The second of Tom's razors I chose to take for a spin (5 days ago but just getting around to posting about it) is the brass, adjustable TAR DE. The beast. The heavyweight. The King Kong Bundy (any 1980s WWF wrestling fans?) of DE razors!
If there ever was an adjustable razor that really brushed up next to the infinitely adjustable razor class, this one is it. It literally adjusts the angle and blade gap until it finally let's go of the last thread on the cap post. It goes from "Very mild." to "Where did my top lip disappear to?" And I just really love the very deep and art-deco look of the combs. They look like they scroll on and on and on forever. This is without any doubt a serious work of art. A beautiful razor.
In my previous post, I said I defaced this razor. Tom sent it to me with the numbers, dot indicator and guard and cap indicators painted white. As is my usual process when I finish shaving, I always dip my razors in rubbing alcohol to not only sterilize them but also help in evaporating any water that may be left inside and out of the razor. This, unfortunately, removed 99% of the white paint in the numbers, dot indicator and guard and cap indicators. Honestly I think it looks better now in its natural brass state, but that is not how it was sent to me and me being the steward of his razor, I felt bad about this defacing. Luckily for my ego, he was amused by this and assured me all was well and it's nothing to repaint everything that needed to be repainted.
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The accessories:
- New BIC DE blade
- Tabac Original Shaving Cream
- Simpson "Berkeley" best badger hair brush
- Suribachi bowl for making the lather
The shave:
The first thing you have to decide is where you are going to start the adjustment. Locked down tight or full tilt? And the crazy amount of adjustment in between? I locked it tight all the way down twisting the knob to the right, which put it at number 5 at the indicator dot? Yes, number 5. So then I turned the knob left until number 1 was at the indicator dot. This is where I began my shave. A couple of strokes in, there wasn't much blade feel. It was super mild. So I dialed the knob left some more, to number 6. Now we're getting some super smooth hair erasure! This is where I completed most of my WTG passes. Most. Curiosity lingers of course. To finish out my last two "lanes", I dialed the knob to the left some more and stopped at number 4. This is where the knob stops turning with resistance. At 4.5, the knob turns loosely. So I'm on 4 to finish my last two WTG passes, the first of which was hassle free and mowed down the hair like I was cutting down trees with a super high power military laser! The second and final WTG pass was cutting down trees until I got half way through the pass and it decided to cut down some of my flesh as well. Ouch! User error and I knew it before the "stop!" signal made it to my brain and then to my hand. My fault for thinking this wide open was a breeze and driving the razor like I was on the winter Olympics bobsled team instead of like I was on the Olympics curling team. Bleeding now under control, I tightened the knob right all the way down. Then left to number 5. This is the setting I finished all of my ATG passes and clean up with. When it was all over, I felt smoother than a wet dolphin! The brass TAR is IMHO the most efficient DE I've ever had the pleasure of using. The practically endless adjustability makes it the perfect razor for a 14-year old shaving beginner to a well seasoned, dare I say, straight razor user. The weight of it alone does all of the work and in fact, I found myself trying to be very light-handed with it - except at the point I cut myself. That was a moment where negative pressure would have been warranted.
Next review will be for Tom's 3D printed plastic TNNSER GEM-style SE razor. Stay tuned!
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