I said I’d use my wonderful R&B brush this morning, and so I have: it did a great job with the Paisley vintage shaving soap.
I shaved using my Above the Tie R1 baseplate on the Kronos handle (though I think I might like the Atlas—the spiraled handle—a little more), using a Peronna Lab Blue. I commented on Wicked Edge yesterday about my impressions of the Above the Tie razor, and here I revise and extend my remarks.
The first important point is that Above the Tie offers a 30-day 100% satisfaction guarantee. Obviously such guarantees are important when ordering on-line, but it’s particularly important with the ATT razor since their baseplates are so specifically tuned. I have tried 4 baseplates: the M1 (mild straight-bar), the R1 (“regular” straight-bar), the H1 (“H’ for “harsh,” so far as I’m concerned, though clearly perfect for some), and the R2 (“regular” open-comb). The 30 day guarantee allows you to try a different base plate if the one you picked doesnt suit you. The exchange is done with no questions asked.
That guarantee is important and it should be emphasized because the ATT razors are precise, so the differences among the various baseplates are quite noticeable: only the R1 really worked for me. The others were definitely off the mark by a little (the R2, for example) or a lot (the H1). The guarantee means you don’t have to buy a pig in a poke. You get to drive the car for a while.
It’s an amazing razor: as I shave with it I feel that I’m snapping off that stubble precisely. With the right baseplate for you, the ATT razor definitely lies in the mild-aggressive category. (I’m trying to get a little more insight into that category: see this post on Wicked Edge.) The differences (and the different preferences people have) are yet another proof (if one be needed) that YMMV is real. Above the Tie recognizes and accommodates YMMV in a very good way: it makes each baseplates to work for a relatively narrow range, knowing that such a baseplate will be extraordinary for some, at the cost of not working so well for others—but then ATT provides a range of baseplates so each shaver can find a baseplate tuned to his particular mileage, as it were.
The quality of the razor is superb. Somehow holding an ATT razor feels like holding a vintage Leica rangefinder camera or some high-class target pistol: even though the razor is clearly simpler than those, it feels as precise. It’s quite a trick, to convey the feeling of a precision machine while using so few parts.
It reminds me carom billiards. Take a 5′ by 10′ billiard table (side-cushions but no pockets) and put one ball on the table. You can hit it with the cue, but it’s hard to make a game of that. So add another ball, and now you can hit one ball with the cue and make it strike the other.
That will be of interest for perhaps three shots, then it gets old. So add another ball, making a total of three. You can now hit one with the cue and make it strike both of the others, those being the object balls. Hah! Suddenly—and in a discontinuous manner, I point out—the game becomes quite interesting.Three is the magic number, and the interest jumps with the third ball.
And when that game gets dull, throw in another requirement using the magic number 3: in making the shot, the cue ball must hit the side cushions at least 3 times before the shot is completed—i.e., before the cue ball strikes the second object ball. (It doesn’t matter which cushions are used—all 3 required impacts can be on the same cushion so long as they happen before the shot is completed; moreover, hitting the cushions more than 3 times in the course of making the shot is perfectly acceptable.) And now it’s a game of a lifetime. For years the longest run was 27 points. Here’s a run of 28 points:
This is an example of how an unexpected complexity can suddenly emerged with very few parts involved. I’ve been trying to figure out how ATT gets the feeling of a precision machine in so few parts.
First, the machining is evident—look at the underside of the cap, examine the baseplate, feel the handle. Everything feels precisely machined with sharply defined edges.
And then the two small blade-alignment pins in the cap fit so precisely into the pits on the baseplate: no slop at all. And when you screw the handle onto the cap, you can feel how smoothly the threads work, how the tolerances clearly are close. Even the chequering on the handle feels more precisely machined than is common.
So you feel the precision as you assemble the razor. And the assembly operation is important: you cannot really “assemble” only one piece—even with two pieces, it’s more “joining them” than “assembling” them. But three pieces, interlocked, one held between two: that does indeed feel like “assembling.” That, together with the razor’s compact heftiness makes it feel machine-like—just a machine having few parts. But it really does the job.
A little of D.R. Harris’s After Shaving Milk, and I’m good to go.
My idea of how to order an ATT razor: pick a handle you like, and order that, the cap, and one baseplate—that is, one complete razor. Exchange the baseplate as needed to find the one that works perfectly. For me that was R1, but (of course) you may find another is best. When you have found the right baseplate, you’re home free. But I will say I have two of their handles and love them both.
Filed under: Shaving
