Maybe a bit late on this topic, but I recognize the situation the first time you use the Rockwell 6S or 6C. Which plate to choose, which blade will fulfill the prophecy? I bought a 6C recently because it got so many positive evaluations, that are a bit surprising to me. Someone here even stated: ‘you started with the best razor… that should be used by everyone…’ I don’t fully agree.
I’ve been a wet shaver all my life, used all sorts of razors, but up to now I have never found the ultimate DE razor… So I switched to SE, used a few vintage razors like the Schick Injectors type E and I, and ended up with the Blackland Vector as my favourite ‘reference shaver’. The Vector never lets me down, giving me the pleasant after-shave-feelings other razors only promise me in their advertising.
But the idea of not being able to find a comparable DE machine kept on nagging in my mind, so I decided to give the Rockwell a chance. I started with the plates 3 and 4, but got unsatisfactory results, possibly due to the Rockwell blades that came with the razor. Other brands of blades (Gillette 7o’clock yellow, Feather,…) performed remarkably better, but up to now I can’t get close to the comfort, smoothness and ease that the Vector gives me.
For the time being, I will continue using the Rockwell (in the meantime I’m using the 5 and 6 plates with a Feather blade), but I can’t keep myself from thinking now that some beard types (mine: coarse, growing out in all directions,…) can’t be ‘beaten’ with a DE razor, but prefer the somewhat firmer, stiff AC-blades used in SE-razors. Or - in other words - the perfect DE-razor simply doesn’t exist.