What's new

OEM Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 Test

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Today I received a new Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SR from the Titan Product Store on AliExpress. It came with all the normal trimming (denim strop, stropping paste (6.5g) and PU leather zippered case). Total cost was about US$20 including shipping (less than 2 weeks to Australia).

OEM Kit.JPG
My intention with this SR is to sharpen it as per Titan's instructions and see how it goes. I will report my progress in this thread.

The Titan instructions are to apply a very light coating of their special stropping paste across the centre of the denim strop about 50mm long. Then, using the back (spine) of the SR, work the stropping paste along the full length of the denim strop. Once that is done, you strop the SR as normal before each shave on the pasted denim strop. Titan claim that their stropping paste is of a rear-earth suspended in a petroleum/wax base. (Rare-earth is not really rare as it is more abundant than copper in the earth's crust.)

Once this test is finished, I will hone the blade on lapping films, finish it off on diamond pasted balsa and then probably PIF the SR to an SR n00bie who has put together a 0.1µm diamond pasted balsa strop. Tomorrow I will shave with this SR as received so that I have a baseline from which to judge the results.
 
I'm curious why I see you playing with these titans so much instead of cheap vintage European stock, the titans I presume lose an edge far faster, and vintage stock should be available on ebay Australia cheap as heck just like everywhere else...

Is the Titan stuff just a curiosity to you, playing with them as a hobby?
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I'm curious why I see you playing with these titans so much instead of cheap vintage European stock, the titans I presume lose an edge far faster, and vintage stock should be available on ebay Australia cheap as heck just like everywhere else...

Is the Titan stuff just a curiosity to you, playing with them as a hobby?
I enjoy playing with the Titan SRs because they are not expensive for what you get and I find them better quality than Gold Dollar SRs of similar price.

Your presumption on Titan's edge longevity is incorrect. They hold an edge as well or better than the European SRs of carbon steel that I have (Aust, Revisor, Dovo, George Butler, Puma, Cadman, etc.).

As for availablity of vintage SRs in Australia, yes they are available but not cheap when you include shipping. The most common vintage SRs available in Australia are probably Cadman Bengalls (Sheffield). I only have 8 Bengalls. It would be very rare to be able to buy a decent Bengall for under US$40 including shipping within Australia. Cheap vintage SRs from oversea would cost me at least US$70 including shipping. A Titan T.H.60 cost me only about US$20 including shipping from China.

The only Gold Dollar SR that I like are their W59s. They are my most enjoyable SR to shave with because of the challenge they present, but they are no longer readily available. I was not greatly impressed with their 66, 208 and P81 compared to the Titan T.H.60.

Overall my reason is mostly economical (I live on the age pension, about US$400 per week with half of that going in rent) and T.H.60's having very good quality for their price.
 
Last edited:
Makes sense! Interesting that they hold an edge as well as your other European vintage stock? That's wild! I guess I gave them short shrift! Also dang, sounds like post inside Australia is expensive, and from China is that cheap?? Crazy
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
This morning's shave with this SR was with the factory edge, not even a stropping on clean leather before the shave. All I did was wipe the oil off the blade.

I prepared as I normally do. First pass was WTG. Surprise, it actually cut some whiskers! Not a lot, not comfortably and not close. Second pass was XTG. No whiskers cut and trying the CdM (Coups de Maître or fool's pass) was all but impossible.

I gave up, rinsed my face, took out one of my other T.H.60 SRs with a pasted balsa edge and started again. This SR cut all of my whiskers close and comfortably in each of my three passes; WTG, XTG+CdM and XTG in the opposite direction. A DFS+ result.

I have now given this test T.H.60 300 laps on the pasted denim strop. Will see if there is any improvement with it in tomorrow's shave.
 
Last edited:

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I'm curious why I see you playing with these titans so much instead of cheap vintage European stock, the titans I presume lose an edge far faster, and vintage stock should be available on ebay Australia cheap as heck just like everywhere else...

Is the Titan stuff just a curiosity to you, playing with them as a hobby?
They hold an edge okay. They are still cheap and expendable. Every vintage razor is in some way, one of a kind. Some things you just don't want to do to a unique razor even if it is cheap. Titans are mass produced and faceless clones. Destroy one, and you can have another that is absolutely indistinguishable from the last one before it was an experimental subject. Sometimes you want to try something but you want a perfectly identical baseline or control subject for comparison. To do that cheaply you use Gold Dollars. Or if your budget is a little looser, you can use Titans.

A Titan, as received from the factory via AliExpress, isn't all that, but it beats a brand new entry level Dovo in ease of prepping for use. The blades have way less twist and warp in them. The only thing I don't like about them is the scales, but the model mentioned isn't so bad in that regard and even though it is their cheapest model, IMHO it is the best of the lineup.

Finding an essentially unlimited supply of identical and like-new European vintage razors for $20 each would be quite an achievement.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
@Slash McCoy is spot on with his assessment. Some of the Chinese (ROC) Titan SRs or some of the Chinese (PRC) Gold Dollar SRs make very good test specimens - and they can shave really well when made shave-ready. All for about US$20 or less including shipping.

The only reason that I don't like the cheaper Gold Dollar SRs is their scales. Like with Mr McCoy, that is just a personal preference.
 
Last edited:

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Finding an essentially unlimited supply of identical and like-new European vintage razors for $20 each would be quite an achievement.

That’s why I like the Dollars/Monkeys for edge test comparisons and pass arounds.

Decently made ones are decent razors. The duds are really duds.

And all of the scales, on all of them, Gold Dollar, Titan, Gold Monkey, etc are the pits.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
This test Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SR was put through about 300 laps on the supplied denim strop pasted lightly with the Titan stropping paste. These laps were performed with a little more pressure than used in my normal stropping so that there was a noticeable deflection in the strop of about 5mm to 6mm while stropping.

Before this morning's shave, I gave this test SR another 50 laps on the pasted denim strop using normal pressure. Just a force of habit.

Pre-shave prep was as per my normal using Pears Transparent (India) for face was and ARKO stick with Proraso Pro boar brush to face lather. I started with a WTG pass and all went well. Then an XTG+CdM pass. The XTG went well but not comfortably while the CdM (a.k.a. fool's pass) was very tuggy and there was no way my upper lip was going to get anywhere near BBS. The final pass with this test T.H.60 was another XTG in the opposite direction, slightly more comfortable than the previous XTG. Overall result was a CCS-, mostly no whisker roughness felt WTG and some felt WTG.

Today I will put this test SR through another 200 laps on the pasted denim strop and see how it goes tomorrow. I will be satisfied with this SR, using the supplied gear, if I can achieve a CCS+ result with reasonable comfort. Tomorrow I hope to get closer to achieving my goal with this SR.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
@rbscebu

Nice challenge!

You are making me almost regretting ordering a leather strop from aliexpress, a bit less in price than your setup.
The Titan Products Store on AliExpress use to include a leather/denim strop with all their SRs. With their cheaper SRs, they have since swapped out the leather/denim strop and replaced it with a denim only strop. They did not reduce their pricing.

Personally, I believe that a leather/denim strop is much more beneficial for regular SR maintenance but that is not the purpose of this exercise. I am trying to determine if current kit with denim only strop is indeed really usable. If it is useable, the kit could be used by someone on a tight budget who wants to try out SR shaving.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Since yesterday's shave with this test T.H.60, I gave it another 200 laps on the pasted denim strop and 50 extra laps on the same strop just before this morning's shave.

The shave this morning with this test T.H.60 SR was exactly the same as yesterday, including the results. I will now add some more stropping paste and give this SR another 400 laps. If there is no noticeable improvement in tomorrow morning's shave, I'll call quits to this test.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
You never know until you try. I have tried, I have really tried hard, to get this SR kit only to be able to give me a reasonable (not good or great) shave. It just ain't gonna work. It shaves but the best I can do is a not-so-comfortable SAS shave and definitely no CdM on the upper lip. Maybe a few more thousand laps on the pasted denim would help but I am not going to try any more.

I would not recommend that a n00bie get this kit and use only the kit to try SR shaving. They most probably will be put off SR shaving for a long time. I do recommend the Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SR but also get the blade properly honed and use at least a clean leather/cloth strop between each shave.

This morning's shave was no better or worse than my last shave with this SR. I give up!

I will now treat this SR as new and put it through a full bevel-set to shave-ready progression on lapping films and diamond pasted balsa strops. The SR will then be offered out for loan. Once no longer wanted to be tried by others, I might PIF this SR to a worthy cause.

For an economical starter kit, I would recommend this kit plus one of their leather/denim strops and send the SR out to be properly honed by someone who really knows their craft. The pasted denim strop could still be used to refresh the edge when needed. All that should come in at well less than US$100 (about US$75) including all shipping.
 
Last edited:

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Nice experiment! Gotta respect someone doing science who happily reports a negative result. Science itself needs more of this behavior.
There are never any negative results from an experiment. There are just results. Whether those results are what you expected or would have preferred is another matter.

With this thread, I began with an open mind. I would have liked the kit to work but I equally expected that it may not work.
 
Top Bottom