Last evening I loaded up my Rocnel with an Astra SP blade. First thoughts is that this is a beautiful razor with the different finishes on the SS giving it character. It is a heavy razor, especially since I have been using mostly Ti razors and the much lighter SS Tatara Muramasa. It is well balanced with a grip point similar to the one shown by
LOOT Lathered up ETHOS lavender and set the level to 1. I had a 48 hr beard so this was a good test for the Rocnel. WTG pass took down most of my wirey gray beard with ease. There was very slight blade feel but it was extremely smooth and I actually enjoyed the shorter handle as my pinkey could rest comfortably at the base.
Re lathered and went ATG on level 2. This was extremely smooth and other than a few small touchups I was wife approved BBS. Having used the original Barbaros & Rocnel adjustable and the Rocnel sailors excluding the 2020 I think this may be the smoothest of all of them, yet retaining the efficiency of the 2019. This is only a one shave impression and I plan on slowly dialing it up to see how long the smoothness lasts. This morning 12 hours post shave I am just starting to feel some stubble when I rub ATG. That’s impressive for a 2 pass shave using the 2 lowest levels.
I have a collection of vintage and modern adjustable razors as I am fascinated by their engineering and plan on doing some shave comparisons once I get a good handle on this new Rocnel. My collection is not as good as others on this forum but it should give a reasonable comparison of popular vintage and Modern adjustable razors.
Deus Vult,
AQU,
LOOT and
8 others like this post