Atelier DURDAN La Faulx SE AC

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It all depends by the closeness someone wants to get and, of course, by the kind of hair to me. I shave daily, three passes with each razor I have in use, including WR2 1.85 and aggressive ones. To me the already mild Paradigm SE is more efficient by a lot. Surely the Paradigm has charisma, while the Durdan has not imho. I found the + baseplate with the Feather Super to be more effective than the ++ with the same blade. I will not use guard blades anymore, I did, perhaps they're fine for light hairs. I am glad you found your goat, in my experience this razor is boring and does not shave close (like glass!) enough with a pour lasting Bbs.

It all depends by the closeness someone wants to get and, of course, by the kind of hair to me. I shave daily, three passes with each razor I have in use, including WR2 1.85 and aggressive ones. To me the already mild Paradigm SE is more efficient by a lot. Surely the Paradigm has charisma, while the Durdan has not imho. I found the + baseplate with the Feather Super to be more effective than the ++ with the same blade. I will not use guard blades anymore, I did, perhaps they're fine for light hairs. I am glad you found your goat, in my experience this razor is boring and does not shave close (like glass!) enough with a pour lasting Bbs.

Thanks for sharing more details on your experience with the La Faulx plates. I rank the La Faulx as one of my top razors, so much so that I will be purchasing a backup copy. However, today I only have the standard plate. And because I have a fairly demanding beard profile, I can only use the standard plate with a Feather Pro Super. Any other traditional AC blade exposure will not be sufficient with the standard plate. For comparison, the Blackbird Ti is a minimum starting point, and at one point I was considering the WR2 in 1.65.

So I was intrigued by your description of the feather super and ++ plate combination. While I have never discussed it with Augustin, I would be surprised if the ++ plate geometry was optimized for the additional exposure of a Super blade. My hope was the ++ plate would deliver close to an equivalent effectiveness of the Super and standard plate, so that I could use a larger selection of traditional unguarded AC blades. Having said that, I would not mind a small increase in efficiency over the standard and Super combination, even though I can achieve 12+ hour BBS with a low usage count Super blade.

Now learning that Sascoman  has a +++ plate in the works is even more interesting. I need to send a note to Augustin, as I have to reconsider which plates I am going to next purchase.

Fortunately, we have so many razor options today that each shaver can likely find an offering that works best for their beard profile.

I know what you mean about the demanding profile, here that happens too, Blackbird being just acceptable, a starting point as you said.
In my experience the ++ with more standard blades like Feather Pro, Kai Pink, Schick Proline does not add that remarkable 'plus' you're looking for. Also I strongly believe the whole geometry of the La Faulx is already done with the standard baseplate. Augustin should revisit it quite a bit if he really wants to add efficiency to the razor. Increasing just the exposure doesn't make a razor better. I measured the gaps and mine are marginally only different, a tiny. Many times this way of increasing exposure only does not work. Try for example the Maurice with a Kai, it becomes garbage a bit. Sorry if this sounds rough. Very interested about the +++ baseplate, never heard about it honestly, I know Augustin would do that for the Vestige. If only exposure will change I believe it will not work so good.

Gaps are remarkably close, I didn't realise only having tried the standard plate. Was considering the + but it's very similar to the standard.



I believe Augustin set out to make a smooth razor as opposed to a highly efficient one. Maybe the OC would be a better choice in your case or a completely different razor.

I know what you mean about the demanding profile, here that happens too, Blackbird being just acceptable, a starting point as you said.
In my experience the ++ with more standard blades like Feather Pro, Kai Pink, Schick Proline does not add that remarkable 'plus' you're looking for. Also I strongly believe the whole geometry of the La Faulx is already done with the standard baseplate. Augustin should revisit it quite a bit if he really wants to add efficiency to the razor. Increasing just the exposure doesn't make a razor better. I measured the gaps and mine are marginally only different, a tiny. Many times this way of increasing exposure only does not work. Try for example the Maurice with a Kai, it becomes garbage a bit. Sorry if this sounds rough. Very interested about the +++ baseplate, never heard about it honestly, I know Augustin would do that for the Vestige. If only exposure will change I believe it will not work so good.

Thanks, also, for sharing your experience. Personally, the La Faulx with Classic blade gap is my holy grail razor. Like rocket, I love mine so much that I plan to buy a backup. I never want to be without it.  To me, changing the La Faulx design in any way would be like changing a world-famous artwork. One thing my SE razors have convinced me of is that razors that others like may not work for me. I've tried practically every blade in my Blackland Ti Vector and still can't get a smooth shave out of it. Yet, many others love it. And when I shave with the Classic gap La Faulx, I get a super close (and smooth) shave even with 2-3 days growth. It seems like our various skin and whiskers can be so different that one person's grail is another person's Buy-Sell-Trade post.

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Porpoise time with 12th use Kai Protouch MG 

I hope a +++ baseplate will come with the time. Based on what I know it's not in the plans. Augustin please do it!

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GOAT of smooth and plenty efficient - absolute pleasure to use every time 

Have a Vestige and La Faulx both in +++ coming.  It's latest activity is it's left France and arrived in Germany.  It's got a ways to go before it hits the US.