Some time ago I was kindly PIFed an iKon ShaveCraft #102 Slant razor by @Morman Bridge. Now it is time to review it! I have never heard anyone complain about the build quality of an iKon razor, and I got nothing to complain about this one either. No manual blade alignment is needed and the coating is very smooth. My personal preference seem to be razors with small gaps. I do not mind blade exposure, but the gap should for me be as small as possible. This is why I got interested in SC #102. It got a very small gap. At the same time it was also my fear. Small gaps are more prone to clog. Because of this I have mostly been using open combs. It had been a very long time since I used any safety bar razor. So how does this razor perform? I would say that as long as your stubble is shorter than the gap of the razor, it works well. A two pass shave, first WTG and the ATG, gives easily a BBS for the easy to shave areas and almost BBS on the difficult areas (chin, under nose). Someone more skillful than me would probably get BBS everywhere. With longer stubble the performance drops. I wonder why they put those clogging combs inside of the head? The gap is already so small. The shave itself is very smooth and the coating of the razor gives an extra smooth feeling to the shave. Somehow it glides better than other razors. I find this razor to be in good balance between closeness of shave and smoothness. The slant function comes from that the head is tilted. In my opinion it is better than torqued blades as with a tilted head each side of the razor is a mirror of the other side. For a torqued blade slant, both sides are identical rather than mirrored. This makes shaving the jaw bone easier. Straight up->down strokes is possible. My conclusion is that this razor works well for daily shaving. This is not a razor for anyone wanting to shave just a couple of times a week. This razor has owned itself a place in my den as a razor to grab for easy quick shaves.
Nice write up. I love my 102 and agree with your assessment. The 102 is mild but very efficient. It always gives me a really comfortable, close shave. HERM
Great job!! The iKon SC102 is a superb razor, you nailed it on being a daily razor. I also found that the blade gap was not an issue at all with clogging.
Today I came to think about one thing I have not thought about earlier. When shaving with my beloved R41, the shave lasts longer. There is no 5 o'clock shade at 5 o'clock. However, when the stubble appears it is almost deadly sharp. A sandpaper is smooth comparing to the stubble appearing on my chin. When shaving in the morning to BBS with #102, I get a true 5 o'clock shade, but even the next morning the stubble is still feeling a lot smoother than from R41. I wonder why?
