Rocnel Elite 2019

[kjbarth]

First impressions of Rocnel Elite 2019 razors. Brand new to me. As I'm a newbie here, if I'm wrong in where I'm putting this thread, please move this to the appropriate place.

Anyone that has this razor, please add your impressions here as well or comments, questions, etc.

As I wrote, this is my first impression. Razors are made from 319L SS, handle is 87mm long, 13.5mm diam, the head is 42mm x 25mm, and weigh 128 grams.

There are 2 versions: (1) Aggressive with a .52mm blade gap (2) Med Aggressive with a .35mm blade gap. I received one of each razor on Monday.

I'm a straight razor shaver for the past 5 years and a DE shaver infrequently over the past 2 months so my comparisons may be a little biased. YMMV.

Anyway, I shaved with the Aggressive Rocnel on Monday afternoon. Used Baum.BE shave cream, Simpson Chubby 2 brush, warm lather in my GP20, and a Polsilver SI blade. Went 2 passes on my face WTG and XTG and 2 passes on my neck WTG and ATG. It gave me a very good to excellent shave. The first thing I noticed was the squeegee effect of the solid bar on my cheek. There was no irritation at all. After finishing and rinsing my face, I ran the alum block across my face and there were no spots that stung at all. The results were not quite BBS but if I did a 3rd pass ATG on my face, maybe that would have done the trick.

I shaved today (Weds) with the Rocnel Med Aggressive. Used Baum.BE shave cream, Jayaruh #327 brush, warm lather, and a polsilver SI blade. 2 passes WTG and XTG on my face and WTG and ATG on my neck. I thought it gave me as good a shave as the aggressive. Did get the squeegee effect on my cheek as well. Did get a little irritation on my neck when I ran the alum block over my face but no irritation anywhere else.

Next shave with either razor will be with a feather blade and maybe a different shave soap/cream that's a little more lubricating.

I really like both of these razors, they are definitely keepers.

Ken.

 

[ackvil]

Nice review and photos.

 

[sugardaddy]

Hi, thanks for the great review. What was the feel like of the blade ? Did it chatter very much , was i't very vocal?

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

 

[ajkel64]

Thanks for the review and the photos. We love our photos.

 

[kjbarth]

Hi, thanks for the great review. What was the feel like of the blade ? Did it chatter very much , was i't very vocal?

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

Both were very smooth on my face. The Aggressive razor talked or sang some - could hear hairs popping. I didn't get that sound with the Med Aggressive.

 

[trashcanmagic]

I got one of the aggressive ones.

My take is that it's a good razor with significant but not unpleasant feedback/feel, and it's kind of expensive for the level of F&F but all-in-all pretty good.

YMMV.

 

[BigJ]

Great reviews!! Two lovely razors!!

 

[Tester28]

Looking at how narrow the solid strip of the baseplate is on the top, would hazard a guess that this
does not clamp the blade as tightly as, say, a wolfman. Any chance of blade chatter?

Also, @kjbarth any chance you could weigh just the head?

 

[kjbarth]

@Tester28 - weights of both heads.
Aggressive: cap - 16g, baseplate 27g
Med-aggressive: cap - 14g, baseplate 27g

I've only shaved with each razor once and didn't notice any chatter but to be honest, was trying to pay attention to other things while using each and not so much on chatter. Thought the cap clamped down pretty good on each. Will pay attention to chatter during next shave.

 

[pbrmhl]

I just have to revive this thread.

I've been using my Rocnel Elite 2019 Aggressive a lot lately (including this morning). I'm surprised there's not more buzz around it. On my face, it is very smooth, with no tugging. Yet, it's as efficient as most of my blade-forward beasts. The other two razors I use that are similar are the Paradigm 17-4 and Wolfman WR1 .74 OC, which provide very good company. It still amazes me that the Elite can provide a shave as close as a Charcoal Goods Level 3 or R41 2011, yet I can hardly feel the blade with the Elite.

On balance, I still enjoy blade-forward razors more, yet it's nice to have an easy carefree shave with the Elite from time to time.

 

[rms]

I got this razor a little over 2 months ago. Agree it’s a fantastic razor and it has become one of my more frequently used razors. It’s very efficient, can carve through multiple days of growth, and is very smooth and comfortable. Very happy with the purchase. It was tough to pull the trigger though because I previously bought the “M” version and it didn’t work well for me.

 

[shaveSymptomatic]

I just have to revive this thread.

I've been using my Rocnel Elite 2019 Aggressive a lot lately (including this morning). I'm surprised there's not more buzz around it. On my face, it is very smooth, with no tugging. Yet, it's as efficient as most of my blade-forward beasts. The other two razors I use that are similar are the Paradigm 17-4 and Wolfman WR1 .74 OC, which provide very good company. It still amazes me that the Elite can provide a shave as close as a Charcoal Goods Level 3 or R41 2011, yet I can hardly feel the blade with the Elite.

On balance, I still enjoy blade-forward razors more, yet it's nice to have an easy carefree shave with the Elite from time to time.

Glad you revived this thread. I'm really enjoying my 2019 Elite A also. It's pretty close to my 1.55 Wolfman WR2 in efficiency and it's very smooth as well! This things cuts hair so easily, that I feel like I'm shaving with a light saber Lol. No blade chatter at all despite the fact that it doesn't clamp the blade near the edge.
A very underrated razor indeed!

 

[Leverspro]

"1.55 Wolfman"! Yikes.

 

[shaveSymptomatic]

"1.55 Wolfman"! Yikes.

That was my initial reaction as well when I first heard of it, but it's surprisingly very smooth. Much smoother than a karve D solid bar plate.