This morning was day two of the slant. It was a tad smoother than yesterday, but I think this was largely because I knew what to expect. Apparently I loaded it with a shark last night, not a Rapira, as I had thought, but the difference in blade from the Astra SP was subtle. This razor is a tad more aggressive than my daily shaver, but really not overwhelming or underwhelming me either way. Coincidentally, I bought the excess of a guys shaving den this week, mostly to try a bunch of new soaps, but the lot includes a Bakelite slant, so I'll probably give the Merkur slant one or two more shaves with different blades, send it off to the next guy, and mess with its the Bakelite sometime down the road when I'm bored. So far I'm enjoying and learning from the trial regardless.
Traveling Slant - Try Before You Buy
- Thread starter Jeff_H
- Start date
I went back and read some earlier posts. I think I will try the a Derby and a Feather for the next two slant shaves. Both are rumored to pair well with the slant, and they are at opposite ends of the spectrum, which should give a good well rounded trial. Depending on how that goes, I may or may not use with other blades through the weekend, but I'm planning on a few more shaves and then passing it along sometime early next week. Accordingly, sometime in the next 4 or 5 days I'll need @Quijote to PM me an address to pass it along. Again, @bobmsp, thanks for the opportunity to participate in this!
I know when it comes to pass arounds, guys like to try different blades but I could never do it because the 1st shave of almost any new blade is worse than shaves 2-5... I have to have multiple shaves on the same blade to make a decision. I do have my blade collection pretty much down to like 3-4 blades to choose from now so its easier to do that.
I hear you, and generally agree, but with limited time to spend with this bad boy, I figured I'd mix it up a bit. Maybe after a Derby and a Feather, I'll try another Astra that's got a day or two of shaves on it this weekend.
I would love to try this. This is great. I have been looking into these and really wondered what it would be like!!
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The derby was wonderful. I was SHOCKED. I had much the same experience as you: the first shave was a bit worse due to the "wow" factor. The following shaves were neato, but not HOLY COW! I not by get one in the future, but only to have one.
I don't have it yet
My bad, as my week has spun out of control a bit, and the razor is sitting on my desk, boxed up, but I haven't shipped it out. @Quijote had shared via p.m. that he would not be ready razor immediately, as the result of receiving another pass around razor he Had just received, so I wasn't in a rush to get it out early in the week, and then things got away from me. It will go out tomorrow. My apologies for the delay, guys!
I also realized I hadn't reviewed my shaves with the Derby and the Feather or used Astra. I found these blades to have the same general characteristics and differences that I find in my daily driver razors. Because my facial hair is coarse, I find sharper blades to be smoother and less sharp blades to be uncomfortable and pull my facial hair before cutting it. I enjoyed shaving with the feather, not so much the derby. The Astra is my every day driver right now. Either way I feel the shave to be slightly less smooth with the slant than my regular razors. That may just be a matter of practice with the slant, or it may not. My last shave with the Merkur slant was on Monday. On Tuesday, while it was still fresh in my mind I put a feather in my PAA Bakelite slant which had just arrived as a function of my buying a huge lot of excess shave gear that a guy was getting rid of. I wanted to try that before sending the razor off, as if they shaved similarly, I could continue the experiment on it. Although it was only one Shave for comparison, I found these two slants to shave very similarly. Thanks again for the opportunity of the trial.
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By the way, even sending the box out tomorrow i'll have only had the razor in my position for a tad over a week, to include several days of shaves, so I haven't been sitting on it for long. Hopefully no one got alarmed in the process when I didn't post for a few days of shaves, as I know sometimes pass arounds can tend to make people nervous when they don't hear anything for a few days.
I thought I jumped into this one. I'd love to be put on the list
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Slant is outbound to @Quijote. Thanks again for the chance to learn with my first slant experience!
@himself62 - I'll add you to the end of the list. I'd love to see you hit 50 posts by the time the razor gets to you.
Here's the current list:
1. BaylorGator (in transit to Quijote)
2. Quijote
3. sjerquinn
4. himself62
5.
6.
Here's the current list:
1. BaylorGator (in transit to Quijote)
2. Quijote
3. sjerquinn
4. himself62
5.
6.
Sure
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It has arrived. Will try it out for tomorrow's shave.
Used it today with A Gillette 7 o'clock Sharp Edge. Used Stirling Naked and Smooth with my Stirling 24mm synthetic. It was a good shave. I saw blood twice with it. Once when it nipped the top off of a pimple, the other when I didn't get my skin quite right enough around the edge of my mouth and it skipped. The results were DFS with 2 passes, WTG and ATG.
It is a good little shave. I don't find the angle as intuitive as other razors I have used, but with a little concentration, it gave me great shaves. I have it cleaned and ready to go, just need to get a box from the post office. I plan on doing that today.
It has been shipped.
