Today I took my fifth and final shave with the Godzilla razor from Classic Shaving. This razor uses the Feather disposable straight-edge blades in an injector-style configuration. I have written an introduction to the razor here, and four performance reviews here, here, here, and here.
The razor came with the Feather Professional blade which I found too sharp and very uncomfortable. I switched to the wire-wrapped Feather Pro-Guard which was far less irritating and actually produced a better shave for me. For this final test I went to the ultimate extreme and used the Feather Professional Super, which is the sharpest blade in the Feather assortment. Not a great idea! I could only do two passes, one with-the-grain, and one across, before giving up due to the excruciating irritation. I reached for the alum block like a plane-crash survivor in the Sahara desert reaches for oasis water.
It took me two weeks to complete the five shaves, mainly because I needed two or three days between shaves to recover and heal. All that said, I think every gourmet shaver should have one of these razors in his armamentarium for several reasons:
1. This is sure to be a collectible since I can’t see it ever going into mass production, its simply too aggressive for 90% of shavers.
2. The craftsmanship is artisanal right down to the eyeglass-screw sized Allen bolts that hold it together.
3. It is a tribute to American ingenuity and gumption: One may well ask “Why would anyone create a razor to use with this blade?”, bringing forth the classical entrepreneurial answer, “Because its there”.
4. Short of using a straight-razor, this will test your shaving skill to an unprecedented degree. If you thought you were good…just try this baby on for size.
5. It will make every other shave with a DE blade seem like Nirvana, sort of like how my 36 hour trip to Malaysia squeezed into the middle seat in Economy between a 350 lb. Aussie and his wife made every subsequent 5-6 hour flight seem like nothing at all.
In summary, I can repeat that this is really not a safety razor, but rather a straight-edge with a safety-razor handle. It is not for the faint of heart and I really can’t begin to imagine why anyone would use this on a regular basis. That being said, the great thing about gourmet shaving is that every man will have a different experience and YMMV. Buy this razor…because its there!
My recommendation to Classic Shaving will be that they play with the blade exposure to try and tame this beast a little so that it might be viable as a regular daily shaver. Its wide swath could certainly be a time-saver if only we could use the razor with a little more aplomb.
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