Your reaction matches that of Doc Ezlovan when I was describing how my first Stoylin soap, Barbershop,was coming to an end. Green bottom, which I called a feetball field, and the fans all over the stadium .

Thanks, Jim! It’s pretty much always the same pic! I guess creativity isn’t my strong suit of clothes!

Thank you, Jason! I am lucky! I will probably go no shave tomorrow so I don't press it too much.

Thank you, Tim! It is good stuff!

You are most definitely right about that, Joe!

Oye! It's difficult being stupid, but I take it a day at a time, Paul Hershel Nigel Jeff

"Wheeeeennnn I look into her eyes
She goes with me to a blossom bush
It ain't your business what happened then..
"I'm pickin up Good Vibrations....(ahhh, you know the rest)"

Y'know, when I looked at the website for Helper, Utah, a woman said right into the camera "That's the Piggly on the right"!

Thank you, Jim!

@wristwatchb , I didn't find your original post but it sounds like things went real well for Kathy.

So far, so good, Paul. Thank you, my friend.

thank you Andrew..its fun to use..

”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

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…




As you can see, the 77-a blades are considerably longer than your standard DE blade...



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!

thank you Jim.they don't come up for sale very often.

fine shaves Tim.have a great weekend..

A very nice shave all things considered. Hopefully you can get the kinks worked out.

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Not everyone needs wheels.

Here are a couple of @jluc 's though......

Thank you Bill & Patrick.

Wow. Just freaking wow. Matching taken to the extreme. The brush looks fantastic Jim.

Thanks, Clint!

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