I think I have completed my rotation of razors.
As many of you might know I have assembled a system razor during the last few years. I think the Ilmarinen is everything I could ask from a razor system, I truly do. It is a Weber Bulldog handle, Feather AS-D1 head and all of the Ikon baseplates replated in black chrome by our very own onotoman ( Dave at www.restoredrazors.com). My plan was to shave with this razor for the rest of my life. Then two things happened.
A short while ago I was able to make a trade here on B&B. A member wanted to trade his razor for one of my brushes. The British Gillette #16 was the razor I had been offered as a gift 7 years ago, even though that one was not in this nice shape. Only an equally arrogant and ignorant noob would have thought that his only German made razor was enough to shave with! I knew in my heart that that beat up #16 was a better shaver than my Merkur, but I fell for the car analogy (Mercedes vs Austin) when I respectfully turned down the free offer. To my defence ( I know there's none!) I must say that B&B was not on my radar at that time...
The second thing that happened was that my grandfathers old Aristocrat '34 was found by my brother. Our old neighbours in Finland had found it in their garage where me and my brother had left it 45 years ago. My grandfather bought the razor in either San Francisco or Vancouver just before the second world war. It was in terrible shape ( no gold left) so it has been replated in rhodium by an unknown replater in Finland. It fits very well into my now completed rotation of three.
And now on to what you have been waiting for. The pics:
British #16, US Aristocrat '34 and the Ilmarinen in black chrome
Of course I have picked up some other things also that nicely rounds off my rotation.
As many of you might know I have assembled a system razor during the last few years. I think the Ilmarinen is everything I could ask from a razor system, I truly do. It is a Weber Bulldog handle, Feather AS-D1 head and all of the Ikon baseplates replated in black chrome by our very own onotoman ( Dave at www.restoredrazors.com). My plan was to shave with this razor for the rest of my life. Then two things happened.
A short while ago I was able to make a trade here on B&B. A member wanted to trade his razor for one of my brushes. The British Gillette #16 was the razor I had been offered as a gift 7 years ago, even though that one was not in this nice shape. Only an equally arrogant and ignorant noob would have thought that his only German made razor was enough to shave with! I knew in my heart that that beat up #16 was a better shaver than my Merkur, but I fell for the car analogy (Mercedes vs Austin) when I respectfully turned down the free offer. To my defence ( I know there's none!) I must say that B&B was not on my radar at that time...
The second thing that happened was that my grandfathers old Aristocrat '34 was found by my brother. Our old neighbours in Finland had found it in their garage where me and my brother had left it 45 years ago. My grandfather bought the razor in either San Francisco or Vancouver just before the second world war. It was in terrible shape ( no gold left) so it has been replated in rhodium by an unknown replater in Finland. It fits very well into my now completed rotation of three.
And now on to what you have been waiting for. The pics:
British #16, US Aristocrat '34 and the Ilmarinen in black chrome
Of course I have picked up some other things also that nicely rounds off my rotation.
Last edited by a moderator:
