the near future is the ATT Windsor I have... but the only plate available when I got it was the SSRH. I am still a bit confused about the Windsor base plates but when Black Land resurrects ATT, I might be able to figure it out. I've only used the Windsor a couple times and I didn't have very satisfying shaves with it. I do have a couple aluminum Windsor Pro plates... and their SB90 stainless steel plate. I could experiment with them to find the right efficiency for me, perhaps, but I don't feel in a rush about it.

All of this to say... I really am enjoying both your journals. I look forward to your new posts. It's fun for me, watching how others are progressing in their own search for the right gear and reading about the enjoyment you guys have when the razor and blade click.

Kim, I've rid myself of almost all of my vintage razors. My interest lies within the modern stuff too. This one I just bought was $20 which justified the purchase. And it was worth it from what I see. The only other vintage razors I've kept are my Shick Krona DE, Schick injector, a birth year/quarter Gillette Superspeed and my GEM's.
All the others are gone and I had bought quite a few. I pretty much kept the ones I really really like!

 

[Phoenixkh]

Kim, I've rid myself of almost all of my vintage razors. My interest lies within the modern stuff too. This one I just bought was $20 which justified the purchase. And it was worth it from what I see. The only other vintage razors I've kept are my Shick Krona DE, Schick injector, a birth year Gillette Superspeed and my GEM's.
All the others are gone and I had bought quite a few. I pretty much kept the ones I really really like!

I have the birth year and quarter SuperSpeed @luvmysuper gifted me after the PIF he did for Chris. He told me it was coincidence because he didn't check my birthday when he was assembling all the packages he sent out.... That was some PIF as all of us who participated received a SuperSpeed. I might get Chris to replate that one sometime. I haven't decided.

I have the two Schick G4 and G8 injectors I inherited from my mother. @spacemonkey42 gave me a very nice 1912 GEM Junior. That's it for my Vintage razors. I'm giving my two Mergress razors to our youngest son this coming Tuesday.... 500 and 501. I'm keeping the plastic knobs ones around, but I didn't have a good shave out of the 4 times I used a Progress. They aren't exactly Vintage since they were new..... but the design is old, as you know.

 

[LRod]

Hello all!
Nothing new except for my continued blade testing. And I'm anxiously waiting for my Wolfman WR3 to arrive.
Supposedly it shows a delivery date of February 14. It's been a long wait!
Anyways, I haven't consistently been trying the new DE blades since I've thrown in some shaves with my OneBlade Genesis and my Blackland Sabre.
Also, I've been continuing the testing for the last 2 days with the Pils 101NE instead of the Rex Envoy.
Have I mentioned how great of a razor it is? Yes, but I'll keep saying it!
Absolutely awesome and rated now as my #1 DE!!
And honestly after trying so many razors, I think I'd be hard pressed to find another better DE at this point.
It just does everything right for me!
So with the continuation of the blade testing:
Last was the Sputnik which was excellent.
-Next was the Gillette 7 o'clock black with the PILS. Excellent sharp blade and very smooth but the Sputnik was a notch above it.
-After the 7 o'clock came the SuperMax Diamond Edge Super Platinum. Also with the Pils razor!
Smooth blade but OK performance. Not as sharp as any of the other ones I tried. My shave required more work in order to get adequate coverage. Pulled it out of the razor and threw it into my blade bank.
I wont use it again!
So far out of the new ones tried, the Sputnik is in the lead!

 

[Eric_75]

Hello all!
Nothing new except for my continued blade testing. And I'm anxiously waiting for my Wolfman WR3 to arrive.
Supposedly it shows a delivery date of February 14. It's been a long wait!
Anyways, I haven't consistently been trying the new DE blades since I've thrown in some shaves with my OneBlade Genesis and my Blackland Sabre.
Also, I've been continuing the testing for the last 2 days with the Pils 101NE instead of the Rex Envoy.
Have I mentioned how great of a razor it is? Yes, but I'll keep saying it!
Absolutely awesome and rated now as my #1 DE!!
And honestly after trying so many razors, I think I'd be hard pressed to find another better DE at this point.
It just does everything right for me!
So with the continuation of the blade testing:
Last was the Sputnik which was excellent.
-Next was the Gillette 7 o'clock black with the PILS. Excellent sharp blade and very smooth but the Sputnik was a notch above it.
-After the 7 o'clock came the SuperMax Diamond Edge Super Platinum. Also with the Pils razor!
Smooth blade but OK performance. Not as sharp as any of the other ones I tried. My shave required more work in order to get adequate coverage. Pulled it out of the razor and threw it into my blade bank.
I wont use it again!
So far out of the new ones tried, the Sputnik is in the lead!

Hope your week is going well, Larry.

 

[LRod]

Hope your week is going well, Larry.

Thanks Eric. Yours as well!

 

[Largefarva]

I've done some researching and apparently it's more of a: "The Hybrid head is like the Genesis head".
And I'm guessing that might be possible because they're not supposed to be equal in aggression. I'll let you know that part though when I eventually give the Hybrid a try!
I just took the Hybrid out of the box to see the physical differences side by side. The head design seems the same just by looking at it. Of course it might have some millimetric & internal differences that aren't visible though. To my eye, the material isn't exactly the same. They might both be stainless steel but I guess that the quality of the steel can always differ. For sure the finish doesn't look the same to me. The Hybrid looks to be more on the shinier chrome type finish vs. the Genesis' that seems to have a brushed stainless finish (matches the handle). But honestly, I'm sure that only OneBlade would know the differences if any. What I'm really interested to see is if they shave the same or are truly different.
I can 100% definitely tell you that the plastic head Core model shaves totally different than the Genesis.
It's night & day for me!

Hey I was wondering if you have shaved with the hybrid yet and could tell the difference in aggressiveness between the hybrid and genesis.

I just picked up a hybrid this past week and I really like the quality of shave it gives me for shaving my head. It’s so much better than the Leaf razor (Leaf is way too mild even with Feather blades….i can feel stubble coming through about 30 minutes after shaving with the Leaf) and the Proof razor can provide an excellent BBS shave I find it drags too much if I don’t use a super slick soap and it is too easy to cut and nick myself with it because it requires an aggressive blade to get BBS but when I do shave with it I can get a lot of irritation.

The hybrid razor from Oneblade gives absolutely great shave but I do wish it were a bit more aggressive because the efficiency is lacking a bit. If the genesis is truly more aggressive than the hybrid I’ll be getting a genesis asap but I’m questioning their claim about aggressiveness between the two because the hybrid is stated to have the same head as the genesis but uses the handle from the core.

 

[LRod]

Hey I was wondering if you have shaved with the hybrid yet and could tell the difference in aggressiveness between the hybrid and genesis.

Hey,
I unfortunately haven't tried the Hybrid. It's still in the box!
I've gotten along so well with the Genesis that I've had no need to give the Hybrid a go.
I've kind of just left it there as a backup and honestly don't know when I'll ever use it.
What I can tell you is that the Genesis isn't aggressive at all. It is sufficiently efficient though!
But remember, they were designed (as per the instructions) to be multi pass razors.
I don't do ATG so I'm not good at grading "super" efficient BBS shaves. I'm a 2 pass WTG/XTG daily shaver
that strives for an all day DFS and the Genesis does that job with ease.
One other thing, the Hybrid has a plastic handle so it's light. The Genesis is stainless which is heavier and maybe that's where the supposed "more aggressive" thing comes from.
Ask around here and I'm sure someone else has used both. Ask @AJMiami which also uses a Genesis but I'm not sure if he's ever used a Hybrid. Sorry I can't be of more help!

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

I've gotten along so well with the Genesis that I've had no need to give the Hybrid a go.

Yes, but didn't you know that its been statistically proven, that you get much better gas mileage with hybrids? Are you worried that taking it out of the box is going to depreciate its value 11% when removed from the box? I honestly wouldn't worry about it.

they were designed to be multi pass razors.

Thats right, just don't forget to use your turn signal to indicate your chosen direction, or you might get a ticket.

I don't do ATG so I'm not good at grading "super" efficient BBS shaves.

Just do a few burn outs, and the tires will be so BBS smooth, you'll literally glide on the menthol ice.

One other thing, the Hybrid has a plastic handle so it's light.

Well how do you think they get all that mileage? Its not just in the powerhouse, but with lighter materials, brings the weight down, a balanced power to weight ratio that is.

The Genesis is stainless which is heavier and maybe that's where the supposed "more aggressive"

Yes, and that added weight slows it down, and makes it more aggressive on the skin road.

Sorry I can't be of more help!

Neither could I, I simply turned my response into a comical one, comparing shaving to road mileage and possibly road rage where many a weeper can be shed going on the aggressive. So the only thing that I could contribute, was a little bit of humor, which is like adding a turbo to your razor, no wonder its out of gas.

 

[Largefarva]

Hey,
I unfortunately haven't tried the Hybrid. It's still in the box!
I've gotten along so well with the Genesis that I've had no need to give the Hybrid a go.
I've kind of just left it there as a backup and honestly don't know when I'll ever use it.
What I can tell you is that the Genesis isn't aggressive at all. It is sufficiently efficient though!
But remember, they were designed (as per the instructions) to be multi pass razors.
I don't do ATG so I'm not good at grading "super" efficient BBS shaves. I'm a 2 pass WTG/XTG daily shaver
that strives for an all day DFS and the Genesis does that job with ease.
One other thing, the Hybrid has a plastic handle so it's light. The Genesis is stainless which is heavier and maybe that's where the supposed "more aggressive" thing comes from.
Ask around here and I'm sure someone else has used both. Ask @AJMiami which also uses a Genesis but I'm not sure if he's ever used a Hybrid. Sorry I can't be of more help!

I had a genesis a few months ago but returned it because I fell in love with the Proof razor that was just released. I figured that since the head of the hybrid was the same as the genesis I should go with the hybrid this time around and save some money. Even with the genesis it was a multi-pass razor but I can’t honestly remember if it was more aggressive or efficient than the hybrid. I’ll keep digging around to see if anyone compares the two razors to see if Oneblade’s claim is true or not.