View attachment 20248
First let me say ... I'm not
@riverrun , I am not as eloquent and I have nowhere near the background or knowledge of the other guys involved in the testing, so as a relative noob, this is what I have to say.
I am not a fan of black or aluminium razors, I find black to be the new grey, and aluminium is obviously way too light to make a razor.........Wrong !.
My tester was chosen in black as much to prove a point as anything else, I was disappointed when I open the cylindrical box, its a cracking looking thing, compared to the Standard I had from the lending pool, its head and shoulders above and just shouts build quality, as can be seen in the photo it has that ever so slightly gritty look to it, this is not felt during the shave, if I wanted a black alloy razor ? this one please 10/10.
onto my shaves.... yes plural ...lots and lots of plural, I can't stop using it, I have had it in my rotation since arrival, I think it's hitting a 3-1 ratio against everything else I own, The Hone 15A is a great shave and I'd have to say gives me the best first pass I have achieved with any razor I have owned or loaned, backed up with my usual XTG and ATG, I get a first class shave every shave.
Blade choice has become a choice based on the colour of the pack that catches my eye, the Hone 15A seems to have very little variation no matter what blade I fit, I have used everything from a Topaz, through various gillettes, Rapira's and my go to Voskhod, I can say that I am about to place an order for 50 Topaz, because If I had to bet my house, I would say that was my best 3 pass Saturday special and I need to try them again.
I have been getting use to a fair amount of sting from my foray's into the Injector are, and my favoured razor before the Hone 15A arrived the Ikon OC 102, also is known to make me pull that well known face from the alum and A/S splash, this is another high point in the hone 15A, It is almost.... almost non existant, so we are talking about a quality clean and smooth shave with next to no sting...... Awesome is used too much these day's, but it just is.
In conclusion, I love it ... yes even in black.
In order to be completely transparent, Andrew has kindly said I can keep the pre-production model I tested, this has a slight disparity in post size, but even this caused no issues with blade alignment, I will however be backing up my exhaltation of the Hone 15A by purchasing a Silver long handle version, ( can't wait to post a pic of a hybrid Back/silver).
Good Job Andrew and good luck.