Inaugural Shave With The Hone Type 15
I started off with my normal prep of Dr Squatch Pine Tar exfoliating soap plus a good massage of warm water into the beard. Rinse off, pat dry and then work on lathering the OSP Neroli Scented Shaving Soap. With the face lathered with the (excellent, I should add) OSP soap, I loaded the Type 15 with a Voskhod Teflon Coated razor blade - an easy operation, of course, given the substantial locating pins built into the top plate which hold the blade absolutely and satisfyingly parallel to the safety bar and top plate edge.
The thermal properties of brass are such that the material heats up very quickly and also readily retains heat, and consequently the razor provides a lovely warm feeling throughout the shave. Contrary to what you might initially think, given the lack of knurling etc. on the handle, it is actually quite grippy - at no stage did it ever feel like the weight of the razor would cause it to slip out of my hand. Which is a good job, as it really could do some serious damage if dropped...
On to the shave proper then. Within the first stroke or two it is immediately apparent that this is an ultra-mild razor -
way more so than that great bastion of mildness - the Feather AS-D2. Furthermore, it is not an efficient razor (in the true meaning of the word shave fans) i.e. it requires a greater number of passes over the same area to achieve true smoothness. This is especially true when using a thick yoghurty soap such as OSP. The upshot of that, however, is that, notwithstanding the propensity for an increased number of passes, it is in actuality incredibly smooth and leaves no irritation whatsoever.
The Type 15 can also - similar to the AS-D2 - take a fair bit of pressure. Now, this is sacrilege to some, but with practice the amount of pressure that you can apply to some razors can be controlled to give a closer (read more efficient) shave. I naturally found myself applying more pressure to the Type 15 than 'normal' - thankfully, there was no downside as the blade exposure is minimal - in fact, I also think if a line was drawn between the safety bar and the leading edge of the top cap, the leading edge of the razor blade itself may stop somewhat (hundredths of a mm?) short of said line.
In summary therefore, on this first outing, I'm impressed by the heft and quality of the Hone Type 15 and I got a DFS. I'd like to see more aggression - perhaps trim the safety bar a bit - and, appearance notwithstanding, I really like brass as a material. I didn't feel that the handle was overly short as some folk have already commented on.
My main area of concern, however, is in the developing patina - as I said, and given the price level, I'm not deliriously happy that it doesn't retain its 'as bought' condition but I'll see how things go anyway. If it was mine, Andreas
@riverrun - I would indeed have the Brasso and steel wool out...
Anyway, many thanks again Andreas and Andrew
@Hone for the chance to be part of this exciting pass around. More shaves and reports to follow...