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The Dollar Store Razor Challenge

Shave number 2 taken from my journal:

Razor: Assured TTO
Blade: Assured (2)
Brush: WWBW Jingle 2 Band Badger
Soap: WSP Blackbeard
AS: Fine L'Orange Noir

Well, shave 2 with the Assured $1 razor is in the books. I switched things up this morning and instead of 2 passes (WTG/ATG) I went with 3 (WTG/WTG/ATG) to see if it would help the harshness of the final ATG pass. It didn't. But both WTG passes felt really comfortable, as did the solo WTG pass on the first shave. Not sure what that's all about, but it's really a big difference in comfort on the 2 passes. Probably has something to do with me using a slightly different angle on the ATG pass. I ended up walking away with about 85% BBS and the rest a solid DFS, although it didn't last very long into the day. Not bad though.
 
Shave #1 from my journal.

This new razor doesn't look too bad, at a distance with my reading glasses off. No door alignment issues, so we are off to a better start. Let's add a blade. The doors on this one fully open, so there is no issue with installing a blade. The TTO mechanism works without issue and tightens snugly. So far so good. Uhg! I need to take a pic of this blade alignment. I have a mild razor on one side and an aggressive razor on the other side. Huh, let's see what we got. Hit the soap for 30 seconds and cranked out a nice lather, let's kick this pig.

Went with my standard shave of three passes: WTG, XTG and ATG and have no drama to report. The first pass was with the mild side of the razor and using a light touch. Not too bad! This one actually cuts hair. Switched over to the aggressive side for the XTG pass. Again, not too bad. Ok. let's try the ATG with the aggressive side. What?! I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't shaved with it. This razor actually knocked out a decent shave. I have a BBS/DFS mix this morning and I will take that for the win!
 
These things really are all over the place with QC. One that the doors come off after the first shave, some that won't close properly, and some that are actually passable. And this is actually a relatively small test group if you think about it. Not great standards.
 
I'm just glad one of those nasty razors never appeared in my mailbox
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I have enough trouble shaving without self induced or peer induced shaving drama
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With that said, masters at anything can take substandard equipment and get it to work. I've seen it in flintknapping and blacksmithing. A mammoth trumpet to all who've made it work or at least tough-guy'd it out through the 3 shaves!
 
Running behind today this morning at the office is crazy. But have a few minutes to get this posted. I used it for the first time. The doors are a little misaligned when no blade is in the razor but then it closes down smoothly. The blade had that weird indent on one side. I also noticed that one side of the blade performed better than the other side. I present my first shave with this blade.

https://youtu.be/MHnQ2Ng-TPA
 
I had my third shave with the death trap....I mean Assured razor and blade today. Lol.

From my journal:

Razor: Assured TTO
Blade: Assured (3)
Brush: WWBW Jingle 2 Band Badger
Soap: WSP Barbershop
AS: WSP Barbershop

Third shave with the Assured Razor and blade today. Like just about everyone else, the shaves progressively got worse. I was still able to get a DFS+ shave, with some areas BBS, but at the cost of a comfortable shave process. The entire shave just felt like the blade was scraping the hair off my face instead of cutting it. Not very pleasant. Even the WTG pass was rough. I'm glad to be moving on to more pleasant shaves. Maybe I'll start trying to dial in the Fatboy now. Getting used to that can't be any worse than shaving with this thing!
 
Cvargo said:
Running behind today this morning at the office is crazy. But have a few minutes to get this posted. I used it for the first time. The doors are a little misaligned when no blade is in the razor but then it closes down smoothly. The blade had that weird indent on one side. I also noticed that one side of the blade performed better than the other side. I present my first shave with this blade.
Click to expand...

Good shave Chad! You had me holding my breath a bit though with how quickly you were rounding the chin with that thing.
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Shave #1 on Blade #2...

I decided to revisit the Assured blades after having a couple of days off. This time I am using an actual Weishi 9306, not the knock-off that came with the blades. (I have the Weishi that Van der Hagen re-brands.)

A better razor made a definite difference. The shave was better than with the Assured razor. There was still a bunch of tugging and pulling, but it was smoother and easier. It wasn't a great shave, but it was a decent one. This would be an okay blade in a pinch, but not if there are better ones available.
 
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