A fine shave today. The Plisson HMW 12 has a horn handle, a French specialty after having Vietnam as an exploited colony for decades, horn apparently a Vietnamese commodity. The lather from Le Père  Lucien shaving soap was excellent, and to my nose has a distinct fragrance of fresh rosemary.

The iKon H2O is a two-piece razor (presumably the “2” in the name), and was made with both a stainless head and an aluminum head. This is the stainless version. The design uses a ball-bearing attachment between baseplate and handle so, even though the baseplate and handle are permanently joined, the handle rotates freely, so tightening the cap is very like tightening the cap of a three-piece razor, avoiding the use of a threaded shaft inside the handle, as used by the Merkur 34C and many others, including the Eclipse Red Ring. As is typical of iKon, the cap covers the ends of the blade, so no protruding edges.

The head looks a lot like the S3S head, but I seem to detect more of a difference on this razor between the bar guard and the comb guard sides. Still, using either guard the razor is extremely comfortable and efficient.

Three passes, then a good splash (or multiple sprayings) of l’Occitane’s Cade as an aftershave. The weekend is well launched.

A truly superb shave this morning. Yardley is a classic vintage soap with a traditional (and still quite present) lavender fragrance. The lather, worked up with the excellent Omega S-Brush shown, was thick and creamy and effective. With the newer angel-hair brushes now available at modest prices (though not so modest as the S-Brush prices), the S-Brush has been eclipsed, but it still performs as well and feels as good as it ever did, and that is very well (and good) indeed.

The Merkur white bakelite slant shown is, Fine says, the model for his new razor. If he truly replicated all the shaving geometry (the minor changes he made to the bottom of the baseplate will not affect the shave), then he will have a truly first-rate slant. This slant’s feel and performance are amazing: almost totally BBS after the second pass, while still shaving with great comfort. The razor does have a distinct blade feel—more than the Stealth, I’d say. (The Stealth was also modeled on this razor, which is famously good, but with more design mods than Fine says he has taken.) I would use the white bakelite slant more frequently, except that bakelite is brittle and I fear losing the razor by accidentally dropping it. (I had a spare, but I contributed that to Tradere when he told me he was going to make a slant, which he never did. I had high hopes then of getting a less fragile version of the bakelite slant—hopes that now may be realized.)

A good splash of Creed’s Aventus finished the shave and brings us one day closer to the launch of Fine’s slant.

An extremely pleasant and smooth shave, and the pleasure began with the Simpson Persian Jar brush and the excellent shaving soap I bought some years back from Vintage Blades LLC when the company was still in Maryland. (Since then, the company was sold because the proprietor retired, and it is now located in Idaho.) My understanding is that this soap amounts to the traditional lavender-fragranced Truefitt & Hill (from before the reformulation and outsourcing). Thus it is another soap lost now in the mists of time.

Still, I have my tub, and the lather was really excellent. The Stealth, modeled on the Merkur white bakelite I used yesterday (though with some tweaks), did a superb job: smooth, comfortable, and leaving a BBS result. Apparently the Stealth requires excellent angle control because (I read) the effective cutting angle has a narrow range. My natural angle must hit this range spot-on, since I’ve never experienced any difficulty at all in getting it to cut, but I have read that some struggle to keep the angle right.

Three passes, a rinse, dry, and good splash of Annick Goutal’s Eau de Sud, and the day looks much better.

I’m continuing to trim the collection. This one is quite nice and would work well as a first razor. In excellent shape; EJ uses heavy-duty gold plating. It’s now on eBay.

Update: Link corrected. Formerly, it took you to a recipe for Mississippi Roast, which I do want to try—thus its presence on the clipboard. But if any readers have tried this: how was it?

A very smooth and very nice shave today. The prep doubtless contributed—as it always does. I used my Rooney Super Silvertip Style 2, which I picked up when Vintage Blades was liquidating their Rooney stock. The organic asses’ milk shaving soap was purchased in Paris by The Wife, and it’s a totally wonderful soap, though apparently it’s important to replace the lid after use else it loses its mojo. She got it at Planète Rasoir (warning: clicking the link will start a video with sound, so you might want to hit the mute button first). So far as I know, the store doesn’t do business on-line.

This is one of the soaps that fill the tin to the absolute brim: absolutely no room remaining. Even so, it was not difficult to load the brush without making any mess at all. The secret seems to be to wet the brush well, give it a couple of good shakes to remove water, and then to pay attention while loading—and, of course, a certain amount of practice and experience. I did have to add a small amount of water a couple of times to load the brush to my satisfaction, and the resulting lather was remarkably good. If you’re in Paris, the soap is (IMO) worth the trip to the store.

I first encountered the Dorco PL-602 in a Sharpologist article by Victor Marks, which intrigued me enough that I ordered one. The price is $5 (including shipping) whether you order from eBay or from Amazon, but with Amazon it’s an add-on item so you have to wait until you’re ordering a total of $25 to get it. So I ordered mine from eBay: no price difference.

I did not use one of the included Dorco blades but a Gillette Silver Blue. The razor is quite light (good travel/hiking razor) and the head seems extremely well designed in terms of comfort and efficiency. The alignment studs are on the baseplate, so you load the blade onto the baseplate rather than the cap. As noted in the Marks article, you press the blade onto the (plastic) studs, which hold the blade in place as you insert the cap and tighten.

I easily found the right cutting angle—it seems to be close to my natural angle—and in three passes achieved a BBS result with no problems. In terms of bang for the buck, this is on a par with the RiMei, and much lighter. The threads are of the same plastic as head and handle, so it may not have a long life span, depending on the care exercised when changing blades. At any rate, it’s worth considering.

A good splash of Truefitt & Hill Trafalgar, and the day begins.

The razor is the SR-71 and is available as a conventional bar-guard razor or as a slant. Take a look. I’ve ordered the slant and will post a review once I receive it. This is the second recent razor named after the famous Blackbird SR-71 reconnaissance airplane, now more than 50 years old.

I do like the fragrance of Sweet Gale (“Enriched and fragranced with Bog Myrtle, Natural honey, Mixed spices, Cedarwood, Beeswax and Aberfeldy Single Malt Scotch Whisky.”) It’s a milder, gentler version of Meißner Tremonia’s Strong ‘n Scottish shaving soap. Sweet Gale is a glycerin-based soap, and I find I can get a fine lather from a good glycerin-based soaps, such as those QED once made, Mama Bear soaps, and this one. With the Simpson Duke 3 Best, I had no problems at all on the lather front, and the fragrance was in the intoxicating direction—specifically, a Rusty Nail.

Razorock’s Baby Smooth razor, no longer made, is a remarkable razor: extremely comfortable and also extremely efficient. It easily delivered a BBS result in three passes, and in the process was comfort itself and a joy to use.

A good splash of Guerlain Vetiver, and I’m ready for the day.

I’ve been in some discussion of the “worth” of the Baby Smooth. It’s been selling for around $100 (which was its final price), and some take the position that the razor is not “worth” that amount, as though the “worth” resided purely in the razor as an objective characteristic (such as metal hardness, dimensions, etc.). However, worth—much like, say, the “goodness” of a brand of blade—is one of those characteristics that is not defined by the object but also by the market: what people are willing to pay—and that varies a lot from person to person.

Still, some try to locate “worth” in the object by looking at cost of materials and cost of production. That should, they feel, define an objective “worth.” But that quite clearly does not work for many items that are rare. The price of a rare coin or an old stamp can be far above the cost of materials and production (and the prices paid are indeed an objective measure). And in those items one can clearly see how “worth” varies from person to person: a rare coin might be worth a lot to a collector, but it is certainly not worth that to me. It’s the same object, but its worth varies from person to person.

My Baby Smooth razor is worth more than $100 to me. I can tell, because I would not consider selling it for $100.

Even money has variable “worth” in the sense of its value to an individual: someone with very little money will find a dollar worth much more (to him) than a person who has a lot of money.

I do like that Omega boar brush shown in the photo. It’s very soft, and if you accept its softness and learn to use it, it’s a wonderful brush, but I can understand those accustomed to a stiffer brush might be initially puzzled and dismayed by its softness until they learn to use.

It worked up a wonderful lather from Dr. Jon’s Propaganda. My tin does not have the fragrances listed around the edge of the label, something other Dr. Jon’s soaps do, which I like. If the list was on the label, it would consist of vanilla, sandalwood, musk, patchouli, and mandarin. I like this fragrance a lot.

Razorock’s Black Mamba razor is yet another marvel from Italian Barber, though it’s not currently available and may be yet another discontinued razor. I do wish IB would license the designs so that the razors could continue to be available—the Baby Smooth, the Black Mamba, the Stealth are all excellent and are all discontinued, so far as I can tell.

A good splash of Stetson Sierra on my BBS face, and we lunge for the weekend.

Got my shipment from The Holy Black yesterday. The brush is quite nice: a somewhat rustic feeling handle with a sculptured bas-relief and an angel-hair synthetic knot of a size that works well for me. It has good resilience while still being quite soft and giving.

Wet Shaving Products makes exceptional soaps, and their Formula T series uses tallow. (Their Rustic line is a (very good) vegan soap, a Martin de Candre shavealike.) The lather was rich, thick, and creamy and provided excellent glide. I do recommend their soaps highly.

And now the pièce de résistance: The Holy Black’s slant. The head looks a lot like the Merkur 37C head except for color and texture (the 37C has a polished finish, The Holy Black’s finish is lightly textured but still has excellent glide). Like the 37C, this slant is a two-piece design with an internal shaft with the tightening knob at the end of the handle. But the razor is much heavier than the 37C (142g vs. 78g for the 37C), with much of that weight in the handle, which feels somewhat short and stubby. Still, the razor was quite easy to handle, and the shortness of the handle was not a problem. The weight plus short handle did give the razor a different feel in the hand, though: the handle felt as though it was playing a different role, in a way. EDIT: Actually, the handle on THB slant is the same length as the 37C handle, but THB’s handle’s greater weight and greater diameter makes it feel stubby. But they are in fact the same length, about 2 15/16″; it’s just that the 37C handle feels longer because it’s thinner and lighter.

The shave itself was quite good. I used a Gillette Silver Blue blade and three passes easily result in a BBS finish with no nicks or other problems.

The Holy Black aftershave lotion shown is a creamy balm, and it works well. I did not pick up much fragrance, but it felt good and did the job.

It’s good to see a new slant. The weight and feel are good, and although the head may be much the same as the 37C head, this razor, the prices differ: $40 for The Holy Black Slant, around $45 for the 37C.

Good post. Concrete description and exactly what those who are still pondering the switch want to know. Perfect.

This is what shaving should be like every day. My Omega 20102 boar brush is now well broken in and had no trouble working an extremely good lather from JabonMan’s Eufros Rosa Bourbon, which has a wonderful rose fragrance.

The Merkur white bakelite slant shown remains one of my top-rated slants, always providing an easy and trouble-free shave, almost always resulting in a BBS finish. Today was no exception. This is truly a wonderful slant, and Fine Accoutrements has said that their new slant, made of ABS plastic (much tougher and less brittle than bakelite) uses the same head geometry. Just 3-5 weeks away, $27.50.

A good splash of Saint Charles Shave Bugarian Rose aftershave, and the week is launched on a positive note.

Another razor up for auction.

HTGAM’s Chocolate Bourbon has a lovely fragrance, and with the Sabini brush shown it made a very fien lather, though it took a little work this time: I had to add more water than I expected, but the soap may have been extra dry.

I used the Standard head on a Wolfman handle, a combination I like a lot, and with three easy passes had a BBS finish. I finished with a good splash of Floïd aftershave, which I like as a winter aftershave (despite the hint of menthol) because of the warmth of the fragrance.

I have a beta sample head—a new slant—that I will test tomorrow.

Greg Kahn of iKon asked whether I’d like to be one of the beta testers of their new slant, still under development (and, he says, there is “one  last slight adjustment we may make prior to putting this on the market”). He says this will be priced in the same range as the iKon Shavecraft #102.

I assume the name “X3” is because this will be iKon’s third slant, the first being the stainless slant (available both plain and coated) and the second the #102. The X3, like the stainless slant and unlike the #102, does twist the blade so that the head is symmetrical (and, some hold, that the blade is more rigid, though in fact I’ve not experienced any rigidity problems with conventional razors, none of which twist the blade).

First, though, the prep: I used RazoRock’s top-notch but low-priced synthetic badger brush, which works extremely well, and my pre-reformulation (I suppose that reduces simply to “formulation,” since “pre” and “re” would cancel out) Geo. F. Trumper Violet shaving soap. I got a totally wonderful lather: thick, dense, and creamy.

The X3 head, mounted for this shave on a UFO handle, combines a very mild feeling on the face with a very aggressive cutting action and thus belongs the “mild-aggressive” class of razors that repudiates the ideas that razors can be linearly ordered from “mild” at one extreme to “aggressive” at the other. The X3 is extremely comfortable, so demure in feel that you know it won’t nick, but also ruthlessly efficient, wiping off stubble so well that most of my face was BBS after the second pass. (The blade, FWIW, was a Gillette Silver Blue, but you’ll have to do your own blade exploration given how greatly the perception of a blade varies from person to person.)

Three passes, no problems, perfectly smooth face, to which I applied a splash of Hâttric. I don’t know what adjustment Kahn is considering, but I certainly do not detect any obvious need for improvement: this one already ranks with the best of slants.

I have no information on availability, but the price will be in the neighborhood of $70.

Another wonderful shave. My Wolf Whiskers brush with synthetic knot immediately worked up a fine lather from Meißner Tremonia’s Exotic Elemi, a soap and fragrance that I turn out to like a lot.

Three passes with the X3 (on a UFO handle) produced the same flawless BBS result as yesterday: no nicks and not even a threat of a nick. It was a totally comfortable shave.

A good splash of Tabac, and the day is launched.

I want to point out, for those considering Valentine’s Day gifts (either as the one buying the gift or the one making the hints), my Craftsmanship article “Real Shaving: A Gift Guide,” now updated.

A very nice shave indeed Brushguy.com makes a very nice brush, and I do love I Coloniali shaving cream. I got a fine lather easily, and the fragrance appeals to me.

The Dorco PL-602, $5 including shipping from eBay or Amazon, is quite a good razor. It’s all plastic, and thus lightweight, but the head design is excellent, allowing a very comfortable BBS result.

A splash of Hâttric, and we are poised on the threshold of the weekend.

I continue to like the Omega “synthetic boar” brushes, particularly the brush shown: the brushes (in the regular size, not the pro size) perform extremely well, feel good on my face, and cost very little. The brush easily brought forth an excellent lather from the Martin de Candre.

Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements revisited a vintage design, made some tweaks, and brought out their double-open-comb razor. I find it both comfortable and extremely efficient—no trouble at all in getting a BBS result this morning. The open-comb cap does seem to add a bit more glide.

Three passes, no nicks, a rinse, and a good splash of Phoenix Artisan’s Sandalwood aftershave. A great start way to start the weekend.

A very smooth and easy shave today. The RazoRock synthetic brush shown worked up a fine lather from Wickham’s English Lavender. One oddity: the soap stuck to the cap on about half the puck, so I pulled off a layer of soap in removing the cap. Not a real problem: I can scrape it back into the (shallow) tub when I want.

Synthetics hold a lot of water, and I didn’t shake the brush enough before I began, so I got a lot of large-bubbled lather. I shook it off, shook the brush some more, and then resumed. The resulting lather was quite satisfactory, and the English Lavender fragrance was present and pleasant.

I used the two razors (the iKon Stainless slant is on the left and the iKon X3 with an aluminum alloy head on the right) alternately. I didn’t detect that much difference between them (and thus the X3 will be a bargain, at about half the price of the stainless), though perhaps the X3 felt a tiny bit more comfortable in the sense of having a bit less blade feel—but of course some like a certain amount of blade feel. They both cut quite easily—and I sure do experience a slant as cutting more easily than a straight razor, for whatever reason. Both were comfortable as well as efficient, and the final result was BBS with no sign of a nick.

A good splash of Creed’s Green Irish Tweed, and I’m ready for the week.

Here’s a close-up of the two heads:

The iKon Stainless is on the left, the X3 on the right, the iKon on an iKon Bulldog handle, the X3 on a UFO handle. The Stainless looks as though it has a somewhat greater slant, but the two razors performed much alike.

Another razor, listed here, from the shrinking collection:

Klar Seifen is quite a nice soap and, as you see, they fill the tub to the brim. With a little practice, it’s quite easy to load the bush neatly from such soaps—requiring that the soap container be partially empty in order to avoid messy loading simply shows some lack of practice and skill in brush loading. It does require using a dampish-wet brush rather than one that’s dripping wet, but as it turns out the dampish-wet brush will likely have the proper amount of water for loading the brush and the dripping-wet brush will have way too much water.

The brush this morning is the Kent Infinity, a very nice synthetic with a good feel and excellent performance. The knot is somewhat more resilient or closely packed than, say, the Fine Classic, and thus the brush does not feel quite so soft on the face, but it is by no means stiff or in any way unpleasant—and it does a great job. Because synthetics harbor more water than one might expect, I did give it a good shake, then brushed the soap briskly and with a certain firmness, loading the brush easily (it’s a good soap), quickly, and with no mess (despite the container’s being full). There’s a certain amount of satisfaction in doing a good job on the task at hand, whatever it is, and so the lathering began with already some psychic payoff from the shave.

It was really an excellent lather—Klar Seifen really is a good soap—and I set to work with the two razors: the #102 on the right side of my face, the X3 on the left.

Both razors are superb. Both razors are extremely comfortable and totally non-threatening. Perhaps the X3 is a smidge more comfortable, but it’s difficult to say, so that is within the margin of YMMV. And despite feeling so mild on the face, both razors are wonderfully aggressive on the stubble, efficiently wiping away every trace so that after three passes (WTG, XTG, and ATG), I have a BBS result. No nicks, no burn, just a perfectly smooth face.

For me, both razors are absolutely top-notch. They look different, but they shave much alike. They are both part of iKon’s Shavecraft line, with a hard aluminum alloy head, and although the X3 is not yet available, both will sell for $70. I’m told the X3 will be available sometime around March 6-21—say, St. Patrick’s Day.

I do understand that some cannot believe that the small degree of slant can account for the wonderful performance of these and other good slants, that it must be something else—superb head design, perhaps. Whatever the reason, both these razors have a first-rate feel combined with a first-rate performance, and I recommend either one highly.

UPDATE: It occurred to me that I should include the side-by-side close-up of the two heads. The #102 is on the left, the X3 on the right: