Rex Ambassador US Tour pass around...

[pbrmhl]

I'm not part of the pass-around (nice gesture, Gus!), but based in part on this thread I decided to buy a Rex from Matt. It arrived last week, as part of the new N4 batch (although it's marked as N3 which, according to Matt, is due to the need to fill in some serial numbers from the N3 round--whatever that means). I had my inaugural ride with it this morning, and I'm impressed.

I'm not really an adjustable guy, as I always set all my adjustables on the highest setting and never adjust them. It seems silly (generally speaking) for me to pay for engineering, mechanics, parts and finish work that I'll never take advantage of, so I usually steer clear of adjustables. I've also found most of them incapable of delivering close shaves (in my hand). I still use my Mergress occasionally, but the Slim and Variant sit unused. After months of indecision, I finally decided to give the Rex a try.

I cranked it up to 6.5 and gave it a whirl. It was a very pleasant, unintimidating shave that seemed very efficient. Now, almost five hours later, I'm still impressed with it. The razor didn't present a great deal of blade feel (similar to a 17-4, Karve/F or Dart), but nonetheless really did its job. It's early days, but I suspect the Rex will unseat the Mergress as my favorite adjustable. Thanks for this inspirational thread, folks!

 

[ShavePastor]

I'm not part of the pass-around (nice gesture, Gus!), but based in part on this thread I decided to buy a Rex from Matt. It arrived last week, as part of the new N4 batch (although it's marked as N3 which, according to Matt, is due to the need to fill in some serial numbers from the N3 round--whatever that means). I had my inaugural ride with it this morning, and I'm impressed.

I'm not really an adjustable guy, as I always set all my adjustables on the highest setting and never adjust them. It seems silly (generally speaking) for me to pay for engineering, mechanics, parts and finish work that I'll never take advantage of, so I usually steer clear of adjustables. I've also found most of them incapable of delivering close shaves (in my hand). I still use my Mergress occasionally, but the Slim and Variant sit unused. After months of indecision, I finally decided to give the Rex a try.

I cranked it up to 6.5 and gave it a whirl. It was a very pleasant, unintimidating shave that seemed very efficient. Now, almost five hours later, I'm still impressed with it. The razor didn't present a great deal of blade feel (similar to a 17-4, Karve/F or Dart), but nonetheless really did its job. It's early days, but I suspect the Rex will unseat the Mergress as my favorite adjustable. Thanks for this inspirational thread, folks!

Nice! It is efficient that's for sure, & for me very smooth in the 2--3.5 range.

 

[GlazedBoker]

I'm not part of the pass-around (nice gesture, Gus!), but based in part on this thread I decided to buy a Rex from Matt. It arrived last week, as part of the new N4 batch (although it's marked as N3 which, according to Matt, is due to the need to fill in some serial numbers from the N3 round--whatever that means). I had my inaugural ride with it this morning, and I'm impressed.

I'm not really an adjustable guy, as I always set all my adjustables on the highest setting and never adjust them. It seems silly (generally speaking) for me to pay for engineering, mechanics, parts and finish work that I'll never take advantage of, so I usually steer clear of adjustables. I've also found most of them incapable of delivering close shaves (in my hand). I still use my Mergress occasionally, but the Slim and Variant sit unused. After months of indecision, I finally decided to give the Rex a try.

I cranked it up to 6.5 and gave it a whirl. It was a very pleasant, unintimidating shave that seemed very efficient. Now, almost five hours later, I'm still impressed with it. The razor didn't present a great deal of blade feel (similar to a 17-4, Karve/F or Dart), but nonetheless really did its job. It's early days, but I suspect the Rex will unseat the Mergress as my favorite adjustable. Thanks for this inspirational thread, folks!

Congrats amigo! It’s a fine shaver and not intimidating at all. But, it exhibits really good efficiency while still retaining good smoothness...

Eye Candy.....

 

[Grundi]

The Rex has arrived, safe and sound!! Nice packaging, @Rory1262!! Thank you, @GlazedBoker, for loaning out such a beautiful piece of shaving equipment!!

My first impressions of the Rex is that this is a well made, all SS razor. It's heavy without being a brick, and the adjust dial moves very smoothly. Just for grins, I slid the razor against my face (without loading a blade) and it glided nicely.

Tomorrow will be Shave #1 for me, and I'm excited to see how things go. I've been taking notes and plotting my shaves.

One neutral note - to my hand, the knurling feel aggressive. I don't want the razor to slip when my hand is wet and soapy, but I don't want too much grip either. And I haven't shaved yet with it, just initial thoughts.

 

[Grundi]

Shave #1 - Respecting the Classics

TL;DR - DFS+ shave with some skin irritation; Williams goes toe-to-toe with the Rex!!

1st Pass: WTG, razor set on 2
2nd Pass: ATG and touch up, razor set on 3
Blade: Wilkinson Sword
Soap: Williams Mug Shaving Soap

Prep: Hot shower and Williams as a pre-shave. I discovered this quite by accident while attempting to lather Williams using just my hands (like washing my face). After rinsing off the failed experiment, I noticed a nice pre-shave residue.

The Shave: I'm always a bit nervous trying a new razor, especially when it's reported to be more aggressive than my regular razors. The first pass, I set the razor to 2, and shaved very carefully; felt smooth mostly, and felt some blade at times depending on the angle I was using. For the second pass, I wanted to "use this adjustable, as an adjustable" so I torqued up the aggressiveness to 3 (was going to try 3.5 but backed off). 2nd pass was smooth and I re-lathered specific areas that needed touching up.

Results: Being careful, I was able to get a DFS+ shave (due to several factors, I'm not able to achieve a BBS shave, so DFS+ is the best that I can hope for). I do have some skin irritation (like when I've used too aggressive of a razor), but with the Rex being an adjustable, I should be able to find the right settings. Williams has the slickness to match the Rex, and although the Rex took most of the soap off, Williams did leave some residual slick behind (which helps when bad buffing habits kicked in).

Learning To Use The Rex: this was my first shave and I can tell that this is a top shelf piece of shaving equipment. That said, it's tuned for precision use and would be an amazing tool once I get it dialed in.

 

[GlazedBoker]

Shave #1 - Respecting the Classics

TL;DR - DFS+ shave with some skin irritation; Williams goes toe-to-toe with the Rex!!

1st Pass: WTG, razor set on 2
2nd Pass: ATG and touch up, razor set on 3
Blade: Wilkinson Sword
Soap: Williams Mug Shaving Soap

Prep: Hot shower and Williams as a pre-shave. I discovered this quite by accident while attempting to lather Williams using just my hands (like washing my face). After rinsing off the failed experiment, I noticed a nice pre-shave residue.

The Shave: I'm always a bit nervous trying a new razor, especially when it's reported to be more aggressive than my regular razors. The first pass, I set the razor to 2, and shaved very carefully; felt smooth mostly, and felt some blade at times depending on the angle I was using. For the second pass, I wanted to "use this adjustable, as an adjustable" so I torqued up the aggressiveness to 3 (was going to try 3.5 but backed off). 2nd pass was smooth and I re-lathered specific areas that needed touching up.

Results: Being careful, I was able to get a DFS+ shave (due to several factors, I'm not able to achieve a BBS shave, so DFS+ is the best that I can hope for). I do have some skin irritation (like when I've used too aggressive of a razor), but with the Rex being an adjustable, I should be able to find the right settings. Williams has the slickness to match the Rex, and although the Rex took most of the soap off, Williams did leave some residual slick behind (which helps when bad buffing habits kicked in).

Learning To Use The Rex: this was my first shave and I can tell that this is a top shelf piece of shaving equipment. That said, it's tuned for precision use and would be an amazing tool once I get it dialed in.

Very nicely done there my friend. Just hone in on it. And take your time. It will come.....

 

[Grundi]

Shave #2 - The Classics Redux But This Time Backwards (And In Heels - Ginger Rogers)

TL;DR - Switched the in-shave adjustments (3 -> 2), got a DFS shave with much less skin irritation

1st Pass: WTG, razor set on 3
2nd Pass: ATG, razor set on 2
Blade: Wilkinson Sword (2)
Soap: Williams Mug Shaving Soap, as pre-shave and lather

Overthinking Things: I read posts about increasing the razor's aggressiveness for subsequent passes, and posts about decreasing the aggressive for subsequent passes. For my first shave, I tried increasing; and for this shave, decreasing.

The Shave: Starting out with the razor set to 3 for the WTG pass and reducing the setting to 2 for the ATG pass seemed to work well (and I did have the silk-smooth-no-blade-feel on several ATG strokes), and resulted in a DFS shave (yesterday with DFS+). I also purposely did not do much touching up since I experienced skin-scraping irritation yesterday. Just fiddling here and there to see what might work best.

Results: Although I did get a DFS shave, I do have patches of stubble that I normally would have touched up (spot lather and ATG, depending on whichever way the stubble was growing). I still feel the ever-so-slight but of skin scrape, but very lightly.

 

[PJO]

Shave #2 - The Classics Redux But This Time Backwards (And In Heels - Ginger Rogers)

Enjoyed the review — and at the end was still chuckling over the headline.

Patti

 

[MaineYooper]

While I have never used the Rex, with my Slim and Fatboy I find that stepping down one setting gave me the best irritation-free shaves. Stepping up always irritated my neck and had a much better chance of making me weep!

 

[Grundi]

Enjoyed the review — and at the end was still chuckling over the headline.

Patti

Thank you. For whatever reason when I thought about switching the direction of the setting change from 2 -> 3 to 3 -> 2, that quote about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers popped in my head, so I went with it. What a great dance team!!

(For everyone else...NO...I wasn't wearing heels while I was shaving!!)

While I have never used the Rex, with my Slim and Fatboy I find that stepping down one setting gave me the best irritation-free shaves. Stepping up always irritated my neck and had a much better chance of making me weep!

Shaving with the Rex is the first time I've tried changing the setting during the shave. Stepping down did seem to minimize the irritation. For my next shave, I'm going to still step down, but tweak the 2 numbers and see how it goes.

 

[GlazedBoker]

11/25/18

Rex Ambassador US Tour List:

Group One:
1. @ShavePastor (completed)
2. @Dave in KY (completed)
3. @Graydog (completed)
4. @NJDJ (completed)
5. @ED3054 (completed)
6. @JTshaves (completed)
7. @Sharp_Obsession (completed)
8. @Keto (completed)

These are the first 8 gents to sign on. A pm or a post here will get you on gents...

Here is the formation of the second group. Like I stated in a few posts before this one, the tour will be broken into 8 week sections so that I can reel in the Rex and go over it if it needs a deep cleaning/tuning etc.

Group Two:
1. @Rory1262 (completed)
2. @Grundi (in hand testing)
3. @dezmil (on deck)
4. @Clay S (in the hole)
5. @simon_zzz
6. @Feynmansbongos
7. @emwolf
8. @Odenihy

3 groups are complete so that puts the tour at about a 32-36 week run plus/minus a week for the haul in.

I already have a reserve list started and if any participants in the first 2 groups need to switch out or drop out of the tour, everyone moves up including those in the reserve list.

Another group is all set and ready to go. Any changes because of work, vacation or just life happens, please pm me so that we can adjust accordingly.

Group three:
1. @dfoulk
2. @Clark Finestead
3. @bobmsp
4. @DCRIII
5. @dmshaver
6. @Mataddor
7. @mozartman
8. @boilerphan


Reserve List:
1. @Ray Settanta
2. @cyberdog
3. @CzechCzar
4. @Cut Throat

Two participants requested to be removed from the pass around list so, everyone gets to move up a couple of spots in the list. Remember, if a situation arises or you think you can’t participate for any reason, just send me a pm so that the list can be adjusted and notify members of any changes and/or delays......



Get your shave on people.....

 

[dezmil]

Shave #2 - The Classics Redux But This Time Backwards (And In Heels - Ginger Rogers)

TL;DR - Switched the in-shave adjustments (3 -> 2), got a DFS shave with much less skin irritation

1st Pass: WTG, razor set on 3
2nd Pass: ATG, razor set on 2
Blade: Wilkinson Sword (2)
Soap: Williams Mug Shaving Soap, as pre-shave and lather

Overthinking Things: I read posts about increasing the razor's aggressiveness for subsequent passes, and posts about decreasing the aggressive for subsequent passes. For my first shave, I tried increasing; and for this shave, decreasing.

The Shave: Starting out with the razor set to 3 for the WTG pass and reducing the setting to 2 for the ATG pass seemed to work well (and I did have the silk-smooth-no-blade-feel on several ATG strokes), and resulted in a DFS shave (yesterday with DFS+). I also purposely did not do much touching up since I experienced skin-scraping irritation yesterday. Just fiddling here and there to see what might work best.

Results: Although I did get a DFS shave, I do have patches of stubble that I normally would have touched up (spot lather and ATG, depending on whichever way the stubble was growing). I still feel the ever-so-slight but of skin scrape, but very lightly.

Nice write-ups @Grundi. Keep the reviews coming. This information is will be very helpful for my turn with the Rex!

 

[simon_zzz]

@Grundi Can you share what your go-to setup is?

 

[Grundi]

@Grundi Can you share what your go-to setup is?

Great question. Like many who are enthusiastic about wet shaving, I've begun to collect razors and routinely rotate through them. However, when I'm pressed for time (which is rare but does happen), my true go-to razor is a Merkur 20C (3-piece, mild razor, a gift from my wife on our anniversary a couple of years back). I don't have a go-to blade, but regularly use GSB's, Dorco Primes, and Derby Premiums. I don't have a go-to soap/cream either; but, in crunch time, I'll grab for a soap that can be used like a shave stick (Palmolive, PdP 63, Williams, or similar).

 

[emwolf]

I can't believe this is getting close to my turn to try. I have a feeling I'll be shaving in the Rex Ambassador passaround before I receive the Rockwell Model T I backed in May 2016.

 

[herbert7890]

I would love to be added to the passaround, but not sure if the list is closed already.

 

[GlazedBoker]

I would love to be added to the passaround, but not sure if the list is closed already.

Still open. Say the word, and your in....

 

[herbert7890]

Still open. Say the word, and your in....

Then, I'm in!! Thank you!

 

[JWK1]

Then, I'm in!! Thank you!

May I get in behind herbert7890? I think by the time I get to try it (list be willing), I'll have the funds for a purchase.

I'm getting bad RAD for the ultimate Fatboy! Yes, I'm one of those who believe a well designed and manufactured modern razor outperforms the vintage. My Karve has replaced all my vintage 3 piece razors. I never touch them anymore. I think the Ambassador will replace my 3 fatboys.

 

[GlazedBoker]

Then, I'm in!! Thank you!

May I get in behind herbert7890? I think by the time I get to try it (list be willing), I'll have the funds for a purchase.

I'm getting bad RAD for the ultimate Fatboy! Yes, I'm one of those who believe a well designed and manufactured modern razor outperforms the vintage. My Karve has replaced all my vintage 3 piece razors. I never touch them anymore. I think the Ambassador will replace my 3 fatboys.

Will update the list later this evening and add both of you Gents....

Happy shaves....