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Thoughts on Blackbird and newbie learnings

Thank you for your reply! I can amend my last post.
You are welcome! From what you posted so far your patience and willingness to extensively research your options for a second razor have been impressive. My sense, since you returned the Tatara Nodachi when it didn't work for you, is that your focus is on realizing repeated great shaving experiences versus building a razor collection (perfectly fine if you do want a collection) and that both shave quality and tool aesthetics are important parts of that experience for you.

Since you appear to have found your ideal razor that delivers along both these requirements my recommendation is to focus on fully mastering your new tool for the time being. Sense, from your polite responses to suggestions on more razors to consider, that you may be thinking along these lines. No need, unless you want to build a collection, to succumb to premature Razor Acquisition Disorder (RAD)

This will also, if you are not fully there yet, let you put more focus on other elements of a great shave such as building your ideal lather. Sounds line your Simpson Trafalgar T3 synthetic is working well for you and it looks line you've already found the right blade in the Astra SPs. I use Astra SPs also and they work well.

I also primarily use two synthetic brushes that also have 26mm knots (Razorock Monster and Big Bruce) that let me produce great lather from almost any of my soaps and creams. My third brush is a 26mm boar brush (64mm loft) that provides a different lathering experience (more scritch/exfoliation) and will lather hard pucks faster. Great quality boar brushes are available for under $15 so you may want to experiment with one. Mine is a Razorock Blondie bleached boar (rebranded Zenith 80N) that did not require much break-in. Note that while synthetics typically dry out over night it take a couple days for a boar to fully dry. Regardless of your brush preferences a general recommendation here is that rotating between two brushes is more ideal than use of a single brush though we often see posts here from members who've been shaving with a single brush for years.

Each of us takes our prefered shaving journey ranging from collectors with museum quality displays to those with a single razor and brush just looking for an economical shave. My primary interest has been in a great zen like shaving experience so I don't collect hardware limiting myself to the three brushes and three primary razors. In fact when I was recently gifted my Rockwell T2 I relegated my existing adjustable to use as a travel razor. I use three brands of blades including Dorco, Derby Extra and the Astra SPs noted above. If you like the Astra SPs you in your Blackbird you may also want to try Dorco Stainless or Prime blades that I've (and many here) have found to be excellent.

My primary rabbit hole (perhaps a mild case of Soap Acquisition Disorder (SAD)) has been in the area of shaving soaps. I rotate across around 16 shaving soaps and creams and have tended to acquire signficant reserve stocks of hard soaps that I really like such as Williams and Mitchell's Wool Fat (now discontinued). If you like tallow based hard soaps you may want to consider D.R. Harris (I have Windsor) and Cyril R. Salter (exact same soap base as D.R. Harris for half the price). Both are excellent and still in production. Definitely try a stick of Arko as it's the best value out there if you don't care about a fancy aroma. Finally the new non-tallow Tabac pucks are also excellent if you like the scent.

Cyril R. Salter also makes excellent shaving creams. I have both the Vetiver and Wild Rose. LEA creams (I use their Professional tube and Mendolada (menthol)) creams are also excellent and reasonably priced. If you have an interest in further exploring soaps and creams I can send you a link to some threads that will be of use as you research different options.

Overall I've found that almost any shaving soap or cream can deliver great lather with the right technique. The key is to adjust your techinque to the product characteristics or, if you only like to lather in a certain way, stick to products that work well with that method. As an example hard triple milled soaps take more loading effort that soft artisan products so shavers who mainly use artisan products will report poor results with a hard soap puck when they try to load it with a barely damp brush for just 15 -20 seconds.

Regards and let us know how your shaving journey continues to evolve. Your insights to-date have been excellent.
 
My exact same experience, upon my first-ever use of the Blackbird, a few years ago...



I also disagree.
Actually, if I ever do run into a nic, or a wheeper... it's going across the grain, not against.
Make that three of us, in my case for a final second pass. For my neck area I need to go with the grain on a first pass first, then ATG on the final pass to get a BBS result. On my cheeks I can do two ATG passes without any problem for an efficient BBS shave. A single ATG there produces a great DFS. Going ATG on my neck in a first pass is what can give me a weeper or two.
 
You are welcome! From what you posted so far your patience and willingness to extensively research your options for a second razor have been impressive. My sense, since you returned the Tatara Nodachi when it didn't work for you, is that your focus is on realizing repeated great shaving experiences versus building a razor collection (perfectly fine if you do want a collection) and that both shave quality and tool aesthetics are important parts of that experience for you.

Since you appear to have found your ideal razor that delivers along both these requirements my recommendation is to focus on fully mastering your new tool for the time being. Sense, from your polite responses to suggestions on more razors to consider, that you may be thinking along these lines. No need, unless you want to build a collection, to succumb to premature Razor Acquisition Disorder (RAD)

This will also, if you are not fully there yet, let you put more focus on other elements of a great shave such as building your ideal lather. Sounds line your Simpson Trafalgar T3 synthetic is working well for you and it looks line you've already found the right blade in the Astra SPs. I use Astra SPs also and they work well.

I also primarily use two synthetic brushes that also have 26mm knots (Razorock Monster and Big Bruce) that let me produce great lather from almost any of my soaps and creams. My third brush is a 26mm boar brush (64mm loft) that provides a different lathering experience (more scritch/exfoliation) and will lather hard pucks faster. Great quality boar brushes are available for under $15 so you may want to experiment with one. Mine is a Razorock Blondie bleached boar (rebranded Zenith 80N) that did not require much break-in. Note that while synthetics typically dry out over night it take a couple days for a boar to fully dry. Regardless of your brush preferences a general recommendation here is that rotating between two brushes is more ideal than use of a single brush though we often see posts here from members who've been shaving with a single brush for years.

Each of us takes our prefered shaving journey ranging from collectors with museum quality displays to those with a single razor and brush just looking for an economical shave. My primary interest has been in a great zen like shaving experience so I don't collect hardware limiting myself to the three brushes and three primary razors. In fact when I was recently gifted my Rockwell T2 I relegated my existing adjustable to use as a travel razor. I use three brands of blades including Dorco, Derby Extra and the Astra SPs noted above. If you like the Astra SPs you in your Blackbird you may also want to try Dorco Stainless or Prime blades that I've (and many here) have found to be excellent.

My primary rabbit hole (perhaps a mild case of Soap Acquisition Disorder (SAD)) has been in the area of shaving soaps. I rotate across around 16 shaving soaps and creams and have tended to acquire signficant reserve stocks of hard soaps that I really like such as Williams and Mitchell's Wool Fat (now discontinued). If you like tallow based hard soaps you may want to consider D.R. Harris (I have Windsor) and Cyril R. Salter (exact same soap base as D.R. Harris for half the price). Both are excellent and still in production. Definitely try a stick of Arko as it's the best value out there if you don't care about a fancy aroma. Finally the new non-tallow Tabac pucks are also excellent if you like the scent.

Cyril R. Salter also makes excellent shaving creams. I have both the Vetiver and Wild Rose. LEA creams (I use their Professional tube and Mendolada (menthol)) creams are also excellent and reasonably priced. If you have an interest in further exploring soaps and creams I can send you a link to some threads that will be of use as you research different options.

Overall I've found that almost any shaving soap or cream can deliver great lather with the right technique. The key is to adjust your techinque to the product characteristics or, if you only like to lather in a certain way, stick to products that work well with that method. As an example hard triple milled soaps take more loading effort that soft artisan products so shavers who mainly use artisan products will report poor results with a hard soap puck when they try to load it with a barely damp brush for just 15 -20 seconds.

Regards and let us know how your shaving journey continues to evolve. Your insights to-date have been excellent.
Wow, that was an amazing read, thank you! I will definitely come back to your post here. I think you 'got me' pretty well. I have collected other things into the 7th ring of madness haha, so with this—although I am nerding out to the max—I really have the goal of one and done. Maaaaaybe two… (OH NO) Really appreciate your catalogue of information here.
 
Make that three of us, in my case for a final second pass. For my neck area I need to go with the grain on a first pass first, then ATG on the final pass to get a BBS result. On my cheeks I can do two ATG passes without any problem for an efficient BBS shave. A single ATG there produces a great DFS. Going ATG on my neck in a first pass is what can give me a weeper or two.
I love this super-niche shave advice. It makes me laugh, but I take it seriously, haha
 
Good thread, guys. But missing so far is any mention of the Lite baseplate. Any experience with that one?
I recently received mine and had a first go this morning. I don't have a thick beard, ranges probably from light to medium density. I dropped in a new Personna Platinum and had a great shave. Very smooth, even considering my terrible lather job this morning. I found it easy to get the proper angle and didn't feel any reason to hesitate or be cautious. I'd say that it is a milder shave overall, but if one wants more, that's what the regular plate is for. May be curious to try that in the future.
 
Good thread, guys. But missing so far is any mention of the Lite baseplate. Any experience with that one?

I have a Blackbird Ti with both the standard & Lite plates as well a Blackbird SS Lite. I find that I get just as good of shave with the Lite plate, with the difference being that the standard plate takes more off on the first pass, but by the end of the second pass, the Lite seems to catch up. The Lite is a lot more comfortable for me to use, so my standard plate just stays in the box.
 
Good thread, guys. But missing so far is any mention of the Lite baseplate. Any experience with that one?
I have the standard and lite plate. The lite plate is smoother, but it is definitely less efficient. It doesn’t work well for me because I only shave wtg. I think it would be ok if I was able to shave atg or xtg without getting ingrown hairs.
 
Fairly new to wet shaving myself. I have the BB Ti and so far only using the Lite plate. I head shave and the Henson Ti mild is my go to for a comfortable all around shave. The BB Lite works great for face shaving but still getting use it for head shaving. For some reason I get a closer shave with the Henson and less irritation. The BB is a great shave but still getting nicks when head shaving. The angles are definitely different so that may be part of it.
 
I head shave wtg and I prefer the standard plate for the Blackbird Ti over lite plate. I need to use caution with the standard plate, but rewards me with the closest shave imaginable with zero irritation. The lite plate shaves similarly but feels safer at the expense of not shaving as close. I turn to the standard plate more often because despite its efficiency, my ending shaves are soft enough on my skin that I can use it daily.
 
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