Project: "Shaving with Eight vintage SE Hoe razors in a row"

What's a hoe razor?
Popular around the end of the 1800's and up to, roughly, the 1930's the hoe/wedge razors is as close as you can get to shaving with a straight razor - without actually using one.
It seems like the French in particular took to this type of shaving but variations on these razors can be found in many corners of the wetshaving world.
It's argued that Samuel Henson (England) designed the very first 'hoe razor' as early as 1847.

There were a number of designs but some things are common across them all;
- they use a multi-use, removable wedge blade, and
- the blade is honed and stropped just like a straight razor.

*Note: The term 'wedge blade' is used as an umbrella term for all blades of this type even though I know it's a bit of a simplistic term.

These hoe razors introduced a number of inventions that later got adopted into other shaving tools such as the ability to adjust blade exposure and angle.

I personally find the design very visually appealing and some of these razors are near pieces of art. That, and these things were made to last!

My hoe razor 'collection'
I've happened to accumulate some really nice SE hoe razors over the year - eight of them to be precise:
Top row: L'Essor (France), Louis (France), Le Coq (France)
Middle row: Le Touriste (France), Le Coq (France), Roger (France)
Front row: Tip Top (France), Rapide (Germany)

As you can tell - mostly Frenchies.

The 'sad' thing is I have actually never shaved with one the way they were designed to be used - using an original 80+ year old blade that is honed and stropped.

That is - until today

For the next 12 days or so (I will skip a day here and there as I normally do) I will use one of these razors and see how well they perform and how feasible it would be, for me at least, to have one as my daily razor.

Thanks to @gssixgun / Glen I have a freshly honed and stropped wedge blade in my possession so there is no excuse not to - that I am really curious about how they will perform.



I haven't worked out the order of how I will go through the eight razors but I'm sure that will just resolve itself as I go along.

For those curious about this, if there are any of you, I'll be posting photos and shave reports here for each razor as I go along.
If anyone is interested I can also post a video showing how I strop the blade.

What's a comparison w/out a grid? Nothing I tell you!
So, here it is, I'll fill it out as I go along over these two weeks:

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And that's that.

More to follow

 

That's a lot of hoes. You are the master of the find...

 

Shave Report #1: L'Essor
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I was too curious about trying out the blade so I started out already today

One of the first SE Hoe razors I ever bought was the French L'Essor so I thought it was appropriate to start with that one - that and because I've been dying to try it out ever since I got it.
I think it's one of the most visually appealing razors I have and when you pick it up it has that immediate wow-factor in how it feels. Solid, heavy and just pure quality through and through.

I did a write-up of the razor some time ago here for anyone curious to learn a bit more about it - and see a few more pictures of course.

I had almost two days of growth so the blade and razor had a bit of work cut out for them (no pun intended).

Since the blade arrived honed and stropped I skipped the stropping part today - but will do so prior to next use.

The gear of choice for my SOTD:

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Put the Rex blade in that @gssixgun / Glen had honed and off to the den.

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Lathered up my now instant soap-favorite i Coloniali Mango and went to work....

Right away I could feel this was very, very different than shaving with a modern blade. There was something more 'solid' about it. Very much like a straight razor in a way.
I tried to put these pre-conceived notions out of my mind and just focus on how the shave it self felt.
It felt great.
Glen did an absolutely stellar work on bringing an edge to this blade. It felt 'buttery'.

There was quite a bit of audible feedback - just enough to let me know that I was angling the razor correctly or not.

I finished my first pass, WTG, and rinsed off my face. My cheeks were as smooth as when I used a straight razor - I actually audibly said "Wow"

One of the things I am not able to do yet with a straight razor is to shave around my mouth - with the hoe razor I felt more confident doing that even though in many ways I'm using a very similar blade to that on a straight razor. I think because of the familiarity of the shape of the razor and that it felt easier to maneuver.

I completed my second pass, ATG, and was extremely pleased with the result - a very, very close and smooth shave.

I had such a great time shaving today with this thing that I can't wait to strop the blade and plop it into the next razor!

Based on my one shave, if you have/get a chance to try one of these - do it!


Stay tuned for seven more razors........

 

Shave report #2 - Tip Top
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Next up to bat is the rather striking looking "Tip Top". Another French hoe razor. There's not a whole lot of information about this brand available.
If I had to guess I'd say around the 1930's as far as years of manufacturing goes.

It does have a very, very neat feature and that's a knob on the back of the head that allows you to adjust the blade exposure to be exactly the way you want.

Here's a short video trying to demonstrate that:


Video link for Tapatalk users

Anywho, since this was my second time using the freshly honed REX wedge blade I decided to strop it as well a bit prior to using it.
I promise I am not really this terrible at stropping normally (as you can see the spine is sometimes not flat against the strop on the return stroke, etc) but with having to shoot the video at the same time as stropping I had to secure the strop flat to a table (as opposed to the doorknob it's normally attached to). Excuses, excuses


Video link for Tapatalk users

I'm sure @gssixgun is crying inside seeing how his blade is abused here

Popped the blade into the razor and off to the den we go.



I fiddled around with the adjustment knob quite a bit - unsure of 'where to start' but settled on something that looked ok and had at it.
Ouch, turned out that my guesstimating was a tad off - felt way too aggressive. Dialed it back a turn or two and it felt a whole lot more comfortable.

The razor doesn't have that same fantastic feeling of solid quality that the L'Essor for instance have. Don't get me wrong it's a very sturdy razor but if I had to guess I'd say it would probably had been a less expensive option back in the days.

Completed one pass and once again - just like when I used the L'Essor - it strikes me how much this feels like shaving with a straight razor. The blade is a bit more 'forgiving' I think than a modern SE/DE blade.

I lather up some more of the fantastic i Coloniali Mango soap and complete a second pass (ATG).
End result: Pretty clean shaven. Some touch ups required on the neck and under the chin but very passable.

Between the two razors I've tried so far I'd say the L'Essor holds the lead but it's hard not to give a nod to the Tip Top and its blade adjusting mechanism.

 

Great write ups on these!

 

Cool old razors. Could they be used with SE blades?

 

Yeah many of them will take a regular, modern blade just fine but some will require you to sort 'shim' it with an old wedge blade.

Here's the L'Essor for instance loaded with modern SE GEM blade:

 

Cool, thanks. I thought it would. Seems to me those SE blades were the natural progression of the concept and would adapt to older razors.

 

@Cha-wing!! Thomas, any French hoe razors in particular I've missed out on in my little collection so far?

 

A very nice collection you got there ! You haven't missed out on anything in particular, but there are dozens of hoe razors out there, most of them are more ancient then DEs and less pricey (because of course, they are quite complicated to use).

Your "L'Essor" was manufactured by another French brand called "RADIUM". They also made some DEs and straights, but their Hoe was sold under several different names, including L'Essor and Le Grelot.

I believe Le Coq is the brand which made the most different models, although they all look similar there is always something different in every set I see

Here is a picture of my Leresche hoe :



WIlkinson made some very lovely ones as well, including 7 day sets I have also a very old "GEM" hoe in a beautiful box, but I have to clean it before showing it ^^

 

These are amazing, dare I say, antiques! You have a beautiful collection. I am curious if the beauty overshadows the results?

 

Thanks that was really interesting as I keep seeing these razors being referred to as L'Essor/Greolot so it's good to know where they all initially came from.

Gee thanks....now I really want a Leresche hoe razor....

 

I think you can say antiques for a few of these as, if memory serves me right;
- "Antique" is 100+ year old, and
- "Vintage" is to be used w/ a specific year such as "1964 vintage" - even though 'vintage' has commonly become a term for items 50-100 years old these days.

I hope I don't let their looks influence me - so far I've used two of them and have had really good shaves. We'll see how the other six works out for me

 

Every shave is an adventure!

 

You're welcome They are very scarce, but not expensive at all, usually

Radium razors are very easy to recognize, as they all have this funny "facets" handle.

 

And apparently a trip to France

 

I think across ALL of my eight razors pictured above I spent less than $150-175 in total. They don't command very much online and most sell for about $20 each or so.
Personally I think these are some amazing bargains.

 

Shave report #3 - Roger
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I was hoping I'd get lucky in that the one wedge blade I have would fit into all of these eight razors - unfortunately that wasn't the case for the French Roger razor.
The REX blade is just about 2mm wider than the original Roger blades (of which I have two).
See comparison photo below where you might be able to see that difference (REX to the left, Roger to the right).

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So I guess that means two things;
a) I can't include it in this little shave project, and
b) I'm going to have to get one of my two Roger blades honed.

Hopefully the remaining five razors will work better with this blade

 

Shave report #4 - Rapide​

After the no-go with the Roger I decided to take a gamble on the only German razor in the lot - the Rapide.

I did a bit of stropping - about 25 or so - and loaded the blade into the Rapide and it fit perfectly.



Loaded with the blade:


The Rapide has a visually rather intimidating 'grill' under the razor but during the shave it worked really well as sort of a lather catcher which I assume was the intent of the design.

Lathered up some i Coloniali Mango (apart from that I love this soap in general I've also found it to be really slick which helps with these shaves) and went to work.

Even though these razors all have a lot in common design wise I've also come to realize in a short amount of time that they are still very different beasts to actually shave with.
The Rapide has a much longer and skinnier handle than the L'Essor and Tip Top that I've shaved with so far and as I started my first pass (WTG) that made it self apparent in that the blade 'vibrated' more than with the other razors. I assume it's due to the pole-like structure and it did make the razor feel a bit less 'solid' when shaving and my strokes were a bit more choppy. I tried adjusting my grip to be closer to the head but that only made a small difference.

I re-lathered and went for the second pass (ATG). Exactly the same impressions as from the first pass - a bit more wobbly and choppy. If I wasn't comparing this razor to others in this way - w/in a very short timeframe - I don't think I would had noticed it much but as it was the difference was very noticeable.

I ended the second pass and even though I wasn't completely smooth it was still a very passable shave (well, I hope so as I have a thing downtown tonight)

Of the three razors (not counting the Roger of course) I'd say it was the one I favored the least but it was by no means a bad razor - just not as, subjectively, good.

On to the remaining four....
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Shave Report # 5 - Le Coq​

I actually got two Le Coq razors to try out. The one I picked for today's shave is the more 'substantial' of the two as far as weight goes.

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It has a very nice feel to it - heavy, solid and in that way it reminds me of how the L'Essor feels when you pick it up.

So, I loaded it up with the REX blade and was happy to see that the blade fit very securely into the head.

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Lathered up with some Fitjar Shea Pleasure shaving cream (first time using that btw and it performs as amazing as any other Fitjar soap I've tried in the past!) and went to work.

Stropped the blade 20-30 times on my Chicago strop.

First pass (WTG):
Immediately as I do my first downward strokes it has quite a bit of audible feedback. I was surprised that the head didn't feel as 'solid' against my face like the L'Essor (which felt as if the entire razor was one, single, solid rubust device). Luckily that feeling actually went away after a while as it was replaced by a very, very nice shaving experience.
The razor holds the blade at a very comfortable blade gap and angle and even though I had two days of growth to get through the razor did a stellar job mowing it down.

After the first pass I'd say I was 65% shaved. Some stubble left under the nose and on my throat.

Re-applied some delicious Shea Pleasure and went back in for more.

Second pass (ATG/XTG):
The second pass ended up being somewhat of a combination of XTG and ATG where I felt it made sense (XTG on my cheeks and under my nose and ATG on my throat).
As I stretched my skin with my other hand I was once again remembered how much more I treat these razors as shaving with a straight razor than any other types of razor I have. I think it's the feel of the wedge blade - it's not as sharp as a modern disposable blade but it's more forgiving I think.

Finished up the second pass and I was about 85% shaved. I could feel some stubble on my throat and around my mouth but all in all a great result.

This razor actually exceeded my expectations and shot up to second spot in how I'd rank them. The L'Essor still king of the hill.

Only three more to go.....AND today I might be received three new, freshly honed wedge blades from Glen / @gssixgun

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