I had my first shave with the Rocnel SE-G this morning and for a first shave with what I would consider to be a quite aggressive razor wasn't too bad, I say aggressive because the only other modern Gem type razor is my Blackland Sabre and it is certanly more aggressive than that, imo.
First thing to do was insert a blade, I used a Gem SS blade, I found this more difficult than it should be in any razor. On my first attempt the blade refused to fully go in and got stuck, I had to yank it out and put in the other way around, the second time it just slipped in.
Without any guides on the sides you have to make sure you have the blade centered properly, so with glasses on I performed this task relitively easily, I pinched up the grub screw and put on the handle.
Looking at the razor with the blade inserted it thought this is one fugly razor with the spine of the blade hanging out of the back, beautiful it is not, again ,this is of course only my opinion , I am only comparing it to my Sabre which I think is a very beautiful razor indeed.
The shave, I lathered up with some quality shaving soap (P.160 NOS) and began the shave, riding the cap much the same as I would do with any other Gem bladed razor and I noticed a lot of blade feel and the comb felt somewhat uncomfortable, I was just using the weight of the razor do the work, no pressure from my hand at all.
On the first pass I picked up two 3mm deep scratches / cuts on my cheek and a few spots of blood appeared here and there, after checking the blade had not shifted (it had not) I carried on and was smooth skinned after three passes.
I had that tingly skin feeling you tend to get if you've over done a shave which calmed down with the application of som BBA post shave balm but even after a few hours my skin still felt a little raw although apart from the two small scratches looked normal.
I shall try again tomorrow using a blade I love and know is skin friendly, the Pal Super carbon blade and see if this changes things.
It was only my first shave so things could turn out to be better as I get to grips with this razor. I will have a weeks worth of shaves with it (unless bad things happen) and get back to you all with my thoughts on this razor with a few shaves under my belt.
P.