Day 1 - Shave #1
- Truefitt & Hill No. 10 shaving cream
- MÜHLE 35K256 25mm synthetic brush
- Rocnel SE-G
- GEM stainless (1)
- Alum block
- Cella Colonia Classica
Truefitt & Hill No. 10 is good stuff, but too expensive for what it is. Luckily, my local Waitrose had it on the shelf for ages, but without a price label in front of it. Without knowing the price, nobody bought any, then they put it in a bargain basket for £4 a tub. I do love a good bargain.
The only thing I don't like about the MÜHLE brush is the colour of the handle, but I bought it as a bargain when Connaught got rid of MÜHLE products and the faux ivory was no longer available. Here's how much I have loved the MÜHLE brush this year: I've used it 112 times so far. All other brushes combined - 14 times.
But you're obviously not interested in all that, you want to hear about the Rocnel SE-G.
The same procedure as always: Four passes WTG↓XTG→GTXâ†ATG↑.
The first thing I noticed is that the little fellow is quite heavy for its size. It's slightly heavier than my 1912 with a 96mm stainless steel handle, but much shorter. This gives it a different balance to what I'm used to, but I don't think that's a problem for me.
The shaving angle should be easy to find for anyone who has used GEM blade SE razors before. Pretty much flat on the face and you can't go wrong.
One thing that sets this razor apart from vintage razors is the audible feedback. You can hear the blade shaving the stubble, but there is no "buttering toast" sound that many people like in vintage SE razors, but that is merely blade chatter because the blade is not held as firmly as an old stropping blade. I'm happy to report that the Rocnel holds the blade firmly without any vibrations.
During the shave the razor felt very 'assertive'. Maybe I should use the term agressive, but that sounds too dangerous. I could feel the blade and could feel that it was doing its job, but it fely very smooth at the same time. Not once did I think I would nick myself, and I didn't.
The razor is quite manoeuvrable. I had no issues shaving close to the nose or in any other tricky areas.
After the compulsory four passes, the alum block gave medium feedback, more than I'm used to from a 1912, less than, say, an R41.
Now for the important bit - the end result: smooth all over, without effort, no additional clean-up required. Pretty much perfect. I'm very impressed. And it is a long lasting result as well. It's now six hours since the shave and my face still feels pretty smooth. Based on this one shave I think I can already say that the Rocnel SE-G is up there with the best.
This is also the first time in months I've used Cella Colonia Classics. It's now officially summer and SWMBO complimented me on the nice scent. Quite a good shave all in all.
To be continued…