Okay, I'm going to be a shill, sort of. But mind you, I didn't get paid, and moreover, paid for the product in turn, and got stuck waiting for more than two weeks before they finally delivered it.
I rocked a ``Duck Saves Earth'' double edged razor with bamboo handle since... a damn long time ago. A quick check showed that a company with that name in SIN city lived and died within 2018. It looks something like this. And a quick search yielding more suggests that it is, in reality, an OEM product with the option to engrave whatever company's name into the handle.
And mine was ``Duck Saves Earth''.
Don't get me wrong---it was a damn good razor. It had mass, it lasted me a stupid amount of time, but it had one flaw that showed up recently---the chrome plating was starting to flake off, especially the part nearest the blade edge.
Mind you, it hadn't actually completely flaked off yet, but the signs were there.
And meanwhile, some of the content creators I follow on YouTube (like Xyla Foxlin, Veritasium, and The Slow Mo Guys) were talking about Henson Shaving. The gimmick of Henson Shaving's razors was how it was precision machined out of Aluminium, and thus had tighter tolerances. The angles of attack were also fine tuned to reduce the amount of razor burn.
They also had a titanium version, which cost ten times what I paid for back when I got my ``Duck Saves Earth'' razor at a pop-up shop in the atrium of Fusionpolis back in the day (SGD400 versus SGD40, in case the prices changed).
``MT, why?''
Why not? Unlike then, when I was just shaving off the chin fur once every other day, I am actually doing full head shaves now because male pattern baldness with receding hairline is a bitch. I read their prospectus---the machined titanium seemed like a great idea to avoid the kinds of spalling that I was seeing with my current razor. I could go with the machined aluminium, but titanium is the harder material that is also denser than aluminium for the same machined shape [of a razor]. That second factor is important for a double-edge razor because you don't really want to be ``dragging'' or ``pressing'' the damn blade into the skin just so that it can cut the hair---the mass of the razor drives the blade at a more controlled manner, thus leaving the hand wielding it to merely guide its movements as opposed to applying inconsistent forces.
Besides, it's bloody titanium. I have a titanium spork, a titanium straw, a titanium french coffee press, and my spectacle frames are also titanium. Why not my razor too?
The purchase was straightforward---I used Xyla's affiliate code for the free 100 blades (but you can easily get others---just watch their videos and they can hook you up, though be warned that they aren't stackable), grabbed the medium ``aggression'' of the Ti22 razor, and splurged extra for the machined aluminium stand (why is it not made of titanium?).
It took 24 days before my order was delivered. That was long, but support was responsive and informative when I contacted them to check in on things. What I didn't like was the automated ``newsletters''/advertising that were sent out to me---they had the tone of ``hey, now that you've gotten your razor, here's how to take care, and also maybe refer friends?'', which was inappropriate because (1) I didn't have my razor yet, and (2) damn shipping issues. Eventually that was resolved by the fulfilling partner (there were some stock issues, as well as other unmentioned stuff that I don't know nor do I need to know), and my order reached me today.
I switched over the new-ish blade from my old razor to the Ti22 medium, and proceeded with a test whiskers shave.
It felt... different. The angle was definitely different from what I was used to, and I think the best way to describe it is that it feels like a cartridge razor, without actually being in a cartridge. The medium aggression was much milder than what I was used to, which was fine since I could just make more smaller passes with higher precision that reduced irritation on my skin as compared to the kind of crazy things that I was doing with my other razor. Once I felt comfortable, I extended it to do my full head shave.
The angle though... it needed some getting used to. The biting point was quite obvious---the angle is correct when you can feel the blade gently biting into the hair, as though it was on the verge of getting caught, only to effortlessly slice it down. I felt more fearless wielding the Ti22 medium compared to my regular razor, even using my non-dominant hand on some other parts of my head. I used to have trouble with the really thin Feather brand blades, but now I suspect that I can probably get away with that on the Ti22 medium due to how mild it was compared to the previous razors.
Yes, that's a plural---I have another razor prior to the ``Duck Saves Earth'' one. I'm too lazy to bring it out, but it is smaller, and bought from one of the travelling night markets. That's my first double-edged razor, and I didn't like it because it did not have enough mass, and its handle was a bit on the short side. But it was portable as hell though, and I digress.
So, Ti22 medium from Henson Shaving. I did say I was going to shill, even though I'm not paid for it, and have to pay for it myself. It has not disappointed me (and not because I paid a lot of money), and I can see myself using it for a very very long time.
Till the next update then.
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