The Tedalus Velocity-One is a razor imbued with passion. It’s designer, Manuel Mikasi, originally a furniture designer and engineer from Switzerland, developed a reputation as an innovator with a keen eye for style with his Essence Shavette launched in 2021. That same flare has been carried forward to the V1, who’s fluted handle, diamond knurling, and fluid head have taken the mundane and elevated it to something sensual, bordering on sultry. His passion for craftsmanship, refinement, and even exclusivity, is evident even in his marketing, where the packaging, accompanying materials, and advertising are evocative of high-style and luxury.
At 98mm in length and 112g the V1 isn’t taking any risks and falls squarely in the goldilocks zone in terms of size for most shavers. The fluted handle tapers towards the head, giving it a head-forward feel while shaving. Although the knurling appears light, it’s adequate in providing a sure grip, which surprisingly becomes even firmer when wet.
The V1 takes a design cue from the Rex Envoy/Gibbs in its safety bar which is wide and flat. Unlike the Envoy, the safety bar is highly polished, and the flatness extends up into the top cap creating a wide and flat face to the razor head. The V1 feels like its hugging your face while shaving, but without a sense of drag due to the mirror polish and extremely flat surface. Manuel claims to have taken inspiration from Formula 1 race cars, which is maybe most evident in the smooth and rounded hips of the head which perfectly encase the blade. The overall effect is a head shape which is smooth and comfortable.
In terms of architecture, the V1 is a pure Blade Bender. Unlike Edge Clampers which grip the blade as close to the blade edge as possible, Blade Benders clamp the blade towards the center of the top-cap then bend it downwards to create tension and direct force onto the edge of the blade. A full description and comparison of Blade Benders vs. Edge Clampers can be found here.
My data shows that unlike Edge Clampers where performance goes up as clamp width goes higher, Blade Benders exhibit the inverse with narrower clamp width yielding higher performance. The V1 has a very narrow clamp width of 8mm, just 1mm larger than the Blackland Blackbird, which I’m convinced heavily influenced the V1’s overall design. Both the Blackbird and V1 have base plates with similar heights and shapes and top caps which are 18mm wide, indicating blade reveals at about 2mm on each side. The main differences are while the Blackbird has a blade exposure of 0.10mm the V1 has a published exposure of neutral, and while the Blackbird has a blade gap of 0.58mm the V1’s is wider at 0.89mm.
I evaluate razors by scoring them on 4 attributes: Comfort, Efficiency, Consistency, and Ease-of-use. In addition, I assign an overall Efficiency Rating based on the closeness of the shave ranging from DFS- to BBS+. I use either a Wilkinson Germany (high-sharpness) or Wizamet (medium-sharpness), depending on which is more suitable. I’ve found that once blade exposure gets too high, usually above 0.10mm, a sharp blade can cause scores to fall as Comfort and Ease-of-use are negatively impacted and Efficiency falls due to a reduction in buffing caused by irritation and fear of nicks. For the V1, despite the neutral exposure I found the performance was higher with a Wizamet, possibly due to its large reveal and wide blade gap.
As the V1 shares most in common with the Blackbird I used it as the main benchmark for Efficiency. The Blackbird (Ti) and the V1 both scored a 10 out of 10 and delivered my highest Efficiency Rating, a BBS+, the only two razors in my collection to do so. Although the Blackbird’s exposure is higher, the V1’s higher blade gap appears to have brought the efficiency to parity. Among the other attributes, the V1 had similar Consistency to the Blackbird at 9, but outperformed on Comfort at 9 vs. the Blackbird’s 7, and Ease-of-use at 8 vs. the Blackbird’s 7, bringing the V1’s Composite Score to 36 vs. the Blackbird’s 33, making it equal to the Karve Overlander which previously had the highest Composite Score in my collection.
No review of the V1 would be complete without a discussion of value. As the highest priced production razor on the market, shavers often ask is it worth the price? When I lived in Asia, I did some research on Jade. I discovered that the pricing mechanism for both Nephrite and Jadeite is very informal and subjective, and without much standardization. One day, as I approached the Shanghai Jade Market in search of a gift with a local friend I remember asking how will I know how much a piece of jade is truly worth? My friend replied, “you look at the jade and whatever you’re willing to pay, that’s what it’s worth”. In many ways, I feel the same is true for the V1.
The V1 is an efficient and elegant razor and by my assessment has the highest Composite Score among my High-Efficiency razors, which are all razors with an Efficiency Rating of BBS or higher. The Chinese character for Jade is based on the character “Wang” which means “King”. However, for the Jade character (Yu) a small stone is placed next to the symbol for King, signifying that Jade is the King’s stone. I won’t say if the V1 is the king of razors, but I will say it's a razor fit for a king.
At 98mm in length and 112g the V1 isn’t taking any risks and falls squarely in the goldilocks zone in terms of size for most shavers. The fluted handle tapers towards the head, giving it a head-forward feel while shaving. Although the knurling appears light, it’s adequate in providing a sure grip, which surprisingly becomes even firmer when wet.
The V1 takes a design cue from the Rex Envoy/Gibbs in its safety bar which is wide and flat. Unlike the Envoy, the safety bar is highly polished, and the flatness extends up into the top cap creating a wide and flat face to the razor head. The V1 feels like its hugging your face while shaving, but without a sense of drag due to the mirror polish and extremely flat surface. Manuel claims to have taken inspiration from Formula 1 race cars, which is maybe most evident in the smooth and rounded hips of the head which perfectly encase the blade. The overall effect is a head shape which is smooth and comfortable.
In terms of architecture, the V1 is a pure Blade Bender. Unlike Edge Clampers which grip the blade as close to the blade edge as possible, Blade Benders clamp the blade towards the center of the top-cap then bend it downwards to create tension and direct force onto the edge of the blade. A full description and comparison of Blade Benders vs. Edge Clampers can be found here.
My data shows that unlike Edge Clampers where performance goes up as clamp width goes higher, Blade Benders exhibit the inverse with narrower clamp width yielding higher performance. The V1 has a very narrow clamp width of 8mm, just 1mm larger than the Blackland Blackbird, which I’m convinced heavily influenced the V1’s overall design. Both the Blackbird and V1 have base plates with similar heights and shapes and top caps which are 18mm wide, indicating blade reveals at about 2mm on each side. The main differences are while the Blackbird has a blade exposure of 0.10mm the V1 has a published exposure of neutral, and while the Blackbird has a blade gap of 0.58mm the V1’s is wider at 0.89mm.
I evaluate razors by scoring them on 4 attributes: Comfort, Efficiency, Consistency, and Ease-of-use. In addition, I assign an overall Efficiency Rating based on the closeness of the shave ranging from DFS- to BBS+. I use either a Wilkinson Germany (high-sharpness) or Wizamet (medium-sharpness), depending on which is more suitable. I’ve found that once blade exposure gets too high, usually above 0.10mm, a sharp blade can cause scores to fall as Comfort and Ease-of-use are negatively impacted and Efficiency falls due to a reduction in buffing caused by irritation and fear of nicks. For the V1, despite the neutral exposure I found the performance was higher with a Wizamet, possibly due to its large reveal and wide blade gap.
As the V1 shares most in common with the Blackbird I used it as the main benchmark for Efficiency. The Blackbird (Ti) and the V1 both scored a 10 out of 10 and delivered my highest Efficiency Rating, a BBS+, the only two razors in my collection to do so. Although the Blackbird’s exposure is higher, the V1’s higher blade gap appears to have brought the efficiency to parity. Among the other attributes, the V1 had similar Consistency to the Blackbird at 9, but outperformed on Comfort at 9 vs. the Blackbird’s 7, and Ease-of-use at 8 vs. the Blackbird’s 7, bringing the V1’s Composite Score to 36 vs. the Blackbird’s 33, making it equal to the Karve Overlander which previously had the highest Composite Score in my collection.
No review of the V1 would be complete without a discussion of value. As the highest priced production razor on the market, shavers often ask is it worth the price? When I lived in Asia, I did some research on Jade. I discovered that the pricing mechanism for both Nephrite and Jadeite is very informal and subjective, and without much standardization. One day, as I approached the Shanghai Jade Market in search of a gift with a local friend I remember asking how will I know how much a piece of jade is truly worth? My friend replied, “you look at the jade and whatever you’re willing to pay, that’s what it’s worth”. In many ways, I feel the same is true for the V1.
The V1 is an efficient and elegant razor and by my assessment has the highest Composite Score among my High-Efficiency razors, which are all razors with an Efficiency Rating of BBS or higher. The Chinese character for Jade is based on the character “Wang” which means “King”. However, for the Jade character (Yu) a small stone is placed next to the symbol for King, signifying that Jade is the King’s stone. I won’t say if the V1 is the king of razors, but I will say it's a razor fit for a king.
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