First shave with my Henson razor. Let me start by saying I have never kept an aluminum razor, even the Mongoose felt flimsy to me.
Head weighs in at 16g and total weight of 38g
The finish is average to above average and the balance is very good. The handle has deep knurling to provide excellent grip. There is very little blade extending beyond the Rasor edge and it definitely is a very firm grip at the edge of the blade. Due to this I purposely added more water than normal to my ETHOS soap to get more slickness and less density as there is the least amount of blade reveal of any of my razors.
I did a 3 pass shave
PreShave Hot shower and ETHOS First lather
Soap ETHOS Melange de Agrumes
Brush Greydog
Blade First use PolSilver Poland
Post Thayers lemon and ETHOS Melange de Agrumes
With a slightly thinner lather than normal I did a WTG first pass using Short strokes and skin stretching I got a very good DFS on a 24 hour beard. The razor definitely gave good audible feedback to let me know I was clearing those whiskers
2nd pass XTG. Again a thinner lather with great slickness I had very good audible feedback and got a very smooth pass. Rinse and feel, I needed a 3rd pass on my midline neck under the jawline and under the nose.
3rd pas ATG this led to a very smooth BBS shave. No nicks or irritation at all.
The design of this razor is a marriage of Timeless and Blackbird IMHO giving a very rigid blade with a very flat cutting surface. There is very little blade extruding from the edge of the razor, yet it provides a very clean irritation free shave.
I have never been a fan of aluminum and if this razor is ever made in SS or Brass I will buy it but first impressions are if you like a mild to mid razor and are OK with a full 3 pass shave it is definitely a razor to consider, especially at $40 USD. The head design is definitely innovative and I am impressed with my first shave.