PLANofMan bullied me into buying an Italian Focus R-28 Shavette and it arrived today (I had to blame SOMEONE!). After carefully unboxing it like a 6 year-0ld on Christmas morning (while repeating "Boy-o-boy!" over and over), I headed to my master bathroom (aka "The Shave Den") to try it out. I carefully assembled all of the necessary things... shavette, a blade to snap in half and install, band-aids, tourniquet, Quick-Clot, Semogue badger brush, Viking Revolution soap puck, and a bowl to lather in. Then, as a precautionary measure, I set out a styptic pencil and my phone (pre-programmed to dial 911 on "one touch"). I was ready! I should have checked out some YouTube videos to figure out how to do it, but I'm impatient sometimes. I know there's a special grip to use and all that jazz. I decided to figure it out as I went along instead. After all, I've seen A LOT of old cowboy movies, so figured I could fake it. Snapping and installing the Wilkinson (India) blade was no problem, and installing it was a breeze, too. After prepping and lathering up, I took my first swipe... Surprisingly, it wasn't difficult at all! My first few strokes (with much trepidation) shaved close and smoothly. Hmm... this is easier than I'd imagined, thought I. I ended up using about a zillion different grips on the razor for different angles on my face, and they all seemed to work fine. After doing the sides of my boyish yet manly face, I checked my work. No nicks, no cuts, no weepers, and a decent shave! Not sure whether to tackle my chin and upper lip, I pondered hard before taking the plunge. I made lots of faces while stretching skin this way and that to get flat surfaces to shave, but I took my time (a LOT of time) and went slowly. Finished up my upper lip and chin with no problems, nicks, or cuts. After an hour or so, I was rubbing my face in contemplation, and found a few little spots that could have used buffing and fluffing, but other than that, the shavette did a pretty good job! In the end, I'd successfully acquired a decent shavette (thanks to PLANofMAN's sage counsel) and picked up a new avenue of this shaving hobby to explore! Fun! If anybody is teetering on the brink of trying a SE type razor, I'd say "Go For It!" - Bax
I just survived my first *full* shave with a Rolls Razor. There is always something new to learn in this hobby, and new and old razors to explore. The last guy I coached through the shavette route spent way more money, ignored my advice, and wound up not enjoying the experience at all. I think once he has been wet shaving for longer than a month, he might change his mind eventually. I'm glad my advice helped, and I'm glad you enjoy the razor. Also, if you want to 'tag' a forum user, putting an '@' in front of thier username, example: @Bax it will send a notification to their alerts tab. That works on most forums, BTW. Had me in the first half, not gonna lie. I was expecting a bloodbath after reading that. Edit: anyone curious about the advice I gave him regarding razor choice? In summary, "I don't like DE shavettes, I don't trust DE shavettes, any longer bladed shavette is an improvement over a DE shavette, but if you had to have a good affordable DE shavette, the Italians never stopped using or making them and seem to have figured out how to do a decent DE shavette, and I've never read or heard anything bad about the Focus R-28, and there's no faults that I can see in the design, other than it's made for DE blades." Quite the glowing recommendation indeed. I might have to try a Focus one of these days.
2nd shave with the Focus R-28 today. I learned something important enough to share: it LIKES the bent bits left over when you break the blade! This morning I used a Leatherman tool (pliers) to flatten the bent-up bits that were left on each end of the blade when I snapped it in half. The Leatherman made it nice and flat. Lo and behold (he said, Biblically), the latch-portion of the spine moved while I was shifting my grip as I shaved.... so I had to re-seat the blade and latch it shut again. It happened a few times; it simply wasn't being held tightly enough. I shouldn't have flattened the blade with pliers; bad move. The genius Italian designers took the teeny little bent bits into account when designing the clearances on this razor! Again I enjoyed a nick-free, cut-free, enjoyable frontier cowboy shaving experience. I still need to master the "fluff and buff," but that'll just take practice and experience. The spots on my manly chin that used to give me trouble when I started with a DE razor are giving me the same trouble with the shavette; I'll figure it out in time. I successfully cracked the code on shaving my philtrum (sounds naughty) this morning, so chin-topography can't be too difficult to master with a shavette. I'm still amazed and surprised at how easy it is to use this Focus R-28 shavette. The first couple of strokes I ever took with it were done with much trepidation, but after I realized I wasn't going to fillet my face, I had no problem at all! IMHO every old-timey shaving enthusiast ought to add a straight razor (or shavette) to their shave nook! Thanks again @PLANofMAN for the astute, learned, sagacious side-bar tips! - Bax
Yeah, they count on the 'spring' action of the bent edges to hold everything together tightly, turning a negative (bent edges) into a positive (spring tension). Pre-cut half DE blades don't work well in the Focus. If I recall, they even say something to that effect in the instruction literature. Tedalus and Irving Barber Co. have built in recesses for those tabs, and a few other designs go that route as well, some less successfully than others.
Instructions? Not sure it came with any. If it did, I tossed 'em with the packing litter. I always figured "instructions" were just the manufactures unproven suggestions anyway. Like the literature that comes with medications... takes too long to read, and the print's usually too small. So I sorta "wing it." Then I get to learn stuff everyone else already knows, and I think I've discovered it on my own! Life's more of an adventure that way... - Bax
My lucky streak ended. Shave #3 wasn't as uneventful as the first two. Got a nice 1/2" long gash in my cheek. It was owie and bled a lot. The first 2 times I shaved with this scary, intimidating weapon of doom, I had easy shaves with no nicks, cuts, or weepers. "This straight razor thang is TOO EASY," thought I. Familiarity breeds contempt, however. As I brought the razor to my cheek this morning, I ended up hacking myself with a too-vertical blade before I even started shaving! AARGH! While I looked in the mirror at my poor cut cheek as my bottom lip quivered, my thoughtful, compassionate bride of 20 years gently applied a Spongebob Squarepants band-aid and kissed my boo-boo to make me feel better. It worked! - Bax
Up to 10 shaves with the Focus R-28, and so far I've only had 3 nicks or cuts with the groovy little shavette. One of them was just scraping off the scab from the earlier cut, so I guess I shouldn't count that one, even though it bled a little. Ok, 2 boo-boos, 1 nick, 1 cut. I'm a third of the way to my 30 days of straight razor shaves. This is going pretty well so far! The Focus R-28 has been a fun new dimension of wet shaving to explore! Thus far, 100% of the living members of the Baxendale family who have tried the Focus R-28 shavette think it's the bee's knees! - Bax
What an odd way to phrase that. What did you do, kill the ones who didn't think it was the bee's knees? Congratulations on hitting 10 successful shaves! You are well on your way towards mastering a skill that less than 1% of people know.
As far I I know, I'm the only living member of the Baxendale family who's TRIED a shavette or straight razor. 100% of THAT pool is easy! Speaking of percentages... I saw some pretty nasty+looking bikers in a truck stop this weekend. One of them had a big "1%" tattoo on his shoulder. Now I know what it means! He must be a straight razor fan! Who knew? - Bax
Try a CJB KAMASORI. They are amazing, when I pick up a Shavette most of not all the time I’m reaching for that cause I know how unforgiving the DE Shavettes are
$25 by the way…. just like a feather, no need to spend $100+ when You don’t even know if you would like it plus it’s literally the same design
