Happy Anniversary January!!
January 17
Mostly Shavettes - China Day!!!
Razor - Junjie
Blade - Tian Fu (1)
Soap - Route 66 Rum Runner
Brush - Semogue 620
Post - Alum
You'll notice I didn't put a picture of the blade wrapper in my gear lineup as I usually do. A couple of reasons. First of all, I can't find one online that is easy to copy and use, and taking a picture of the one I have and editing it just seems like a lot of trouble. Second, why bother when this blade is a total piece of carbon crap that, while no worse than the Tiger or Flying Eagle, is certainly not any better either. I included it in my setup photo I posted a bit earlier if you are curious. I found no trace of the thing anywhere on Google as far as images or opportunities to buy it, which is a good thing.
@John Ruschmeyer gifted this razor and blade to me at the cost of an entire American dollar. He grossly overpaid. It is this kind of razor/blade combo that I absolutely hate seeing pop up in the dollar stores and other places. Imagine a newbie, someone who is considering getting off of the cart treadmill, who picks something like this up because it's cheap. They have no idea what a razor should be, and no idea of how many really good to great blades there are. They assume because it's a packaged item they work like they should. And, if they survive more than two strokes, they will never pick up a DE again. Ruined all because of cheap Chinese crap. But, I digress. How did it actually shave, you ask?
The razor and blade together are absolutely a disaster. Just like every other Chinese blade that doesn't have Gillette or Schick on it, you couldn't cut butter with it if you heated it in an oven. Drag....drag some more.......drag even more.......and get near zero reduction for your trouble. I did manage to get a small amount of reduction on my right cheek by repeatedly going over the same small area over and over. I think the hair just fell out because it got annoyed. So, the blade goes into the blade bank and never to be seen again.
So, after trying to shave the right side with the blade and razor, it was time to put in a Sharp Star and see what it could do. I noticed two things when I loaded it. First of all, the aggressive gap with the Tian Fu was less aggressive. Softer stainless than the thick carbon blade created a better bend. Second, the ripple in the blade was less noticeable from the bad finish on the top cap. The greater bend apparently helped even out the blade. The rest of the shave was actually quite good after that, as long as I stayed on the cap. The razor itself isn't defective enough to prevent Technique from overcoming it. The blade was way past that defective point.
Final result - DFS with alum pretty hot on the right side where the Tian Fu did its worst but quiet the rest of the way. For a buck this could be a travel or camping razor as long as you put a real blade in it. Russian steel tamed it without a problem.
I have no clue why they have so much trouble making usable blades in China - unless they use the same quality materials they do in their cars.
Click to expand...