I genuinely believe the Ikon with the open & closed base plate to have the advantage.
it would be good for me to have an aggressive razor then flip it over if i feel it's getting to much to a milder shave. like most things in life i'm still a bit confused. later on in the week i'll be heading up to dundee and will be taking a trip in to the gentleman's groom room,
it might end up the case of who has what in stock as to what i get. i'm guessing either would be a good buy
I have the iKon Standard without B1 coating as well and the safety bar side of the OSS is milder in comparison. About AS-D2 efficient and mild, on both its sides, really.
The Standard is a different animal. While it's not super aggressive, you'll need to take care with it. It is fairly efficient, though.
The iKon Tek (relatively recently renamed from iKon Tech, AFAIK) is almost daft, IMO. It's aggressive, but not particularly efficient.
On the scale of AS-D2 being lowest and potato peeler being the max:
- B1 OSS is ~AS-D2 level
- B1 Deluxe is ~AS-D2+ level, close, but a bit less mild and a bit more efficient.
- iKon Standard is maybe in 3/5 of the range, but the efficiency matches that reasonably well
- iKon Tek is within spitting distance of a potato peeler feel-wise (I imagine), but its efficiency isn't as high as that of the Standard, perhaps not even the Deluxe.
Where there's barely any blade chatter in the Standard, there's more of it in the Tek, but to no real benefit.
I find that a good pairing for the Tek base plate is a RazoRock Baby Smooth top cap. It makes it less aggressive, and while there's still plenty of blade feel, there's hardly any chatter.
If you're visiting the Groom Room, maybe ask them if they would sell you the B1 Deluxe base plate, as you could use that as a complementary base plate with the AS-D2 top cap. It's not quite as mild as the AS-D2, still fairly close, but more efficient, at least it was for me. I sold the AS-D2, as the OSS did pretty much the same thing for me, and I'm still not sure whether I'll keep it or not. Considering I have some Gillette New heads, though, I might sell the Deluxe head. I'm not sure yet.
If you're looking for something a few levels more aggressive than the AS-D2, but still reasonable, I'd suggest either the B1 Standard or the iKon ShaveCraft 103. The 103 strikes a very good balance between blade feel, efficiency and aggressiveness.
Or maybe get a PAA Ascension - I could part with the aluminium version of mine, if you'd like to get one.