My first shave with the Bohemia was late today with a few days worth of whiskers. I used the milder side of this razor with a brand new Personna blade. This razor is really different from anything I have used previously. First, it is a real heavyweight. The head itself looks huge! It fits my hand like it was custom made for me and balances very well. The head and guard are really rounded. While technically an open comb, it felt closer to a standard safety bar because the tines are relatively wide and the gaps are about half as wide. If you ride the cap or the guard, you won't get much, or any, action from your razor blade. It isn't super picky about the angle of the head on my face but, when you are off you might as well use a rolling pin to shave with! With the milder side of this razor and the extra length of my whiskers, I expected more of a challenge shaving. Turns out, this was a really efficient shave, especially for the first use! I think the weight of this razor made it really easy to use. No pressure from my hand, just a simple drag across my face. The first pass was consistent with my daily shave with my other "good" razors. It did take a little buffing to clean up where I was playing with the angle of the razor on my face but, overall it was super easy to use and very mild. I may skip my Saturday shave to grow my whiskers out a little extra so I can test the more aggressive side Sunday. The other thing of note is the "gunmetal" color listed on Aliexpress. It definitely isn't chrome or nickel colored but, it is a very light somewhat shiny silver color. It definitely isn't a dark gunmetal color. The head is a little darker than the handle though for a nice contrast. The handle itself has a really nice texture too!
The "saran wrap" on mine was a real PIA to remove! I would call my skin fairly average in terms of sensitivity and my whiskers are pretty coarse. My next shave is going to be on the more aggressive side. I could see this being a great car travel razor for me with its dual "personality" being able to flip the top cap. It is a bit heavy overall but, this made my first shave pretty effortless.
The wrap is aggravating to remove but I like the fact that Yaqi does it to protect the razor during shipment. I stripped the finish off of mine last night. I love the razor but the finish just did not do anything for me. After I stripped the finish off I went across it with some Scotch Brite. I thought about polishing it on out but I like the satin finish. I cannot wait to see how it shaves.
Since it hasn't been mentioned the razor here is a modern take on a French razor called a Bohin. These razors also look really good in gold plate. Leaving shave performance aside. One of these in gold plate or a mirror polish in my opinion would make make the majority of these modern Artisan offerings look sub par visually.
Yaqi Bohemian stainless steel razor. Astra SP blade (fresh). Yaqi two band badger brush. Mitchell’s Wool Fat soap. Timeless Razor shave bowl. Irish Chestnut by Andy Hilfiger cologne. Fat Friday shave! This is the first run with the Yaqi Bohemian. It is a large razor and I posted a picture with it next to a Rockwell 6S for size comparison. This razor came in the brown/gunmetal gray finish but I stripped mine back to the stainless steel and Scotch Brited it to a satin finish....for me it looks better. So how does the beast shave? It does have a narrow angle but once you find it it does a great job. The base can be reversed for two levels but I shaved with the lesser setting this morning. I need to spend more time with it to get it dialed in but for the first time it was a great shave....three passes with no blood loss. It is a heavy razor but the handle has great grip and allows for good control. I hope everyone has a great Friday!
Second shave ever with this razor and on the aggressive side of the head with the same blade on its second use. User skill with this razor held it back a little. Had I been better with it, it would have been BBS on one pass with a 36 hour set of coarse whiskers. Using a simple face scrub before canned gel was the prep so, nothing fancy or especially good just fast and easy. One pass where I held a consistent angle was BBS. Other places where I was a bit inconsistent required some follow-up. I got some weepers during the shave that went away on their own and, I should note I have high blood pressure so I am probably a bit more sensitive to this than a lot of people. With the Witch Hazel aftershave, I felt ~5 seconds of irritation on my lower neck near my shoulders where I needed to do some 'buffing' to correct a poor pass with the razor which was the main burn. When I wiped my face down, the weepers were gone. Over all, a great shave that will only get better as I learn to use this new razor to its full potential. The lighter head of the French Bohim/Bohnin (sp?) razor this is based on is now back on my radar if I can find one that isn't super expensive or really rough.
Yaqi Bohemian stainless steel razor. Astra SP blade (2). Yaqi 24mm synthetic brush. Pheonix Accoutrements Dixie shave soap. Timeless Razor shave bowl. Irish Chestnut by Andy Hilfiger cologne. 2nd shave and I'm really enjoying this razor. I had two days of growth to take off and it was a very comfortable shave.
Been super busy chasing a tractor so, haven't used this one much as I always seemed to be in a hurry early in the day and defaulted to a more well known (to this user) razor, my EJ 3one6, which is pretty foolproof for me though in fairness, I did get one weeper on my jaw line one really early morning in a hurry with an overly heavy hand. Early mornings before the BP meds kick in make weepers pretty easy for me so nothing to worry about other than shaving at 4AM in a hurry with my mind on something else! The razor in my OP is there taunting me each morning in its stand so, I might get it back into rotation this coming Sunday. Really fits the Yaqi razor stand well too!
