Start of a new work week, so it’s getting up at 0200hrs to get ready for work. Face lathered, had a great shave, meaning the usual true glass BBS. | Gotta chase that true “I keep touching myself” BBS.
Tom Ford’s scents are kinda hit and miss. Some like Grey Vetiver are really, really good, while other more niche stuff like Black Orchid, well, lets say, those are kinda of an acquired taste with a dash of salt.
WTF’s Grey’s Vetiver is a very good reproduction of the Tom Ford’s scent that it gets its name from.
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy Dual Band Manchurian Badger by Frank Shaving
Going full monty on the Old Spice scent today. And its AWESOME!
Using the Ascension, its at the moment the head of my “Holy Trinity” of shavers (Ascension, Rockwell 6S, Tatara Masamune) giving that perfect true glass “I keep touching myself” BBS shave while not causing any discomfort or irritation.
With this particular blade which is smooth but mid range in sharpness, buffing is needed to get that BBS and the Ascension is the King of buffing razors. Feeling and smelling fantastic is an effing great start to the day!
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy G4 Synthetic by Frank Shaving
Funny how a name and a trick with scent notes can make you think of cold prestine virginal snow melted water when you smell essentially blackcurrants and green tea. Love WSP’s rendition as it is as spot on as my memory is able to remember how it smelt like.
Now Al Haramain’s L’Aventure Blanche is NOT an exact clone, instead they substituted iris, jasmine and rose notes (most obvious) with a hint of lemon and lavender that for all intents and purposes made it a better, smoother (in my opinion) version Creed’s Silver Mountain Water.
The Masamune as always, made this morning’s shave effortless and extremely comfortable and with a little extra cleanup, true glass BBS. I have the Nodachi Top Cap on the way, and with it to bring the blade exposure of the Masamune to true neutral from neg -0.13, should give the blade better contact against the skin, still remain smooth and requires less clean up. We’ll see.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy Dual Band Manchurian Badger by Frank Shaving
Pre-Shave : Shower
Soap : WSP’s Matterhorn
Razor : Tatara Masamune w/Rockwell Blade (1)
Post Shave : WSP’s Matterhorn Aftershave Splash and Balm
Others : Al Haramain’s L’Aventure Blanche (Creed Silver Mountain Water clone)
Model T stored till the replacement part arrives and dugged out the 6S. Shaving with it on the R3 plate I am quickly reminded just how good this razor is. Very smooth, just right blade feel, extremely comfortable and even with the Rockwell blade which isn’t the sharpest on the block still able to take off everything for a glass BBS shave.
And WSP’s soaps really should get more love by more people. Scent and performance is so freaking awesome!
Feeling great, smelling great, ready to start the day!
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy Dual Band Manchurian Badger by Frank Shaving
Pre-Shave : Shower
Soap : WSP’s Gaelic Tweed
Razor : Rockwell 6S-R3 w/Rockwell Blade (2)
Post Shave : WSP’s Gaelic Tweed Aftershave Splash and Balm
Others : Al Haramain’s L’Aventure Knight (Green Irish Tweed Clone)
0530hrs and it’s a cold morning, well for Asia, think it rained during the night , so scuttle time! (rare event that I actually use hot water instead of ice in the scuttle) and thought I might as well make this a PAA shave, including digging out PAA’s Atomic Rocket brush.
Great scent. Fantastic shave. Between the Ascension and the Masamune, I don’t feel the urge to pick up the Model T. Well I did for last evening’s shave, setting it to 1, wasn’t a BBS, didn’t felt like chasing BBS with it, just wanted to clean up and even at setting 1 the blade felt way too much like a shavette.
Rockwell really fucked up with the Model T. And yes, several days and still no response to the email I sent. That is terrible customer service from Rockwell.
Went to their site and tried chatting with a CS via online chat. Finally got a response and they will be sending me a replacement T bar. Apparently someone in management was drafting a reply but never got around to sending a reply. Since it is very possible that mine is borked they promised that it will fix the blade Alignment and extreme blade exposure feel. We’ll see.
And finally, I am just going to say one thing that anyone who has used Atomic Bay Rum will understand. “THE BURN! THE BURN!!! WHOOOOOO!”
Going to game a bit till time to go to the doctors. Doc wants to see me and take more blood for tests. Can’t eat till that is done due needing to fast. Bah! I want my bacon.
The problem when you have too many (or as I keep telling my wife, “No such thing as too many soaps!”) great soaps is that you can take awhile to get around to using all of them. Been awhile since I used Soap Commander.
Awesome, fanfuckingtastic performance.
Coupled with PAA’s Ascension with a Feather Blade (best buffing razor ever) and I got a perfect, no cuts, no nicks, no weeper, no irritation, true glass “I keep touching myself” BBS shave.
Finishing with the Clubman Pinaud’s Brandy spice and Soap Commander’s Ambition aftershave balm was just icing on the cake. Brandy Spice’s scent plays very nicely with Ambition’s light sandalwood, verbena and citrus scent, loving it!
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy G4 Synthetic by Frank Shaving
Praise John Frum! Amazing, awesome musk sandalwood scent.
Still taking a break from the Model T. Will go back to it after this, technique, care and familiarity, or that is what I tell myself is what one needs to get perfect shaves with a DE Razor, and I’ll need to develop all the above with that Razor.
The Ascension on the other hand, perfect true glass BBS shave easy. Still by far my favorite weapon of choice.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy G4 Synthetic by Frank Shaving
After much hype, a good many “perfect 5 stars” recommendations, and a crazy long wait, I finally received mine and was initially really happy to be able to pack up my 6S and perhaps store it to hand it down to one of my sons in the future. The reality is, if you loved your Rockwell 6C/S, this isn’t anywhere as good as, nor even close to the performance of the Rockwell 6C/S and if you own a 6C/S, hang on to them.
THE CONs : As of time of writing I have a digital caliper on the way but until then I will not have any exact measurements. I will update this post with the actual values when I am able to.
Positive Blade Exposure vs Neutral Blade exposure vs negative blade exposure.
From Badger and bladeWithout BladeWith Blade, notice the thread displacement.
Above pictures are not the most scientific of measurements (I’ll update when I get my calipers) but it does show that the Model T is a blade positive exposure razor.
The Rockwell Model T has a significant positive blade exposure compared to the 6C/S which is set to neutral. One of the reasons why the 6C/S is loved by myself is that the blade geometry whether you use a R1 plate or a R6 plate is neutral. That is to say given a +/-0.02mm variation, the blade isn’t usually sticking out nor is it inwards of your shave plane. This leads to a very smooth shaves while still having the blade set to have good contact against the skin to guillotine growth off.
I can only guess why Rockwell decided to go positive exposure instead of remaining neutral but this drastically changed how the razor behaved.
By itself it would not be so bad, however there is another flaw in the Model T that can catch even an experienced shaver unawares, especially when they are used to the perfect blade set up of the 6C/S and cause a significantly bad shave.
Blade alignment and balance. As you can see from the picture, one side has significantly more blade exposed than the other. I’d expect this from a made in China $10-20 razor, not in from $150 razor. While this is not 100% of the time, it has occurred often enough that I have to reset the blade positioning by opening and closing the silo till it sets properly in almost every other shave.
You can imagine the shave you get if you didn’t pay attention, while using a very sharp blade (Feathers for example) with an already blade positive exposure geometry on the side that has a significant part of the blade sticking out. And I am now wondering how many who have already commented on the very aggressive shave of the Model T might have very well shaved with a side that had a little too much blade or if they had noticed this problem at all. I don’t think I have seen it mentioned before, because I do believe like myself, we expected the Model T to not have such an issue.
The Model T hasn’t been one to give me “comfortable” shaves, well maybe if I set it permanently at ” 1 ” and leave it there, but that would defeat the purpose of buying an adjustable. While it does give me perfect BBS for all my shaves so far, care is needed and even so, I did nick myself once, with the odd weeper now and then. This is far from the almost perfect record my 6S had for not nicking me or causing weepers at all. I had hoped to retire the 6S but it seems that the Model T will be the one packed up instead.
The other thing that annoyed me was the lack of branding on the Model T. At the very least I was expecting a logo somewhere but there is nothing to indicate that this is in fact a “Rockwell” product. Probably to cut cost and production time and it is a rather minor thing but still, this isn’t a “cheap” (probably OEMed by Weishi / Baili) razor.
To be fair, there are a number of Pros. Well made adjuster, good heft and feel (even though I did wished it to have been a little heavier) good silo mechanism sans the blade setting issue. If it had set the blade perfectly every time, I’d definitely score it higher at 4 or 4.5 but as such, if you were to be honest, there is no way that this razor should have scored so many perfect 5 stars reviews given its price and final product quality. It is as if those people only used the razor once, had a good shave and or because of confirmation bias, decided to validate their purchase.
Saving the best for last, if it is true that Proraso is going to discontinue the Siingle Edge Line of soaps and support software, best to get some while you can. This scent is the best of Proraso so far, at least for me. Other then Proraso Green, this is my favourite Proraso and I will miss it if it’s no longer available.
Going with the really sharp blades in the Model T and setting it to mild setting after yesterday’s two shaves with BiCs is performing as expected. While I don’t really like the positive blade exposure, I can work with it and with a little care, the sharp and mild setting just takes anything and everything off the face with barely any effort. The corked feather ran really smooth and like a broken record, the Model T gave yet another true glass “I keep touching myself” BBS shave.
But, for the first time in months, I got a nick this time. Was going up ATG just under the left cheek and the blade caught and bit. My fault though, I should have stretched the skin more.
If I keep to the sharper blades, I don’t foresee the need to go higher then setting 3 and most times just keep it at 2 and in between. Each shave needs a light touch but so far every shave has been a perfect BBS.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy G4 Synthetic by Frank Shaving
Pre-Shave : Shower , Proraso Wood and Spice Pre-Shave
Steve's Wet Shaving in Singapore 