Slant Misunderstanding

It's like the Razor of Babel. Italian Barber's Torsionshobel seemed, to me initially, a monument to cartridge-like, high-traction shaving. If someone liked what cartridges were doing to their face, and just wanted to avoid ridiculous refill prices, I'd send them right there. The large plane surface enforces a certain range of pitch, yet to a degree which is still useful; and with a single, adequately exposed blade, is not nearly as destructive to skin.

What I failed to perceive is just how well it could handle a completely worn blade. With the angle of the edge becoming less acute through wear, the slightly steeper pitch carries even less potential for excessive exfoliation. I'm still using the same Personna (even abusing it, on a hand callus last evening), whereas the slant wound up in the closet fairly soon after purchase. Its modest pairing with an old Merkur clone handle seems like less of an insult now, as my buyer's remorse about the stock handle diminished over time, allowing me to appreciate the perfect fit.

An amazingly even, easy shave. But again, not thoughtless: with pitch de-emphasized, you are free to focus on direction and skew, hydration and everything else. You're still using the rigid joint between the cutting head and the handle to maintain the pitch, but it's supernaturally easy. I'm not quite BBS under the jaw corners... but again, the blade is pretty near dull. It makes perfect mathematical sense to me, in retrospect. I think what really screwed me up is actually the consensus around this design, emphasized by Michael Ham (Leisureguy). That's usually a huge red flag, for me.

I think it is likely that the more popular author has similarly overlooked something: the great number of shaves that can be performed by a single blade, when said blade is particularly well suited to one's skin, as Personna is to me.

3 comments:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3CwXqtedo&feature=youtu.be

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  2. Still not to sure about wanting to try a slant. However, this one does look intriguing!

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  3. The day after this shave, I took it all the way, three passes plus some skimming with velocity. It handled that dull blade better than the Slim! I did lose just a tiny shade of reach into the follicles, as reflected by those few missed hairs in the previous shave. But it proved to be still enough for BBS, and safer.

    I think it's a real winner, arguably the best design in the history of DE. The only drawback is less range, which might impair learning to actually control the edge. So, the theoretical cartridge shaver I referred to might be able to keep all of his bad habits with this, which would not be a happy ending for him. But for me... this could be number one.

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