Blackland DART

Definitely level 1..

Definitely level 1..

I think most users who enjoy the Sabre L1 would find the Dart to be too aggressive. The L1 is decidedly mild and while I don't think the Dart is terribly aggressive, it's certainly more so than the L1. I hope that helps!

Shane,

So interesting reading your response. Am perfectly consistent in preferring razors squarely in the mild camp if on the aggressive spectrum of mild but below mid aggressive. My rotation includes duFour WR1 0,54 (by far the workhorse) through 0,67 as mild Timor blades wear. Also using a H&S N075Al and keeping a Ti when times comes all using Nacets.

All this to state clearly am a wuss compared to most here regarding facefeel and efficiency. Irrespective, from moment first put to face, your Dart impressed as the only Blackland suitable to my ultra sensative skin. Combined with price point, hard to explain why one not in rotation but perhaps that will be remedied soon. Without any hesitation would declare it the best sub $100 razor and suitable for any with mid mild to mid aggressive face feel preference altering along the spectrum through blade pairing.

Sorry to hear confirmed your disappointment with this product.

Shane,

So interesting reading your response. Am perfectly consistent in preferring razors squarely in the mild camp if on the aggressive spectrum of mild but below mid aggressive. My rotation includes duFour WR1 0,54 (by far the workhorse) through 0,67 as mild Timor blades wear. Also using a H&S N075Al and keeping a Ti when times comes all using Nacets.

All this to state clearly am a wuss compared to most here regarding facefeel and efficiency. Irrespective, from moment first put to face, your Dart impressed as the only Blackland suitable to my ultra sensative skin. Combined with price point, hard to explain why one not in rotation but perhaps that will be remedied soon.  Without any hesitation would declare it the best sub $100 razor and suitable for any with mid mild to mid aggressive face feel preference altering along the spectrum through blade pairing.

Sorry to hear confirmed your disappointment with this product.

Thanks for your feedback! And don’t feel bad for me. I’m not losing money or anything so from a failure standpoint it’s about as minor as they come. My disappointment is largely due to the disparity between my personal excitement for the Dart compared with the mixed reviews. No big deal though! Just have to keep pushing forward and developing new products.

Mine arrived today from Maggard's. I wasn't planning to order it but I posted a question about my other new acquisition, the Supply single edge, and Shane graciously and quite astutely offered an answer. Impressed by his help and his insight, I ordered the Dart.

Reviews for this, as you likely know, range from "it's wonderful but so aggressive" to "it's wonderful." I didn't know what to expect. By way of background, my daily driver is an ATT R2. After a solid month of daily use this razor and I have befriended one another. Other razors in the collection that I love are the Timeless Open Comb .95, my ATTs including the M1, the M2, the S1 and S2, and the SE1. I also have a Wolfman I bought years ago when the prices were significant but not bank busting. I've also become fond of my Artist Club shavettes, usually with a Kai blade with the guard. 

For me, the Dart is up there with the ATTs, the Timeless, and the Wolfman. I was expecting massive blade feel. But no, there wasn't any. I got a tiny weeper on my neck and two microweepers on my upper lip/mustache area, which is always a tricky spot. With the cold water rinse, the weepers went away. I mean they were tiny. The blade was a Gillette Platinum blue that had been used once before. It's not my favorite DE blade but I like it. 

Now, some have written that the Dart is so efficient they were BBS smooth after two passes. I have not met the razor that leaves me BBS smooth after two passes. I did the standard WTG, XTG, and ATG. The result is a wonderful shave. 

In case it's not clear, I love the Dart. Maggard's was great, as usual, and I would've bought directly from Blackland but feel the need to keep giving the love to Maggard's as a deserving vendor. Anyway, kudos to Shane. The Dart rocks. 

Awesome! I'm so glad to hear that you're enjoying the Dart. Equally happy that you supported Maggard and that they've treated you well. They are simply wonderful.

bumping this as I think I might pick one up to try during the 30-day return window.

Great razor. Probably better than Shane thinks it is .

Yes and no. I personally think the Dart is incredible. My wife loves it, too. I love it so much that when I first made it I was deeply worried that it would be more beloved than the Blackbird despite costing half as much. I think it's so smooth and efficient that I often prefer it over the Blackbird, though I do go back and forth. So in that vein of thought I know how great it is.

On the flip side, the wildly mixed reviews with no apparent consensus have crushed my confidence in the Dart as a product. With every other razor I at least have a feeling of what it is. We all agree that the Blackbird has a lot of blade feel and is mid-aggressive. We all agree that the Sabre L1 is mild. We agree that the Vector is mid-range with a touch of blade feel. We won't all like those products equally, but we at least know what they are. And that means that I can use that information to help customers find the right product for them. If they like mild razors I know the Sabre is the right recommendation. If they use an R41 and love blade feel then I know the Blackbird is the right choice. But what about the Dart? What the hell is it? I don't feel comfortable providing it as a recommendation because I don't feel there is sufficient consensus to merit one. When some users think it is the most aggressive razor they've ever used, others think it's extremely mild, and others, like me, think it's perfectly efficient with little blade feel and no risk, what do you tell a customer? I've stopped recommending it because the risk of them being severely disappointed isn't worth the possible upside of them loving it.

So, candidly, I've mostly given up on the Dart as a product. It's been probably the biggest business disappointment for me and the most frustrating part is that I don't understand why or how to avoid it in the future. Without agreement it's almost impossible for me to even be able to evaluate it in any objective measure. And, of course, no new customer wants to take a risk on a razor when the reviews are basically a coin toss and I don't blame them.

But, hey, at least you guys love it!

I've read similar posts from you before, Shane, but I'm always baffled. I have a Blackbird OC, Dart, Vector and Sabre L2. In my hand, the Dart is the most "mainstream" of all of them--not too hot, not too cold. I can get the same close shave from the Blackbird and the Dart, though the Dart feels much "friendlier" and milder on my face. I like a blade-forward razor, and thus enjoy the Blackbird more than the Dart, but every time I pick up the Dart I know I'm going to have a very efficient, effortless shave. I just don't get why others don't have the same experience, but that's what makes the world go 'round.

I put my order in. Let's see how it goes over the next 30 days!

Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk

I had the Blackbird first so when I got the Dart it seemed like a similar shave as far as efficiency. I really enjoyed the way the dart clamps the blade toward The cutting edge better. I've got some pretty course whiskers and especially against the grain I personally feel that helps in a better controlled feeling. Lately I've been messing around with other razors and my Blackbird is on loan but I want to get back to them, now that I have experienced some more razor. 
    To me it looks like the Dart would be the safer bet on sales and on the business end so that's a little baffling to me Blackland Razors 
   If anybody hasn't tried a Dart you could be missing out. 
  andrewjs18  I hope you enjoy your Dart, they just seem like a very well-thought-out razor.

I think what has been overlooked by some in the wet shaving community is that the Dart has a dual personality. When I used the Dart I had two options with it depending on how long between shaves I'd had gone. If I wanted a bit more feel on blade because I had more than 2 days of whiskers, I would go near riding the cap as it offered excellent blade feel and efficiency while not going over the top in the blade feel department. If it were on a daily run, I'd run that baby closer to the guard and it was extremely smooth and mild, but somehow managed to give efficient shaves with minimal blade feel. Never gave me a bad shave in the time I had it (traded it for a pink whale in the Eskimo Adjustable that I just had to have). Price/performance category is nearly unbeatable if you ask me. Damn, I miss that thing.

Come to think about it, Father's Day is just around the corner. Shane Blackland Razors, I just might take a look on the sight and see if you have any Polished Darts. I like shiny things and it has been a hot minute since my last Blackland purchase, a Polished Vector (Mmmm, Mmmm!).

Time to work on the Misses.....

    To me it looks like the Dart would be the safer bet on sales and on the business end so that's a little baffling to me Blackland Razors 
 

You'd think!

I think what has been overlooked by some in the wet shaving community is that the Dart has a dual personality. When I used the Dart I had two options with it depending on how long between shaves I'd had gone. If I wanted a bit more feel on blade because I had more than 2 days of whiskers, I would go near riding the cap as it offered excellent blade feel and efficiency while not going over the top in the blade feel department. If it were on a daily run, I'd run that baby closer to the guard and it was extremely smooth and mild, but somehow managed to give efficient shaves with minimal blade feel. Never gave me a bad shave in the time I had it (traded it for a pink whale in the Eskimo Adjustable that I just had to have).  Price/performance category is nearly unbeatable if you ask me. Damn, I miss that thing.

Come to think about it, Father's Day is just around the corner. Shane Blackland Razors, I just might take a look on the sight and see if you have any Polished Darts. I like shiny things and it has been a hot minute since my last Blackland purchase, a Polished Vector (Mmmm, Mmmm!).

Time to work on the Misses.....

We've got 'em! If she's anything like my wife maybe she'll want to use it, too. Merissa prefers it over anything else I make.

Please don't give up on the Dart. But if you do, let me know; I'll buy a spare.

What is the Dart? It's the best stainless steel razor on the market for under $100. Now, I haven't tried stainless razors that are even less expensive, though I've seen a few. But I'm willing to go out on a limb and argue that the Dart is peerless at its price. 

It's also not at either extreme of the scale as far as efficiency. The Feather AS-D2 is extremely mild for my face and beard. I have not used it daily for a few weeks but the only real advantage it offers me is that I can easily shave daily with it, even twice a day, without irritation or weepers. But getting a true BBS shave with it is quite difficult and close to impossible. For me. I've never tried the R41 but that seems to be the Mother of All Aggressive DE Razors. 

The Dart reminds me a bit of my early shaves with the ATT M1. Supposedly a mild razor, with some finding it too mild, I found it far from mild. It wasn't aggressive, but it could feel harsh. Weepers were easy to come by. I was surprised that Stan felt it was comparable to a SuperSpeed, and that the R1 was his idea of what most shavers would use as the daily driver. 

The Dart, though, feels far smoother than I remember the M1 feeling. And this is no knock on the M1, which I love. 

So what's the Dart's market? Experienced DE users -- people with at least a year or two using DEs -- who want to step up from their pot metal razors to a superb stainless razor that doesn't cost a fortune. Please note that I said "experienced" users, not "expert" users; you don't have to have your own youtube channel to love the Dart. But it's probably not for those who are just starting to use DE razors. Why not? Because novices will invariably press the razor against the face. It takes a while to learn to use no pressure. So the use of pressure combined with what might be a poor angle and less than optimal face prep mean that a newcomer should probably use a Merkur 38C or the equivalent from Jagger, Muhle, Maggard's, etc. 

It's like learning to drive. I wouldn't put a sixteen year old in a fancy car until he or she masters the skills and is truly comfortable driving in any weather, on any road, etc. 

The Dart is the perfect razor for the committed DE shaver who wants the very best without paying an exorbitant price. Within that are subcategories you mentioned, such as those who know they want a mild razor and those who like it rough and rugged. Those groups you can guide to the appropriate razors. 

For the rest of us, the Dart is the answer. 

This is one man's opinion, your mileage may vary, avoid prolonged use if you find yourself having psychotic episodes involving white rabbits trying to shave your whole family, don't operate after ten martinis, etc.