My first shave with the Timeless razor from an ATG pass around and I thought I would start with the scalloped top cap and scalloped 0.68 baseplate. I was slightly apprehensive about the mildness of this plate as suggested by
@Nishy and obviously
@Timelessrazor themselves. However I only had a couple of days growth so I thought it would be OK.
I prepped with some Argan oil, a good face rub/mini massage and moved onto the soap.
I am currently trying out a few different soaps from the ATG newbie pass around. Last night it was the turn of Nanny's Silly Soap (NSS) - English Rose. The scent of this from the sample pot is subtle, but pleasant. When lathering it strengthens in scent, but not by much and is enjoyable. Having taken a reasonable amount from the sample pot into the mug, I expected to be getting quite a bit of lather, but was disappointed. I went at it for a decent stretch of time, but couldn't get the sort of results I'd get from other soaps. May just be me, but the performance of this let's it down in my opinion.
Back to the razor, using the smaller of the two handles and a fresh Astra SP blade I started on my first pass and very quickly realised this is not the baseplate for me. The razor feels good in the hand, with a reassuring weight and the angle is easy to find, but this baseplate is too mild for me. I finished my first pass and was still a little patchy in places and those areas that weren't patchy were going to require at least two more passes and I'm usually a two pass and done man and do not chase BBS.
Second pass XTG on my face and my final pass on my neck as I don't like to take risks with that area. Results a little better after this pass, but still not great with areas still visibly patchy. So third pass was a mix of XTG and ATG and this left me with a decent result but nothing to write home about.
In fairness, this is my first foray back into DE shaving having used SEs and dipping my toe in SR shaving. The Clog-Pruf is the most recent of these that I'm comparing to and comparatively the Clog-Pruf had me smoother, with a better finish, in quicker time.
I finished off with some Thayers Witch Hazel Aloe Vera and some Speick AB followed that.
Not the most satisfying shave in all honesty, but I'm looking forward to what the 0.95 baseplates bring and also the longer handle. Most certainly not making my mind up on this razor having only used a baseplate I was worried about the mildness of in the first place!
An observation on this base plate; I take apart my razors after every shave to give them a thorough clean, before taking them apart they get a good rinse under running water. Upon taking apart I realised that some lather/whisker mix had clogged up the front two baseplate flow through holes (only way I can think of describing this area). Not a massive problem for me as like I say, I take apart my razors every shave, but for those of you that leave the blade in, this could be something to watch out for. I don't envisage this problem with the 0.95 baseplates as the area for the lather to flow through is larger (although the solid bar may also have this problem).
So those are my first impressions. 0.68 not for me, it's back in the box, but I'm looking forward to trying the 0.95. I'll be going for the 0.95 scalloped tomorrow.
- Timeless 0.68 scalloped with 85mm handle and scalloped top cap
- Astra SP (0)
- Omega 49 Pro
- Argan oil
- NSS English Rose
- Thayers WH Aloe
- Speick AB
