Best Modern Safety Razor?
As one can gather from the title, this post will be about shaving. If you’ve read this blog long enough, you know that shaving is one of my favorite things. For those just now discovering this blog, it might be strange to read about shaving and things pertaining to shaving — brushes, creams / soaps, aftershaves, colognes, balms, blades, and, as the title states, razors.
In a previous post, I talked about my vintage Gillette Adjustable razors and in my opinion, one can’t get much better than choosing a Gillette Adjustable for a daily razor. They’re easy to use and one can dial in just the right efficiency for one’s skin and beard type. Recently, I’ve been using my Super-84, one of the last adjustable razors Gillette made. It’s consistently given me incredibly comfortable shaves.
Recently, however, I’ve had a couple of experiences on social media where comments were made about the Rockwell 6S — Adjustable Stainless Steel Razor. One shaver — Tim Tillock, The Shaving Tulsan — said he used the Rockwell to shave his head and would not go back to any other DE (double edge) razor for his head shaves.
Then, I watched a recent Kevy Shaves video where he was asked to use the Rockwell 6S on R1, it’s mildest setting, for all three passes and pickups (shaving any remaining stubble). The Rockwell 6S is one of Kevy’s favorite razors. He said that if he shaved every day, that would be the razor and setting he’d use.
This, of course, got me thinking — should I try using my Rockwell razor for my daily shaves? There are two caveats for me, though: my Rockwell is not the 6S and the plate alignment is not quite right. Let me explain.
Rockwell started as a Kickstarter campaign back in 2014 to “reinvent shaving” by creating a stainless steel, adjustable razor that was different from other adjustables up to that point.[1] They quickly met their goal and exceeded it by a very wide margin. The reviews for their products are some of the most impressive I’ve ever seen; with over 5200 reviews, 92% of them are 5 stars out of 5 stars.
After the success of the 6S, Rockwell came out with different models — the Rockwell 6C (an alloy version of the 6S) in either white chrome or gunmetal and the Rockwell Model T, a more traditional version of an adjustable razor with a butterfly opening head and a dial that allows one to adjust the blade exposure (like my vintage Gillette adjustable razors). The Model T comes in gunmetal, brushed chrome and white chrome. At one point Rockwell had a 2C — just like the 6C but it only came with the R1 / R3 base plate. Since I couldn’t afford the 6S (it’s $100), or the 6C (it’s $50) I opted for the 2C (it was only $30).[2]
When my razor arrived, the blade exposure was a little off. What I mean by that is one side of the razor is more aggressive than the other side. It’s noticeable with the eye and especially noticeable when one is shaving. I contacted Rockwell and explained the situation and they shipped out a replacement top cap (free of charge as their razors have a lifetime warranty). When that one arrived, it still wasn’t quite right so I purchased an R2 / R4 plate (I was wanting one anyway as the R1 was too mild). When that plate arrived it was still a little off but I didn’t do anything else with the razor. Since I generally shave with the R4 plate, the difference wasn’t as noticeable (though the difference can still be clearly seen).
Before one misunderstands, this isn’t a knock against Rockwell. Any company will have these types of issues.[3] What’s impressive, though, is their customer service — they’re always looking out for their customers and working to make things right.
So I decided to take Kevy’s challenge, which wasn’t really a challenge. I just decided to test his comment about using the Rockwell on a mild setting for my daily shave. So I loaded up a fresh Personna Blue blade and used the R2 plate while the rest of my daily shave set-up is the same — Phoenix Shaving’s Peregrino brush and their Scentsless shave soap in the CK6 formula.
The first thing I noticed was the difference of what’s called the “blade feel.” That’s just what it sounds like — how much of the blade does one feel on the face. For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been setting my Super-84 (which I’ve been using for months) to setting 4 for the first, with-the-growth (WTG) pass; setting 5 for the second, across-the-growth (XTG) pass; and finish with setting 6 for the final, against-the-growth (ATG) pass and pickups.[4] As one might expect, the blade feel is more noticeable with each pass. However, I wouldn’t classify any of these settings to be “aggressive;” they’re all quite comfortable.
But when I used the Rockwell with the R2 plate, I couldn’t really even feel the blade! I think the angle of the blade — along with its exposure, and how much of a gap is between the blade and the safety bar — is a lot different than that on the Gillette Super-84.[5]
In fact, here are the differences in the blade gap between the Rockwell and the Super-84:
As one can see, the lowest setting on the Super-84 is roughly equivalent to setting 3 on the Rockwell, which is why I’m barely feeling the blade.[6] The highest setting on the Rockwell is setting 5 on the Super-84.
So, how have the shaves been?
That’s the question, right? After two weeks of shaves using the R2 plate (shaving at least Monday through Friday), I can report that the shaves have been very comfortable. My only issue is the blade gap difference on my Rockwell razor — the blade on one side of the razor barely makes contact with my face and so I have to mainly use the other side. Also, since the shaves were very, very mild with little to no chance of actually cutting or nicking myself, I did have to go over my face and neck with multiple passes or a lot of blade buffering. On the last couple of days, this caused some very mild irritation on my neck.
Now, I must add that I don’t normally get nicks or cuts when I shave. I can’t even remember the last time I nicked myself shaving. But, my neck does get irritated from time to time, especially when going against-the-growth. And when that happens, I tend to only do with-the-growth and a modified across-the-growth passes. In those instances, though, the razor is dialed up to a 4 or 5, sometimes a 6. So the irritation is definitely tied to the aggressiveness of the blade angle, gap, and exposure.
The experiment makes me wonder about my Super-84; what if I tried shaving with it on setting 1? How would that go? Since there’s an 11mm gap difference — and a different angle of the blade — I wonder if it would be as comfortable as the Rockwell? I’ll do another two weeks of experiments and report back here with my results. Stay tuned!
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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[1] From what I can gather, Rockwell is the first company to create this system of different base plates to adjust blade exposure. Since then, other companies offer similar razors (e.g., Karve Shaving Company).
[2] The Rockwell 6S is now in a variety of colors, too — blue, red, matte black, and the standard matte stainless. I prefer the standard matte stainless.
[3] I’ve got a Parker 87R that has a butterfly head. If you close the doors all the way, there’s a very noticeable gap in the doors on one side. I contacted the seller and they shipped me out a replacement. That one has the same issue. If I don’t close the doors all the way, the gap issue doesn’t happen but the blade is no longer secure. I contacted the seller again and they gave me store credit. That razor now sits in my drawer unused. But that’s just me. Others have this rasor and don’t have this issue.
[4] I’ve just recently started doing this. I generally will pick a setting (say, 4) and do all passes. Sometimes, if my neck is irritated, I might dial this down to a 3 or 2. But, as one can see above, I’m increasing the aggression of the razor for each pass. I thought I’d try this because I’d still have some stubble left over and was trying to eliminate doing pick-ups. Just having the ability to do these incremental changes during a shave is exactly why an adjustable razor is the way to go.
[5] Matt Pisarcik from Razor Emporium said in a video (I can’t remember which one) that when using a Gillette adjustable, it’s not only the blade gap changing but the angle of the blade, too. With modern razors, that doesn’t happen.
[6] I generally use the flip side of the R2 plate, R4, to shave my head as I go a few days between head shaves.
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