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Not bonding with Le Grelot

dakotaev

dakotaev

A razors edge is such a personal thing, I buy a "shave ready" straight knowing that I'll probably have to tailor it to my own personal shave ready taste. I'll always give it a fair first go and if it needs a little touch up or a total rehone so be it.

I recently bought a shave ready LeGrelot from a very reputable vendor who has had nothing but praise for his edge quality. It wasn't quite comfortable enough for me personally.. The next guy? maybe it is...

Point is, shave ready to me usually means it will be less work for me to get it to what I consider shave ready :)
 
Brownbear

Brownbear

Good grief, these threads can go off the tracks rapidly. Not just off the tracks but down the embankment and over the cliff. I know I don’t get to control the thread just because I started it, but I’m sorry I started this thing and I’m really sorry I mentioned names.

I may not have been clear enough, although I thought I was, that I have no reason to believe the razor wasn’t shave ready as I received it. It gave me an HHT 3+ out of the box; it shaved smoothly with no tugging or other signs of being dull. By the evening I still had a DFS, although not the BBS I had in the morning. It simply did not feel good when I had finished shaving and I nicked myself more often than is my habit. This is similar to my experience with the Feather DE blades when I tried them when I was shaving with a DE. They are undeniably sharp and “shave ready”, but they are one of the harshest blades on my face. The TI edge on the Grelot was similar, it just didn’t agree with my skin. Nothing unusual about that, YMMV is the sacred motto of shaving and no one is culpable that my face didn’t agree with the edge.

Comparison is the essence of much learning, so I used this blade as a comparative sample. I looked at it under my scope and took it to the lab where I looked at it under a research grade dissecting scope. The edge was beautiful with no faults, although it was clearly not finished on a coti, which is hard to mistake under a scope.

It wasn’t my intention to imply that Jarrod misrepresented the razor. In fact we had a couple emails about the razor before I ordered it and he was very helpful. Yes, he said that the Grelot was the only razor he had seen that consistently came shave ready from the factory, but he also offered to hone it for me before sending it out. I specifically chose the factory edge precisely because I wanted a non-coticule finishing technique to compare so I could learn more about differences. I have only ever shaved on coticule honed razors aside from the two razors I bought from Larry, although I don’t actually know what he uses to finish. I have no intention at this time of buying other stones, but I am curious about differences among finishes; the subject attracts a lot of discussion on the boards. I was fully intending to rehone this razor sooner or later anyway.

Jarrod, I apologize for mentioning where I bought the razor. I had no idea this thread would associate anything negative to your business, and I hope that no one who reads this whole thread would go away with any mistaken impressions. I am amazed that you spend as much precious time communicating about your products as you do, and your service has been outstanding. That green bout you sold me brings a smile to my face whenever I run a blade over it. I have nothing but praise for your business practices and helpfulness.

To get back to my original thread, I had a wonderful shave on the Grelot this morning on the edge I put on it with my coticules. This razor allows me to go ATG on my chin and upper lip, a feat I had thought was beyond me. It was one of the easiest blades to hone I’ve experienced, much to my surprise. That was a quicky 15 min edge, so I look forward to what I can bring out in it when I have a little more time. Now back to my original intent to shave with this razor every day for two weeks to get to know it better.
 
Woodash

Woodash

I got a LG from Jarrod myself several weeks back and I can say that he sent out a 'more than respectable' edge on that thing. However, I have yet to come across an edge on a new razor that I didn't want to improve or modify to my tastes.

The question is i) do you just touch it up, or ii) reset the bevel and rehone. My experience with new TIs is that no matter how sharp/shavable the edge may be, the bevel needs to be reset because they do some kind of weird polishing thing at an angle below what the razor geometry would dictate. If you just touch up a new TI blade, you will invariably begin to create a secondary bevel. That's just been my experience, but it has been corroborated by several others as well.
 
B

Basil

The issue could have been with what hones were used on the razor. I've had several razors that were honed with man made hones that were just too harsh for my face.

I suspect that your face like mine has gotten use to a coti edge and nothing else feels as smooth and comfortable on your face as it.

This has happened in my own experience where I prefer the coti to any other hone.
 
Brownbear

Brownbear

Basil said:
The issue could have been with what hones were used on the razor. I've had several razors that were honed with man made hones that were just too harsh for my face.

I suspect that your face like mine has gotten use to a coti edge and nothing else feels as smooth and comfortable on your face as it.

This has happened in my own experience where I prefer the coti to any other hone.
Click to expand...

I'm wondering if that is the case. It was a different blade this morning with the coti edge on it. It may just be what you are used to and I am used to the coticule edge. Part of me doesn't like settling so easy, and part of me thinks that is just fine. I guess I'll have to find something else to spend all my money on besides one of every other kind of stone.....although those thuringians or frankonians sound interesting............

I was surprised how easy it honed after some of the posts about it being difficult. I have two really fast stones and I was able to reset the bevel pretty quick. My problem is more with getting that last bit out of the stone, not in the bevel setting. That is why I used the soap to reduce the friction a bit, and it seemed to work. It is 13 hours later and my face is just showing some stubble.

Woodash- I decided to go back to square one so I can't say what the original bevel was like from a touch up perspective. But if they put a lower angle on the bevel that would explain why it was sharp but harsh I think. Too much of a good thing on my tender tissues. It just felt grabby and weird. Perhaps this event marks the end of my honing self doubt, I won't be so hesitant to impose my own edge on a blade no matter how renowned it is. I will proudly stand up and take my place in the ranks of perfectly adequate honers secure in the knowledge that my honing is good enough for government work.
 
pelicano

pelicano

The Le Grelot sold to me by johnmrson is one of my smoothest shavers. The Rasurpur was very rough and definitely not shave ready, :thumbdown no matter what they state on the site.
 
life2short1971

life2short1971

I just ordered one of those new Grelot grinds with the barbers notch from Martin. I asked him to put his best edge on it so I'll let you know when I get it.
 
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