Well, the G1 head finally arrived yesterday and I mated it with a Timeless Plaid handle and used it this morning. What bugs me. The little hook thingie that holds it all together needs to be rethought. Small part, old age, dropsy and cats simply don't work well with little bitty parts. What I liked. Once all the pieces parts were together the razor was sturdy, pretty and stable. The shave was really surprising. This is the very first modern razor where it simply felt right from the moment I put it to my face. There was absolutely no learning curve. A two pass & touch very first shave resulted in a truly PDG shave that was as good as I get from the razors I have been using for over a half century. I had tried the earlier version GEM razor from ATT but we just didn't fit. I could not get a really PDG shave no matter how many passes or what pre-shave prep I used. It looked far but felt foul. With this iteration though ATT seems to have gotten it right. I would say that today's shave may have been one of the best GEM format shaves I have ever had and one of the most pleasant shave from any blade format. Summary. Great razor and great shave BUT... is it so much better that the price can be justified? Probably not. Yet every once in a while I enjoy steak instead of brisket, real milkshakes instead of frozen custard. I consider this razor simply another simple pleasure.
My understanding was that the original was seen as too mild. If that is the case then this is still mild but very efficient. But then I have been wrong in the past.
