Tag Archives: Gear

Review of the Cadet TP-01 Open Comb

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A little while ago I picked up a Cadet TP-01 from Shave A Buck along with some other things, and I’m happy I did – it’s a good razor for a good price.

The box it came in is serviceable, but nothing fancy – then again, we don’t buy razors based on the box they come in, but based on how they shave. Well… at least I don’t buy razors based on the box – YMMV as with anything relating to this hobby.
The TP-01 is a straight forward three piece open comb razor – pretty much a case of what you see is what you get. It is heavier than I expected, since the handle is solid, not hollow like it is on many other inexpensive razors. This gives it a pleasant balance in my opinion, with the centre of gravity about 3cm below the head. The end result is a remarkable manoeuvrable razor, which should suit most shavers.
A curious side note: the handle of the TP-01 fits the heads of my Merkur 25C, my Merkur 985CL and Yuma – but the head of the TP-01 won’t screw all the way onto the handles of said razors. Best guess has to do with the length of the shank – the head of the TP-01 has a longer shank than any of my other razors – and/or the pitch of the screw thread. It is not of any great importance to me – the handle of the TP-01 suits me fine.
The shave I get from the TP-01 is a bit more aggressive and less mild than I get from my other open combs – since the blade angle of the Cadet and my Merkur OCs is virtually the same as far as I can tell, it must be down to blade exposure and blade gap. The sheer depth of the comb might also account for parts of it – all in all a well designed head for a efficient, manly shave.
The craftsmanship of the razor is first class – no visible toolmarks, even plating, highly polished… I can’t even tell where the casting sprue have been removed, something I can do on my Merkurs – even if I really had to look.
If you are in the marked for an Open Comb razor, look no further than the Cadet – it’s an efficient, comfortable, inexpensive and well made razor.

Review of Lea shave stick

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Caveat lector: The Lea shave stick have – as far as I can tell from searching – gone through a couple of reformulations over the last couple of years. Mine is the “middle” formulation, without tallow. Older and newer stick should – again as far as I know – contain tallow.

I picked up the Lea shave stick on a whim, and for being cheap – a touch under 3USD from Shave A Buck – it’s a reasonable decent stick. Not quite as good as the Arko – which can be had for less if you know where to look – but the Lea have the benefit of coming in it’s own plastic carrier; very handy for the Gobag.

As far as the scent goes, it smells of soap and nothing more. That’s not a bad thing, even less so when you plan on sticking it in your toiletry bag and leave it there – it wont stink up your other gear. It smells a little bit stronger when wet, but again only of soap as far as I can tell. Compared to a fresh Arko, it’s very mild – compared to a slightly aged and aired out Arko it’s much the same.

My Better Half claims it smells as if Irish Spring and Dove had a baby – it does remind me of Dove as well, but I’ve yet to smell the former.She haven’t been exposed to Irish Spring in a decade though, so take that for what it’s worth.

The lather is quick to whip up and plentiful, and it provides okay glide and cushion. Not the best I’ve experienced – that honour goes to Mike’s Natural Soaps – but far from bad. In my experience it does collapse fairly quickly, which may or may not be an issue of you do three passes – I find it’s sufficient for two.

The lack of tallow may give some issues if you got dry skin, but since I always uses a moisturiser after shaving it’s a non-issue for me. The newest reformulation – which do have tallow in it – is bound to be better in that regard, even if it seems to be somewhat more expensive online. I have no idea what the latest refomulation is like in regards to scent or lather though, but reviews seems to be positive.

Overall it’s a great little package; a sturdy container, a good soap and a low price. Definitely recommended if you want a shaving stick for travel or for use at home – you may want to look for the latest reformulation if you want a tallow based stick though. For me it has displaced the tube of shave cream in my GoBag, taking up less space with less chance of making a mess.

Review of Omega 10048 boar brush

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The Omega 10048 – aka the Omega 48, Omega Pro, and/or Pro 48 – was the first “real” shaving brush I was exposed to after using an old Body Shop brush for a decade. The one I got was part of a Starter Kit I bought from Barbershop.no, and the box it came it was branded Proraso. The brush itself bears no re-branding, but proudly proclaimed itself to be an Omega boar brush.

The brush is of good quality manufacture, and should last a lifetime if properly looked after. I have no idea what grade of boar it is – I’m really not all that knowledgeable when it comes to boar brushes. What I can tell is that it looks like the hairs have been bleached, the knot has plenty of backbone and is not all that scratchy. It is also a big knot – the biggest in my small rotation – and a big handle… almost too big for my hand.

The knot is, as mentioned, bleached boar bristles. It’s a 28mm knot with a 70mm loft, but thanks to the solid backbone it’s not in the least bit floppy. The handle is chromed plastic and fairly light – meaning the balance of the brush is firmly towards the knot end of things. And speaking of the handle, I was expecting the chromed plastic to be pretty slippery, but to my pleasant surprise I have found that I can get a great grip on the brush even with wet fingers.

Various places online touts the Omega 48 as the preferred brush of professional barbers in Italy; and as much lather it’ll hold I can easily see why. At the same time the things that makes this an excellent brush for lathering someone else makes it – for me at least – a less perfect brush for shaving one self. The sheer size makes it somewhat awkward to use – I feel like I am applying lather with a straight elbow – and the balance makes it less optimal for applying lather. The size also means I can’t use it for making lather in my favorite Turkish copper bowl, but luckily I have a back up in the cereal bowl from IKEA The size of it also means I simply can’t face lather with it; my goatee gets in the way.

The Omega 48 isn’t a bad brush, far from it. It’ll whip anything you’ll throw at it into lather, be it a soft cream or a rock hard soap. But it is a BIG brush; from base to tip it clocks in at 133mm. If you’re in the marked for a boar brush and you like ’em big, the Omega 48 will get you lots of brush at a reasonable price.

As an aside, I see that Omega also sells the 10049 – an ever so slightly smaller brush than the 10048 but with a handle that’s coloured either red, black or white. It might be an option for those who find the chrome to be a little too much.

More gear on the way

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Shave A Buck, a webshop based in the US, has brought out a new line of razors from India that looks pretty nice. And since I like open comb razors, and one of the open combs got a good review… well, I just had to pick one up for myself.

And as always when I’m shopping online, I tend to spot things I just have to have – this time it was some alum that could survive in my GoBag and a stick of Lea shaving soap which I haven’t tried before. The Lea have gotten a lot of mixed reviews online, but so has the Arko stick… If I like it it’ll end up in my GoBag as well, which means the only liquid left in there will be my beloved Krampert’s Finest and the small tube of toothpaste.

Review of the Merkur 25C

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I might as well admit to it; I like the Merkur Open Comb head. Which is why I got two of them; the 985CL travel razor and the long handled 25C.

Go ahead – guess which is which…

Having two razors – or three, when I assemble the Franken-nought-four – with the same head gives me an opportunity to compare how the other part of the razor affects the shave. And once I know how the handle affects the shave, it gives me the insight I need to know how the head affects the shave… so it’s a win-win, really.

Speaking of the head; Back when I first created the Franken-nought-four I was researching the Merkur 41C, aka 1904, and found something interesting and/or scary… the Merkur Open Com heads were actually intended to be adjustable… by loosening the handle 1/8 to 1/4 turn you can adjust the blade angle and gap, while the springiness of the blade should keep the mechanism tight. While it might work it sounds kinda dicey – and since you’re adjusting both the gap and the angle at the same time it’ll be hard to predict just how much more aggressive it’ll be.

If used tightened all the way – as I do – the Merkur 25C is a mild and efficient open comb razor. It’s milder and more manoeuvrable than the 985CL, but at the same time it has a harder time getting a BBS on my neck. Odd how things works out…

It is overall a solid razor, with a handle that’s somewhat thicker than your average pencil but not by much. The balance is good in my opinion, but YMMV depending on your taste.

If you’re in the market for a relatively mild long handled open comb, you can do a lot worse than picking up a Merkur 25C.

Review of Turkish copper bowl

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One thing I can hardly do without when I wetshave is a good bowl to build the lather in… some people face lather (which I do as well when using the Arko stick), some swear at scuttles – I prefer a decent bowl that fits my hand.

I started out with a simple plastic snack bowl “borrowed” from the kitchen cabinet, then switched to a larger cereal bowl from Ikea (which I still use at times) before one of the old-timers at my favorite shaving forum showed off something he had dubbed “the fairy tale bowl”.

It is funny how fast ones Acquisition Disorders can go from dormant to “shut up and take my money” mode…

Short story even shorter; once I learned that the bowl had come from bestshave.net and was pretty damn cheap, I placed an order for it as well as a few other odds and ends – funny how you tend to spot something you suddenly need. Shipping was prompt – as usual – and as soon as I unpacked the bowl I knew I was going to like it:

The bowl is beaten out of pretty thin copper sheet, which makes it lightweight and easy to hold in my paws – the downside is that my lather gets cold pretty fast. The dimpled inner surface helps in building the lather, much like the spiral grove you often see in the bottom of scuttles. The reasonable small size of the bowl – 11.7 cm (~4.5″) wide and 4.9 cm (~2″) deep – means it’s best suited for smallish brushes; since most of my brushes have a loft around 5.0 cm (~2″) it suits me fine. My Omega 48, with it’s significantly higher loft, do not like my copper bowl much…

Overall I can recommend the Turkish copper bowl if you like bowl lathering, like short lofted brushes and are in the marked for a shiny, lightweight bowl.

1958 Gillette TV Special

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My latest acquisition on the razor front is my second oldest… a 1958 Gillette TTO known as the “TV Special”. A fellow shaver over at The Shave Nook decided it was better to sell it than having it sit unused in his rack, so I got the opportunity to snap it up for a little less than twenty dollars – which was a steal, really. Apparently the razor was advertised during the 1958 broadcasts of “Gillette Cavalcade of Sports” and it’s notorious online for being a great shaver.

The new beuty – a short handled TTO vintage razor
Head on with the head open – note slight loss of plating on three spots along the right bar
As for the shave, I can best describe it as mild and effective. This isn’t a harsh razor by a long stretch – in fact, some might find it to be too mild. So far I’ve only taken it for a spin with an Astra Superior Platinum blade, but I can’t imagine it’ll behave significantly worse with another blade… unless it’s a bad blade off course.

Despite being a short handled razor, it’s remarkable comfortable to hold. The slight flare near the base helps, as do the knurling. The balance is pretty good too, even if I find it slightly top heavy – either the head could have been slightly lighter, or the handle slightly heavier. It’s no worse than most of my other razors – I’ve yet to find a razor with absolutely perfect balance.

I’ve only had it for about a week so far, and used it a couple of times, but the 1958 Gillette TV Special has gained a slot in my rotation. If you’re in the marked for a vintage Twist To Open razor, and like ’em mild… well, you could do a lot worse than picking up one of these babies – even if they can be hard to find at a reasonable price.

Review of the Arko shaving stick

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Very few products seems to polarise traditional wetshavers quite like the Arko shaving stick do; once you tried it you’ll either love it or loathe it.

What most people agree on though is that the tallow based stick works great – it’s easy to whip up a lovely lather weither you rub it on your face and face lather, or if you mash it into a bowl and use it for bowl lathering. Where opinions differs is on the scent – some say it smells fresh and citrusy, others think it smells like urinal cakes. And others again – like myself – leave it unwrapped for a while and get a pretty much unscented shaving stick…

Using the Arko as a stick is simplicity itself: I prep my face before I  rub the stick over my whiskers, and then I takes the damp / wet brush of the day and vigourously applies it to my face in a circular motion. The result is a nice creamy and rich lather that is worked into my beard – perfect for those days when I havn’t shaved in a while. There is always enough left on my brush for a second and third pass – and if it isn’t it’s easy to reapply and make more.

The Arko shaving stick provides a more than acceptable cushion and glide, at least on my skin. If you use it for face lathering it can be a little picky on the brush in my expereince; a brush with a decent amount of backbone is needed to work that lather into the whiskers properly. For bowl lathering every one of my brushes works wonders with the Arko, once they are loaded properly.

If you can stand the scent, the Arko shave stick will not disapoint – and it’s cheap at half the price.

Quick Review: Mama Bear Shaving Soap

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Inspired by a discussion on The Shave Nook, I ordered two tubs of Mama Bear shaving soaps earlier this month – one Awakening and one Brazilian Coffee.

The soap is – as far as I can tell – built on a glycerin based melt-and-pour base. I’m not sure if Mama Bear buys the base or makes her own, but the result is pretty good either way; it lathers quickly, has good slip and cushioning, and don’t leave my skin terribly dry. Judging by the sheer amount of lather it whips up, each tub should last me a long time.

As for the scent… a mixed bag indeed:
The Awakening has a strong scent of menthol and other goodies, and actually chilled my face quite well while I was shaving despite the fact that I used hot water to make the lather. My Better Half on the other hand though it smelled like Vicks Vapor Rub, so she wasn’t too thrilled about it. I like it though, and that is what matters the most.
The Brazilian Coffee smells more or less like a cold cup of coffee while in the tub, but lathering it up makes the scent mellow quite a bit. If you’re expecting the intoxicating scent of a freshly brewed cup you will be underwhelmed though. It’s not a bad scent, just not great.

Overall I can recommend Mama Bear’s soaps if you’re in the market for a glycerin soap. For me, I think the two tubs I got is enough for the foreseeable future.

Review of the Egyptian Racer razor

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As part of my experiments in traditional wetshaving – and also with an eye to putting together a cheap starter kit I could PIF to people curious about old fashioned wetshaving, I picked up a very cheap razor from my usual Turkish web store. The Racer razor is – according to the place I bought it – manufactured in Egypt, and cost me a whooping 3.75 USD.

The majority of the razor is made of injection molded plastic, except the top of the head which is cast metal. It appears quite solid – at least as solid as most cartridge razors and much more solid than most disposables. It is a two piece design – twist the handle and the metal cap comes off. The mixed construction is well balanced, with the center of gravity shortly below the head. This makes for an easily maneuvered razor, while keeping it so light you hardly notice that you’re holding it.

Loading the blade is pretty straight forward with little to no slack, so unlike the Yuma you don’t really have to pay much attention while loading. The cap also covers up the sides of the razor blade, removing one possibility of cutting your fingertips open. The design allow for a pretty generous blade gap, while holding the blade almost flat. This means the Racer is a fairly aggressive shaver, more so than most of my other razors.

Comparing it to another cheap razor – the Yuma – I would say that the Racer feels less harsh but is more aggressive. It’s not a bad razor for a newbie on a budget – provided s/he is told to be careful and to make sure not to use any pressure. Combined with a good blade it gives a more than acceptable shave. It also is a decent second razor for a more experienced traditional wetshaver, perhaps as a semi-disposable travel razor. All in all I can recommend the Racer razor to, well, anyone who fancies a very cheap razor for whatever reason – just keep in mind that there is many better razors out there, if you’re willing to invest a bit more.