New Rocnel SE-G Gem style razor.

Seems like bull goose are starting to ship these now - anyone in EU selling or carrying stock? seems silly to order something for the US that was manufactured in our own backyard and pay the lovely import duties on it :)

Checked your shaving but not showing on their site.
 
Nrahuf said:
Seems like bull goose are starting to ship these now - anyone in EU selling or carrying stock? seems silly to order something for the US that was manufactured in our own backyard and pay the lovely import duties on it :)

Checked your shaving but not showing on their site.
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Check out Connaughts !
 
Oh yeah but £220 wow. Does Connaught still offer a shaving room discount?

Going to be an expensive month with the att gem round the corner also.
 
I've got one, and it shaves really well; as well as my Natural Angle and other Gem razors.

The fit and finish are, to my mind, perfect, and the design is fiendishly clever. From what I can make of them, the other forthcoming razors make some use of either the blade side notches and/or central slot, and have 2-piece heads, but this doesn't. It uses the machined-slot-in-solid-head design that features in the Rocnel SE-P, and, again, the tolerances are incredibly precise.

The handle is quite short, but a quick look at my other Gem-type vintages tells me that this, and they, are about the same length overall. It is, of course, possible to use a 3rd party handle if so desired. Although this, being stainless, is heavier, it feels a handier razor because of the "minimalist" design and absence of hinged doors etc. Its looks might not appeal to some (many?), and my first impression "out of the box" was not one of beauty. Indeed, like the other Rocnel razors, it has a faintly "industrial" look to it, but, for me, that translates to solid, efficient razors.

My only slight gripe is that the blade I loaded from my existing Personna box of 100 (where each blade has a paper band around it) was nowhere as slack to load as that in the Rocnel video. I see from some comments in the pass-around for this razor that the blade has to be introduced into one side of the head rather than the other, but, even so, it was a fairly tight fit. To be honest, it wasn't much more demanding than getting a blade into a PAL type injector, and is a darn sight easier than the Rocnel SE-P with a halved DE blade. I think that this must be due to variations in the blade manufacturing tolerances, especially the spine, but it's no big deal for me. I did find with the AC Rocnel SE-50 that the sliding top cap, which is also secured with an M5 grubscrew, benefited from having the grubscrew slightly tweaked up with an Allen key to ensure a rock-solid fastening, but I don't think this will usually need any more than hand-tightening.

There's some question about how to clean the minute blade slot, but I would think that pushing a blade through so that it just peeks out the other side would eject any build-up.

I plan to use it over the next few days, but I'm really impressed with the sole shave I've had with it so far. It certainly isn't cheap, but I had been planning to buy a Bullgoose Asylum RX, until logic told me that I have quite enough AC razors for the moment, and the fund went to this instead.

It's certainly a "Marmite" razor, and people coming to it without previous Gem-type experience might find it quite a learning curve. However, once you get the "face-flat" angle right, and bearing in mind the considerable increase in weight over the vintage models, it is a really close shaver.
 
jmudrick said:
I know this wasn't intended as faint praise but it comes off that way. If I'm going to drop a couple hundred large on a razor I would hope it would be decidedly superior to a $15 eBay item in terms of performance and not just look good.



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I take your point, but without another modern Gem, the only comparison I can make, perhaps invidious, is with the old ones that I have experience of. It is superior in most design aspects, in that it uses modern techniques and materials, and on a first use, it shaves at least as well as the old ones, and with less effort. It also provides a nicer feel than them, although they are very different, and I think that the increased weight will give me better and more consistent results. Time will tell.

As far as VFM is concerned, it could perhaps be priced somewhat lower. However, I see that the ATT offering, with handle, is priced at $199, which, in UK terms, puts them about level once all the extras are factored in.
 
Ferrum said:
I take your point, but without another modern Gem, the only comparison I can make, perhaps invidious, is with the old ones that I have experience of. It is superior in most design aspects, in that it uses modern techniques and materials, and on a first use, it shaves at least as well as the old ones, and with less effort. It also provides a nicer feel than them, although they are very different, and I think that the increased weight will give me better and more consistent results. Time will tell.

As far as VFM is concerned, it could perhaps be priced somewhat lower. However, I see that the ATT offering, with handle, is priced at $199, which, in UK terms, puts them about level once all the extras are factored in.
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I'd love to try the new guys out. As for heft...
b39b74b0e30ac941f32862818fe9358c.jpg


Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
I'm persevering with the Rocnel this week, and after making a slight adjustment to the angle and pressure I use, I'm now getting even better results.

P&B Sanskrit (which was one of the first batch, but seems to improve with age) and Zenith synthetic, two passes, job done. I thought that the customary splash of Humphrey's Witch Hazel (14% alcohol content) would be a real stinger, and show that I'd got it wrong, but not a single twinge from it, and one of the smoothest shaves I've had.

It may not be a pretty thing, but it certainly does the job it was intended for.
 
There is an interesting thread on Rocnel GEM, on another forum (the Shave Nook: http://shavenook.com/showthread.php?tid=49194&page=4). I found the last 2 pages interesting.

I experienced some scratching, which I could not work out. Others have experienced this. If the razor head and blade are not kept flush with the face, then the exposure of the blade can scratch on a leading edge, where this is angled into the face.

This got me thinking - until you get your technique down, adding some insulating tape to the exposed elements of the blade, could protect against scratching?

@Blademonkey I thought you might be interested in this.

Chris
 
Ferry-shave said:
There is an interesting thread on Rocnel GEM, on another forum (the Shave Nook: http://shavenook.com/showthread.php?tid=49194&page=4). I found the last 2 pages interesting.

I experienced some scratching, which I could not work out. Others have experienced this. If the razor head and blade are not kept flush with the face, then the exposure of the blade can scratch on a leading edge, where this is angled into the face.

This got me thinking - until you get your technique down, adding some insulating tape to the exposed elements of the blade, could protect against scratching?

@Blademonkey I thought you might be interested in this.

Chris
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Thankyou Chris, I will read.
Paul.
 
After a few days playing with the Focus Dynamic razor, I've gone back to the Rocnel SE-G, to be interspersed with my Blackland Gem for the sake of contrast.

I got on all right with the Rocnel on first outing, although with some trepidation in case it bit me. The results were OK, although I felt that I needed to pay more attention to technique, especially maintaining the correct angle.

Because I needed to concentrate to get the Focus to work for me, I thought I'd try to apply the same concentration to using the Rocnel.

This seems to be paying off, as I managed to get a first-class 2-pass shave (P&B Spitfire, New Forest brush) without any hitches or snags.

One thing I check meticulously with the Rocnel is the exact positioning of the blade corners, so that they are even and within the razor.
 
Ferrum said:
After a few days playing with the Focus Dynamic razor, I've gone back to the Rocnel SE-G, to be interspersed with my Blackland Gem for the sake of contrast.

I got on all right with the Rocnel on first outing, although with some trepidation in case it bit me. The results were OK, although I felt that I needed to pay more attention to technique, especially maintaining the correct angle.

Because I needed to concentrate to get the Focus to work for me, I thought I'd try to apply the same concentration to using the Rocnel.

This seems to be paying off, as I managed to get a first-class 2-pass shave (P&B Spitfire, New Forest brush) without any hitches or snags.

One thing I check meticulously with the Rocnel is the exact positioning of the blade corners, so that they are even and within the razor.
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With the pass-around Rocnel Gem I used a jewellers loup to ensure the exact positioning of the blade to make sure that the edges were even within the razor because my eye sight is not what it was but it still managed to bite me, when I rounded the corners off the blade that problem disappeared. I am pleased it is working out for you though.
:) P.
 
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