Closed Pass Around - One Blade SE Razor

riverrun said:
Day one with the OneBlade

I'm impressed

The OneBlade has arrived. The first thing you notice is the big, heavy leather box it comes in. Why? What is it for? As nice as it looks on the outside, it's too big for a travel case and you would have to take the razor and the 200 gram stand on your travels. I don't have that kind of baggage allowance. It's too well made to throw away. Would I store the razor in the box between uses? No. So it's just a very expensive piece of packaging that you need to store somewhere until you sell the razor or until you shuffle off this mortal coil. Pretentious hipster crap.
On to the razor: It's different. In a good way. I like the weird handle a lot - very modern. The head screams ‘SE razor' at you. The blade loading mechanism is interesting, but I was expecting something a bit smoother and more sophisticated. Something spring loaded would be cool: push the blade in until it clicks, push again and it pops out. To remove the blade you have to lift it up slightly and pull it out. Workable, but I expected more from "The best razor on Earth. Period.”
All this doesn't really matter. The question is: how does it shave?
It's the last day of my Speickmania week. So here is today's setup:
  • Shower with Speick Men shower gel
  • Face wash with Speick soap
  • Hot towel with a bit of Speick Men EdT on it
  • A few drops of Somerset shaving oil as a pre-shave
  • Face lather Speick soap stick grated in to a bowl with an Omega 49 brush
  • Four passes WTG/XTG/XTG/ATG with OneBlade and a Feather FHS blade (1)
  • Speick Men ASL
  • Speick Men ASB
  • Speick Natural EdC
The pivoting head is supposed to pivot as you move the razor across your face and guarantee the correct blade angle everywhere. For the head to pivot, you need to apply pressure. The thought is a bit creepy: put a Feather blade in a razor and apply pressure. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing actually. The four passes with just enough pressure to make the head pivot go without incident. The OneBlade does shave a bit like a really heavy cartridge razor with good build quality. The pivoting head worked really well for me. After reading Paul's remarks about the razor I expected problems under the nose, but I didn't have any. Under the nose I didn't use the pivot action of the head, I used it like I'd use an injector razor. Worked fine for me. Convex or concave - both worked fine for me, but I felt that I needed to slow down when shaving around the jawline or upwards under the mouth. Maybe (that's) because I'm not used to the razor yet.
The end result: Wow! My face is incredibly smooth. Not a hint of stubble anywhere. Even difficult areas are as smooth as it gets. I'm impressed. Very impressed.
Is the razor worth the money, though? At currently £225 shipped it is quite pricey. If they dropped the stand and the silly leather box and halved the price I'd say the razor would be well worth the money. As it stands I think it is overpriced. Maybe a few more shaves will change my mind.
The plan: another shave with the FHS blade, then a shave with the carbon FAS blade, followed by a de-spined Gem blade.
After a week of Speickmania SWMBO commented that she is now fed up with the smell of Speick Natural EdC. So am I.
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Happy to see you like it as well. I do find it to be an exceptional razor.
 
A short update after 9+ hours: I'm even more impressed now. Very little stubble even after all that time. The problematic area under my chin is still smoother than after a 4 pass shave with the Feather AS-D2. Food for thought.
 
riverrun said:
A short update after 9+ hours: I'm even more impressed now. Very little stubble even after all that time. The problematic area under my chin is still smoother than after a 4 pass shave with the Feather AS-D2. Food for thought.
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Welcome to the OneBlade Fan Club (OBFC). Your laminated leather membership card will be issued shortly. :)
 
The Wolfman is not in stock and Connaught are out of stock of FHS blades. :eek: If I ever go for a OneBlade I would have to buy 960 blades as well for peace of mind. Pricey..
 
Day two with the OneBlade

  • Shower
  • Hot towel
  • Face lather Speick shaving cream with an Omega 49 brush
  • Four passes WTG/XTG/XTG/ATG with OneBlade and a Feather FHS blade (2)
  • L'Eau D'Issey Pour Homme ASL
  • L'Eau D'Issey Pour Homme ASB
  • L'Eau D'Issey Pour Homme EdT

Pretty much more of the same. See my previous post. One notable difference is that the blade started to feel a bit tuggy halfway through the shave. That's pretty bad after just a shave and a half, especially as the blades are not the cheapest around. I guess OneBlade recommend using the blades only once for two reasons: to make money and because they really do deteriorate quickly. A de-spined Gem blade might last longer. My face doesn't feel quite as smooth as yesterday, but that might be due to the Issey Miyake ASB not being as slick as the Speick.
Tomorrow I'll be brave or stupid and try my last remaining carbon Feather FAS blade. They are utter rubbish in Valet Autostrop rzaors and I might have to switch blades during the shave. Then it will be the turn of a de-spined Gem blade.
To please SWMBO after a week of Speick EdC, I now smell of L'Eau D'Issey Pour Homme. Her favourite of my smellies. :D
 
Day three with the OneBlade
Spectacular! De-spined GEM blade - the One Blade for the OneBlade.
First a quick update on yesterday's shave: It was good, but not as long lasting as the first shave. I think the Feather blade was not doing its job properly anymore towards the end.

Today's shave was a bit all over the place. I didn't go exactly as planned. Planned was something like:
  • Shower
  • Geo F Trumper Coral skin food
  • Hot towel
  • Wickham Super Smooth English Rose
  • Face lather with Omega 49 brush
  • Four passes WTG/XTG/XTG/ATG with OneBlade and a carbon Feather FAS blade (1)
  • Tüff Sensitiv ASL
  • Geo F Trumper Coral skin food.

I got as far as the face towel without incident. Then the Omega 49 just didn't want to produce a nice lather on my face. So I grabbed a Plisson synthetic brush and bowl lathered. That went much better. I decided to use a Feather carbon FAS blade for a laugh. Those blades are truly crap in Valet razors. Tuggy and scratchy. So I started to shave one cheek WTG and no surprise: tuggy and scratchy. Don't even think about using this type of blade. Removing the blade with wet fingers is not recommended by the way. You won't hurt yourself, but you don't get any grip on the blade and it won't come out. Cleverly, I had de-spined a Gem SE blade before the shave and made sure it fits in the OneBlade. So there we go: change of blade after 10 seconds. And what a change it was! What a difference! The Gem blade is smooth as butter and sharp as … a very sharp thing. Sharper than the Feather FHS I dare say. From past experience in SE razors they will last more than just a single shave. And they cost a quarter of what the Feather blades cost. This might be the one blade for the OneBlade.
The first three passes go OK, but the lather is still not perfect - a bit dry and the OneBlade head doesn't have enough glide. So I decide to forget about the lather and just use Somersets Maximum Glide shaving oil instead. I don't normally like moving a razor across my face and not remove lather. I like to see what I've already done. But this was fun - where there was not enough glide before there was an abundance now. Maybe I'll do a shaving oil only shave with the OneBlade tomorrow. Btw: the OneBlade handle is a bit slippery when wet and very slippery when used with oily fingers. Never happens with my rubber handled Schick N3. Stainless steel.. style over function :rolleyes:
After four passes with the de-spined Gem blade in the OneBlade I have only one word to say: Spectacular! The shave is effortless and so thorough that I might have to skip a shave tomorrow for lack of beard. Alum block and ASL gave a little sting, but not much.
I think I'll have a couple more shaves with the same Gem blade to see if it lasts for a couple of days. If it does there might be a “WTT Feather WS-D1S for OneBlade” thread on BST :p:p

As I've got more than 100 Gem blades, I might de-spine some and add them to the pass around if the is interest. I think Billy might have one or two de-spined Gems already ;) - is anyone else interested?
 
I found it very difficult to get a second shave out of an FHS too. It's a bummer alright on an otherwise incredible piece of kit...

Fantastic news though on the de-spined GEM. I'm looking forward to seeing if you can get it to last for, say, two shaves in the OneBlade Andreas!
 
Nico1970 said:
I found it very difficult to get a second shave out of an FHS too. It's a bummer alright on an otherwise incredible piece of kit...

Fantastic news though on the de-spined GEM. I'm looking forward to seeing if you can get it to last for, say, two shaves in the OneBlade Andreas!
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Another true YMMV. I get easily 3-4 shaves per blade. I do however only two passes/shave (which leaves me very clean shaven).
 
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