Razor: Ikon SBS w/ RazoRock Halo Handle
Blade: Gillette Wilkinson Sword
Brush: Wild West Brushworks Bobcat Synthetic
Soap: Tcheon Fung Sing Tabacco Verde
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl
No sample Saturday today. I intended to, that was this plan this morning. I did some nice photos, did my prep and lathered one up. Sadly, another case of sample death. This particular sample had 0 scent both off the sample or lathered. As such, I just didn’t feel like posting it. Undeterred, this evening when I got home from the gym I hit the showers and felt like an evening shave was in the cards. Why the heck not eah? Especially when I have a few new things to show off.
First off… the brush. I got this new brush on Etsy from Wild West Brushworks. I have been following them for a while and they make some fantastic looking brushes. When I saw this beauty, I had to have it. I placed the order, picked the knot and then waited by the mailbox. This arrived yesterday. First impressions were both amazed and annoyed. I screwed up. I picked the wrong knot. Totally my fault but I ended up with the Bobcat knot vs the Bulls-eye knot I intended. I have no experience with either but thought the bulls-eye knot just looked the part. Luckily, this brush is still a stunner and I quickly got over that. The bobcat knot is very dense, has a lot of backbone, but it is suitably soft as well. I do wish the loft was set a bit higher as they splay isn’t as easy to come by given the backbone and density. Small thing I know. This will sure make some beauty SOTD picks. I’ll see how the performance grows on me.
The second addition was this new razor head/handle combo. This is my first go with an Ikon product. This razor head is a strange beast. I saw it and thought ‘Hammer of Thor’. The end cap goes over the side of the head which adds to the size. It also is an interesting combo of shaves. There is an open comb and a closed comb side of the plate AND the plate is flip-able for 2 different levels of aggression. So really you have 4 difference shaving levels to work with. Another oddity, the closed comb is more aggressive than the open comb, which is generally the opposite. It is a perplexing piece of hardware. But how does it shave? Well first off, the RazoRock Halo handle looks nice but doesn’t pair well. The head is so heavy it just throws the balance way out. I heavier handle is what this calls for. Then, there aren’t any great markings so you don’t have a clear idea on which side is the aggressive one. AND the head of huge to it is strange to navigate with. Given all those negatives, I did get a really nice shave. I did the first pass with the aggressive plate (Target side down) and the closed comb. Subsequent passes were with the open comb. It is nice to be able to dial down the aggression on the second and third pass. So given all the oddities and negatives on this razor, yet the smooth shave I got, the jury is still out on this one.
What the jury isn’t out on is this soap. Tcheon Fung Sing makes a really nice mid firm shave soap. Price point is great. The scent on this is Green Tobacco, mid strong. It is a nice rich barbershop vibe to my nose. I really liked it. It loads and lathers very easily, and gives good slickness (lathered and residual) and a nice post shave. Nothing elite, but still quite good, especially at a fantastic price point. I’ll need to keep my eye out for a matching splash for this as I really liked this versatile scent.
So there you have it, a quick Saturday evening shave. Now off to bed 🙂 Have a great night folks.
