A while ago I reviewed two Turkish brushes – the imaginatively named No6 and No7 – and was in general pleased with the result. Sometime after I had bought the two brushes however, the No6 was ‘upgraded’ by the manufacturer:

Please note, this product has been revised according to customer requirements.
Now, more quality, and aesthetics

Seeing as how I PIFed my original No6 away, I just had to get a new one… well, so I told myself at least.

The handle sits somewhat better in my hand than the original No6 did, due to the slightly more bulbous shape. The knot is very similar to the original, but the mounting of it is now done with a slightly better looking plastic ring.

In use the new No6 is more or less indistinguishable as the original No6 – good backbone, good flow, very little scratching. It’ll make lather just as good as a more expensive brush, but you’ll find it’ll hold less of it – more than enough for two passes though.

There is – as it was with the original No6 and the No7 – some discussion online as to the nature of the knot – horse or pig. Personally I suspect it’s a case of ‘whatever we can find’, but since Turkey is a predominately Muslim country I lean towards horse. Or at least partly horse – my original No6 certainly smelled rather strongly of stables, but a few hand lathers fixed that.

There is also a lot of indications that the quality control can be at best spotty – some users reports their brushes developing a ‘crater’ in the middle after a while. But for a brush costing about the same as a cup of coffee, can you expect perfection?

To repeat what I said in my original review; the No6 would be an excellent first brush for a newbie not wanting to spend much money on a new hobby. It’ll would also be a good “first horse” for more experienced shavers who wants to try something new. Or you could simply get one just for the fun of it – letting you get one more brush in your rotation without laying out more money than you would for a cup of coffee.

Can you afford not to try one?

At times I do things for reasons that can be described as ‘less sane’ – like picking up a sleeve of razor blades I’ve never heard about before just because I like the name. Sometimes it even works out…

I was over at Shave A Buck, ordering one of the new Cadet Razors (the Twist To Open TTO-13, which is a damn fine razor by the way) when I spotted a couple of blades I knew I had to pick up just because of their names; Lord Cool and Flying Eagle. While I haven’t tried the former yet, the later is actually surprisingly good blades.

More about that later, first we got to have pictures:

Some time ago a new, old razor surfaced and got everyone excited – a stash of new old stock of bakelite slants, probably from the dusty shelves of an old abandoned warehouse or something.

Well, the truth of how they were sound is probably less dramatic, but they did cause a stir and suddenly everyone wanted one. I was lucky to get one through my favourite shaving forum, thanks to a fellow shaver who found it too mild for his taste.

The manufacturer of this razors are unknown, although speculations abound.  A popular theory seems to be that they are from Merkur, based upon the similarities to the Merkur 45 in the handle.

The razor itself is very lightweight, due to the all Bakelite construction – the only metal parts are the blades and a small brass nut. This makes for a very manoeuvrable razor, while the small blade gap and large blade angle makes for a reasonable mild razor.

This is not an aggressive slant – but it is still a slant and as such well suited for going through several days worth of beard. If you can live with the idea of a mild slant, and like owning a small piece of history, I can strongly recommend this German Bakelite Slant – if you can find it.

For those curious, bakelite – formally known as polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride – is the first synthetic thermosetting plastic. Invented in 1907 it has found use in everything from saxophone mouthpieces to heatshields for Soviet ICBM warheads… and razors.

I have to admit that I like TTO razors; not only do they represent a neat little bit of mechanical ingenuity but they are easy to load with a fresh blade. So when a new player came onto the scene with a range of TTO and three piece razors, I put one on my wish list.

The one I picked was the TTO-13, available from Shave A Buck for a little under 25$. I couldn’t not avoid the temptation of ordering a few more things though… so my total was a bit higher.

The Cadet TTO-13 arrived in a decent blue plastic box, just as their three piece TP-01 Open Comb did. The craftsmanship is excellent, even more so when you consider the low price, and the fit and function is close to flawless. It’s worth nothing that you twist the whole handle to open the doors on the Cadet TTOs, not just the know on the bottom. In that regard it is similar to my Parker 22R, and unlike my Gillette TV Special. What you prefer might vary – I’m fine with both systems.

The first thing you’ll notice when you pick up the TTO-13 is that it’s a hefty piece of metal. It’s heavier than my Parker 22R, a razor some people are already claoming as being too massive. However the balance on the Cadet is excellent, with the CG being just below the ‘double ball’ on the handle.

The handle itself is comfortable to hold, and the machined chequerboard pattern makes it near impossible for it so slip even with wet and soapy fingers. It’s a quite long handle, so if all you’re used to are short handled razor it might take a while getting used to – on my hand I seem to prefer the longer handled razors, so to me the length was a plus.

The head itself is – as mentioned – well made and functions smoothly, and loading a blade is so easy a child could do it. It is worth noting that the Cadet TTO head has a flatter blade angle and a larger blade gap than either my Parker or my Gillette TTO have. This gives a more aggressive shave, and means it’s less forgiving to errors in the shave angle. It also means that you can get a potentially closer shave – however that also depends on the blade you’re using.

The Cadet TTO-13 shaves very well, and I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone who are in the marked for a long handled, hefty TTO razor.