”June 12--Just the Basics June
Shavette Shave #92
Gear
- Razor: Strong Leopard 77-A shavette
- Blade: Cloud 77-A (1)
- Brush: JOmega Boar
- Soap: Stirling Texas on Fire
- Menthol: Stirling Frost Drops
- AS: Clubman Original (1 Frost Drop added)
- Balm: Stirling Glacial Unscented
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The Shave
Okay, I need to come clean. Three weeks into the lockdown, in a moment of weakness, I bought a shavette from China. Just two months prior I got rid of all my GEM razors because I wanted to simplify my life, and I didn’t want multiple blade platforms. Since I couldn’t find a single GEM style shavette that meant my 1912 and MMOC got shipped off to a new home.
And then I saw the Strong Leopard 77-A--a nearly straight-sized shavette--and I made the 12 dollar purchase without even thinking. Then settled down for the month-long wait. 2 months later it hadn’t showed up, tracking showed it sitting in a sorting center for at least a month, and probably would continue to until the end of days. And I was kind of glad; those 77-a style blades were going to be a hassle to keep re-ordering. This was fate’s way of saying, “Stick to your guns, stupid!”
Then this showed up in my mailbox yesterday…
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As you can see, the 77-a blades are considerably longer than your standard DE blade...
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But how does it shave? After pass #1 (WTG), I rinsed and did a quick assessment; for the most part it was decent, but I was not impressed with how much stubble remained on the chin.
Pass #2 (XTG) was a bit better, but still a bit stubble-ier than I like to see after 2 passes.
Pass #3 (ATG) went a lot better, but my chin was still giving me fits--touch-ups required. Now, after touching up, I’m pleased with the shave. Solidly between BBS and DFS, and no noticeable irritation. Nice, but hard-won, results. Too soon to put the verdict out on this shavette, but already I have identified some pros and cons…
Pros
- The blade size. I. Love. It. The 77-a style blade covers a lot of real estate and it’s easier to keep things flat and avoid catching a corner.
- Weight. It’s nice and heavy. The description says it’s stainless steel (looks almost like galvanized pipe), and even though the cheap, CHEAP plastic scales are crazy light, the Strong Leopard has a nice heft to it. I like it a lot
- Design. I really like the hinge design. Easy to load, and it allows the razor to take on the profile of an actual straight razor (half-hollow, perhaps). This looks and feels more like a straight razor than any other shavette I’ve used.
Cons
- Design. The swinging door that I like so much is held in place by a sliding hinge. Mine seemed very loose during the shave. In fact a few times during the shave, the clip came close to sliding off. The clip can easily be bent to make it tighter though.
- The clip can be easily bent. This probably means it can be unbent pretty easily and will require rebending over and over again. I can’t imagine you can do this forever--eventually it will break.
- QC. Quality control is not fantastic. The rivet holding the locking mechanism is very loose. This allows the slightest bit of play in the hinge, which allows for a bit of blade chatter. Because of this, I can’t tell if the blade just isn’t that sharp, or if too much play is keeping the blade from doing its thing. I’m going to have to take a hammer to the pin and see if I can tighten things up a bit. If I screw that up and break the rather cheap rivet, the whole thing becomes useless unless I can jury rig my own clipping mechanism--scary prospect.
All foibles aside, though, I really enjoyed shaving with the Strong Leopard, and I hope the poor cutting is resolved by tightening things up rather than being a characteristic of these particular Cloud 77-a blades. Now, off to the garage!
92 down, 8 to go!
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