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SOTD WEDNESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 2, 2020
DX Decision December’s second shave featured the Blackland Tradere, a truly groundbreaking razor for its time in 2012. According to Sharpologist, the original design, here replicated by Blackland Razor eight years later, represented one of the first CNC SS safety razor designs delivered with a unique serial number. The name “Tradere” in Latin means ‘to pass on posterity’ and the safety razor was designed by Richard Mason, a lawyer and wet shaving enthusiast from Reno Nevada. Only 1100 original razors featuring both safety bar and open comb designs were produced during the two years of operation of the original company and cost $169.99, a high price for the time.
The new razors are faithful to the original design, which is moderately efficient in the safety bar version here, but given the current plethora of US produced CNC designed razors these days - Timeless, Charcoal Goods, ATT, HC&S, and Carbon Shaving - to name a few, the Blackland Tradere is a dated design that has been improved on by its successors. So the question is, does it stay or does it go? The two pass (ATG, ATG) dome shave today was good, but not in the same category as my vintage Shake Sharps, Schick E Type or even my Valet Auto Strops. So there’s an excellent chance it will go on the auction site shortly.
The Feather DX delivered a bloodless three pass (WTG, ATG, XTG) velveteen mug shave. The highlight of this morning’s shave was the wonderful croap lather generated from A&E Kaizen. It was almost comparable to MWF, but in fairness is in a different lather making product category. According to pedants on one of the major Wet Shaving Forums, there are 4 categories of lather making product using a brush. Canned shave foams are naturally excluded as there is no brush involvement. They are, and I quote directly with added numbering and my comments in brackets:
“ 1) Soap: Hard not moldable, can sometime be melted and poured. ex. Tabac, Soap Commander, Williams, Col. Conk, Van Der Hagen, etc ‘[also easily grated]’
2) Stick: Comes in stick form to be used to build lather on face. Some sticks can be softer some harder, but these are all sticks. ex. Arko, La Toja, Palmolive, etc
3) Croap: A soap that can be molded easily, and has consistency thicker than a cream, but still classified as a soap due to ingredients used to create product. ex. Cella, Stirling, Proraso, etc
4) Cream: An item that comes in a tube or tub, but has the consistency similar to lotion or a balm. ex. Proraso (tube), Godrej, KMF, TOBS, etc. ”
Kaizen, according to this typology falls neatly into the Croap category. It generated a rich, lather that also provided excellent post shave skin feel. The only negative for me was the scent, which I killed with a healthy application of wintergreen oil. All in, the result was a marvelous shave with great post shave. I feel refreshed, clean, and smoothly velveteen.
RAZOR: Feather DX Wood Handle (Mug), Blackland Tradere (Dome)
BLADE: Feather
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Argan Oil
BRUSH: Alpha Shaving T-400 Tribute w/ 26mm Two Band Badger Ferrule
CROAP: A&E Kaizen (Scent killed w/ wintergreen oil)
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with Glyce Glycerin soap followed by Humphreys Lilac WH. Finished with Pre de Provence Bergamot & Thyme Aftershave Balm.
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