So my not exactly technical thoughts on the Tatara Masamune razor.
Firstly, I really am a little undecided on the way it looks. It's clearly manufactured to a very high standard. But I think I may be a bit of a traditionalist as far as DE razors are concerned. My Mrs, on the other hand, thinks it's the nicest looking razor she has seen.
It definately feels lovely in the hand. Perfectly weighted and very comfortable with excellent grip.
I had 5 shaves in total, 3 with the closed comb, and 2 with the open comb. The first 2 shaves were leisurely 3 pass weekend efforts with the closed comb using a Polsilver SI Blade. These left me BB smooth and were very comfortable. The following 3 shaves were on weekday mornings when I tend to adopt a 2 pass system. The first, again using the cc and a Polsilver, was very smooth, but I found I was left requiring some considerable touch-ups to achieve a close shave. As a comparison, I used a Fatboy on setting 7 for my next shave, again with a Polsilver, and achieved very nearly BB smooth with 2 very comfortable passes. So on to the closed comb. I was hoping that perhaps it would be a little more efficient than the cc. But 2 passes left me with a fair bit of (grey) stubble to clean up around the goatee area of my chin. It was much the same result when using a Nacet blade.
So in conclusion, this is a very nice razor, and I enjoyed using it. But I have other razors that are just as smooth in use, and are more efficient. I have seen that some of you have noted that it performs extremely well with a feather blade. But I didn't have any so couldn't put that theory to the test. For me then, a good razor for occasional weekend use.
Many thanks to
@Paul for making the razor available. And thanks
@riverrun for organising the pass around.
Ps. I planned to post the razor to
@ajc347 today but have been snowed in on the London/Essex border. So hopefully will post tomorrow. Fingers crossed.