Sensitive Skin Strikes Again:

Earlier today, I got a great shave in with zero blood and it was close. Unfortunately after the second pass, I had a really bad case of razor burn to and my sensitive skin also flared up to the soap that I was using which is Soap Commander's Bounty which is extremely strange because I've NEVER had a reaction to ANY of Soap Commander's products since day 1 and that includes their sandalwood scent and I'm highly allergic to with the exception to Soap Commander's which is called Commitment. Me having a reaction to some coating on the blades is not unusual at all but having one to a Soap Commander product is extremely strange. So I must cease and desist from using Bounty and the Gillette 7 O'clock green blades. When I get paid this coming Thursday, I will be placing an order for some of the Israeli Personna Red blades for my leaf. My skin can't take using any other blades after this: 

But before I do, I will be trying these Gillette 7 O'clock Yellow labeled blades in the Leaf razor next. I've used them before and these remind me of the old Gillette Track 2 cartridges that you can still buy in a lot of the big box stores today. In fact, if you do an Amazon search for the Gillette Track 2, you will see the old Gillette 7 O'clock orange logo in the results. I can use a Gillette Track 2 with no issues and I do have one in my collection. It's a 1971 replica made by Col. Conk which I've not used in a while. There's also a good chance that I might have a 7 day beard growth in my next video. This sensitive skin situation is getting old really quick. The tough beard does not help matters out at all. In fact, it makes things worse:

So I must say good bye to the 7 O'clock green labeled blades. My sensitive skin simply can't handle these blades anymore. That's all there is to it. I've tried a ton of blades and these were the most promising. The part that is terrible is the fact that I have a bulk pack of these 7 O'clock green blades and I can't use them. Thank goodness that these DE blades are stupid cheap. I could not simply throw out cartridges of any kind due to their costs but these I can. I'll mail them off to a friend of mine. I know he does not have a lot of DE blades so why not send them to him instead:

I also have bulk pack of the Chinese version of the Gillette Wilkinson Sword blades. They are a touch sharper than the Saloon Pack which WAS made in India before Gillette decided to close the plant to make strictly cartridges and focus their greed onto those markets which is totally uncool in my humble opinion. Gillette stop being greedy. You will NOT beat the cost of DE blades and you are slowly killing your business. Plus that heated razor is a joke. I'm not going to pay $200 U.S. Dollars for a heated handle and your overpriced blades that may or may not work. Personna blades specifically the Israeli reds/Platinum Blues (In the United Kingdom's packaging) has won hands down. I'm also certain that once these Gillette Track 2 Plus blades are gone, I will be replacing them with Personna's version.

I do have a bulk pack of Derby Premium half blades if these 7 O'clock yellow labeled blades do not work and thankfully, I do have a couple of the Israeli Personna reds left just in case those don't work for me either. I'll have to look at my blade log book to see what all I've tried and there's a good chance that I will toss that one out after I get another one started copying over some entries and adding new information that I've discovered since starting it. I've also got my Fine Accoutrement's Marvel DE safety razor near by as well. I should have stuck with the Personna Platinum blades that I tried in my 37C slant years ago. Had I known back then what I know today, then I would have stuck with the Israeli Personna Reds/Platinum blue blades a long time ago. It's a lot cheaper to buy a bulk pack of those blades and burn through them due to a tough beard than it is to suffer sensitive skin issues on a constant basis just for an extremely close shave that ends up being uncomfortable. So now I will see what happens next.

Israeli Personna Reds & The Leaf Update:

Today's shave felt great but it also told a very familiar story that I had with these blades in the past with another razor. That same story was with the Merkur 37C slant and these specific blades with the United Kingdom packaging which was 2 great shaves before having to swap out the blade for a fresh one. The first shave with the Israeli Personna blades was phenomenal! It felt like there was no blades in the leaf. That's how comfortable they are in the leaf razor. But I did not get a close enough shave the first time around because I had an excessive amount of beard growth which was too much for these specific blades to handle. That changed today and I also had a minimal amount of irritation in my neck area due to it still being sensitive and I did mow off a couple of bumps in the process. But other than that, no massive amounts of blood at all:

The second shave on these blades felt a lot less comfortable compared to the first. They had a slight pulling sensation to them but I feel that could have been taken care of with a tiny bit of stropping on a towel of some kind. Just be careful with the tabs on the side of the blade because they will catch on a towel if you are not careful. In terms of closeness, I managed to pull off a two and half pass shave with minimal to no stubble left over:

The post shave feel was way better this time around compared to the last one. I had mowed off a couple of bumps but other than that, there was no blood involved. About an hour later, I could tell that this was one of my best shaves in terms of left over stubble which was minimal and could only be found in my usual trouble spots. Another thing I noticed is that I was able to go against the grain with the half pass that I performed on my neck area which is a good thing. I also found that I can easily buff with these blades as well. Will these Israeli Personna Reds become my "go to" blade in the Leaf? Probably not but I may get a couple more packs of them. it will depend on my budget over the next couple of months. Plus I currently have enough blades in stock to tide me over.

Would I recommend these blades for sensitive skin and light beard growth? Absolutely and then some. If I did not have 4+ days worth of beard growth the first time around, I would probably would have gotten a far better post shave the first time around and I probably would have gotten another shave out of these blades. We will see what happens with my next shave which will probably be either Sunday or Monday. I find that I get a lot less irritation with less passes and no more than 3 days worth of beard growth especially with these lovely Israeli Personna Red labeled blades. These are perfect for 3 days worth of beard growth or less if you have a tough beard like I do. If your beard is not as tough as mine is and have a lighter growth, then you could probably go longer if you wanted to which is a good thing.

I know I will be asked so I will do what I can. These blades are the best that Personna has to offer in my humble opinion in reference to the ones I've tried both recently and in the past. They do have some Personna X half blades out on the market now, but I have not tried them and I really don't feel the need to try them in comparison. The Personna Lab blue blades were not as good in the Leaf compared to these and I'm not going anywhere near the Personna Medical Prep blades. The Medical Preps were harsh on my skin and would not hardly plow through my beard when I was still in my 30's. So there's no way I will try them in the leaf now that I'm in my early 40's with a much tougher beard along with known sensitive skin issues.

These blades are no where near as sharp as my Gillette 7 O'clock green label blades which is the middle of the road of the Gillette 7 O'clock series and work perfectly for me in the leaf razor. However, these Israeli Personna Reds are far more comfortable to use than anything I have tried in the Leaf razor. The only problem I have with these Israeli Personna Reds is that they don't have any longevity to them. I can get 4 great shaves out of the Gillette 7 O'clock green labeled blades and I can 5 out of the Gillette 7 O'clock black blades which are not quite as sharp as the Feather blades but pretty close. The Gillette 7 O'clock yellow labeled blades are equal to the old Gillette Track 2 cartridges that you can get today and I can only get 3 shaves out of those. I also can't buff with any of the Gillette 7 O'clock blades at all and I can't go against the grain either especially when I need to specifically with my neck area in a couple of spots. I have a feeling that I will probably end up getting a bulk pack of these before long because these blades were the best I've tried in the Leaf hands down in terms of comfort. Nothing has come close.

RazoRock Eco Blade Longevity Update:

The blade search is over for the RazoRock Eco ladies and gentlemen. I'm happy to report that I just got a quick shave in with a Soap Commander product and that this was the 6th shave on the half Feather DE blade and the blade had been corked 2 times before it was installed into the razor. It was not uncomfortable or anything and it was still pretty sharp but, it was starting to have a slight tug to it like the blade was trying to catch and grab a hold of my facial hair in my moustache area. I could have gotten maybe one more shave in with it, but I learned a long time ago to go ahead and throw out the blade when it starts to do that and install a fresh blade into the razor. Another thing that I also learned a really long time ago that applies to DE blades is "when in doubt, throw it out" . Most new guys don't do this and go back into an old habit from when they used cartridges before converting. For those that are doing that, "Stop it!" It don't take but a few seconds to swap out the old blade for a fresh one. If your lather dissipates, reload the brush and reapply the lather. It's been a while since I've had an extremely bad shave due to these practises:

As you can see below, I got my usual lather out of one of my Soap Commander products (can't remember which one off hand). I sometimes shave off camera to just enjoy a really good shave or when I'm heading out the door and don't have time to record and edit a video. So I'll try to come back and do a blog post about it if I have time to. A lot of times, I really don't have the time to blog and I'm in so many groups now that it's really getting hard to keep up:

In my last video, I had miscounted the number of shaves on the Feather DE blade that I had in the Eco razor. I had marked the wrong side and thought I had put a fresh blade in and I got quite a shock when I flipped the blade over and seen how many I actually had after I had recorded the video. I also found another pack of Feather DE blades and I still have one left in the other pack that I've been using. So I am good to go for a while now. Now lets do some basic math here. I get 6 shaves out of a half of a Feather blade. So when you snap one in half to use in the Eco, that equals 12 shaves per whole DE blade and with the Yellow labeled pack of blades, there is 10 blades to a pack. What that means is that you will get 120 shaves out of a single pack of Feather blades even after you cork the edges twice which is simple to do. Now if you just shave once a week, that's over 2 years worth of shaving just from 1 single 10 pack of Feather DE blades. This gets cut in half for the black labeled Feather blades which only has 5 blades per pack and the same can be said for the Red labeled pack of blades as well:

The 6th shave felt good and was really close and smooth in terms of the post shave. I don't have anything left in my moustache area as a result after completing 2 passes. In fact, I got close as a cartridge in terms of the post shave quality. The 7th shave would have felt terrible and pulled something fierce plus, it also would have left a ton of weepers all over the place. I didn't have that issue today with the blade in the Eco. It did feel like it was trying to catch yes, but I did not have any weepers afterward. I did have a couple of spots on my neck with the Leaf but I had none with Eco. I'll be doing another blog post on that situation here in a little while. So based upon today's shave, I can confirm that using the RazoRock Eco will double if not triple the longevity of your DE blades which is a huge game changer in my humble opinion. That was one of the reasons I got into wet shaving which was to save money on blades.

All in all, I am glad that I purchased this razor and could not be happier with its performance. The fit and finish is phenomenal and at only $30 U.S. Dollars, you can beat the price. Plus, Joe over at Italian Barber does throw in a 100 pack of Crown Half DE blades which he stated that he gets 2 head shaves out of a blade. So that's a year's worth of blades thrown in for free with your order. I myself thought that Crown half blades were pretty good. Unfortunately, I would be doing good to get 2 shaves out of a blade so I went with the Feather blades instead. That's one of the bad things about having a tough beard and sensitive skin. It gets even tougher if you are on medication and the older you get, the worse it gets. I did like the weight but I thought it would do better with a larger handle. So I put the original handle that came on the Eco onto my Hawk Feather Artist Club razor and grabbed the 175B Midnight Black handle that I got from West Coast Shaving Supplies and installed it onto the Eco and it worked like a dream. My RazoRock Eco now weighs in at just under 8 ounces or half a pound. The added weight made a huge difference for the better.

The RazoRock Eco Single Edge:

Today is a great day for the single edge razor and for those that enjoy those types of razors. Italian Barber has just released a brand new single edge razor today that uses a half of a DE or Double Edge blade. For as long as I've been wet shaving, the only way to get a single edge was to either buy a razor that uses the Kai Captain or Feather Artist Club blades or go Vintage with a GEM style razor or a Schick Injector. Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements does have a modern 3 piece GEM style razor but you really only have 3 kinds of blades to choose from. Then there's the One Blade and One blade core but once again there's only one blade choice for those 2 specific razors. With the Vintage Schick Injectors, you are limited to 3 choices. Schick's brand of single edge blades which are still available which are very inconsistent and somewhat expensive, Vintage Schick Injector blades which are extremely expensive and getting harder and harder to find or the Personna miniature hair shaper injector blades which are pretty good. The Supply company does sell a modern version that uses these very same blades but once again there's no variety. That changed today. Say hello to the RazoRock Eco Single Edge :

Before I get into the specs and what not, I'm going to give you guys a bit of a background story as to why I've been wanting this razor. My Twig Sculptor which can be seen below is on its last leg. That's my second one and I do have another ready to go but it has no weight behind it to plow through my tough beard. The cheap plastic twist to open Twig Sculptor came with my Leaf razor which I really like using with the Gillette 7 O'clock green label blades but I really enjoyed being able to use just a half a DE blade in the Twig sculptor. Due to its cheap construction, the Twig does not last at all. For over a year and a half, I've been hearing the Leaf Shave Company say that they are working on a prototype. I have yet to see one anywhere. I do believe they are indeed working on one but there's been no timeline given and all I keep hearing is "soon". Sorry Leaf Shave Company but I am done with you guys. This Twig sculptor is on borrowed time:

The RazoRock Eco does come in several colors. Black:

Gold:

Hulk Green:

And my personal favorite color, Electric Blue:

They do have a video up on how to snap a blade which is really simple to do. I've managed to squeeze 7 shaves out of half a Feather DE blade in the Twig Sculptor. So that's 14 shaves per Feather DE blade. I don't know how many shaves I will get out of a DE blade with this razor:

Another bonus is the fact that as of right now on their website, Italian Barber is throwing in a free package of 100 count Crown half DE blades which is an awesome thing to do:

^ That is a really sweet deal. Now onto the specifications:

^ This seems to be a little on the lighter side at 1.3 ounces or 38 grams, but that's okay because I have an extra handle here that could help if it needs it. I'll have to shave with it a few times before I can determine whether or not I will need to do that. After all, my monster handle that I currently have on my Hawk SE will add a ton of weight to it. It currently weighs in at 8 ounces.The length is 90 mm or 3.5 inches which is about normal for your average razor. The materials used are CNC machined billet aluminum so it will definitely have some strength to it which is a good thing. And it is a 3 piece so loading the blade should not be a problem as you saw earlier. The cost is excellent and extremely budget friendly my total is below:

I've not heard anything yet in terms of shipping but since I ordered this razor, I'm going to let my beard grow out to give it a real acid test:

If you have seen my videos, you know that my beard is insanely tough and grows extremely fast. 3 days of beard growth for me is equal to 5 to 7 days for some. Anything I can buy that can get rid of that kind of beard growth that does not cost a lot of money is a good thing. Straight razors are great and I have got one of mine dialed in perfectly and it is comfortable but I still have one more to test before I can call it good on my straights. I still need a razor like the Eco to trim and get my moustache area with because it's extremely sensitive to shave with except with my Twig sculptor. But if the Twig isn't going to hold up, then I will be back to using something else.

This is a game changer in my humble opinion because there's a ton of DE blades that you can try if you don't like the blades that come with it. I'm willing to bet that the Gillette 7 O'clock green labels are going to be perfect for it in addition to the 7 O'clock black label blades. I'm not willing to try Feather blades in it at all. I gave them a fair shot and it came down to using them in the Twig sculptor or Phoenix Artisan Accoutrement's double open comb razor. I've also got a few other blades here to try in it as well if I don't like the Crown half blades.

Italian Barber says that it has a medium level of aggressiveness which is a good thing. You don't want it like the Muhle R41 where it can slice you all to pieces if you are not careful but you also don't want it too mild to the point where you have to make 4 passes just to get a decent shave either. I also recommend buying a small blade sampler pack as well just in case you don't like the blades that come with it.