HomelikeShaving and their START SS Razor. From Russia with Love....

Last couple of shaves are complete.  I went with a Feather and the 1.18 plate for the final 2 shaves.  In summary, it's a good razor, and an excellent value.  But it doesn't wow me, and it's not quite good enough to steal a spot in my current rotation.  I'm so thankful that I got a chance to try one out and wouldn't have any problem recommending it to others, though.  I'll be cleaning it up tonight and getting it on its way to kooshman7 tomorrow.

Pros

• Value
  
• Appearance
  
• Comfort
  
• OC geometry is more comfortable than my ATT H2
  

Cons (nitpicks, really)

• Shaving Angle is a bit narrow.
  
• It's head-heavy with the Start Handle
  
• Having the blade tabs covered makes edging sideburns and beards a challenge because the safety bar extends past the blade.
  
• 1.18 Not quite as efficient as the gap would suggest
  
• Threaded post on top cap could be a bit longer, particularly when using with a washer/spacer
  

Okay so I might be picking up a Wolfman WR1 on Craigslist today. Lol if thats the case I won't be shaving with the Homelike today and will mail it out to you before 5PM david581. Otherwise tommorow morning it'll be on it's way to you!

Homelike Start is on its way to david581! ETA Monday. Enjoy. It definitely is a great razor and great value for $150. If I liked it better then my Karve and Gamechanger I would have bought one. It was better in some ways though! I'll try and post a detailed review to sum up the experience. Thanks for the opportunity. It was enjoyable and it's fun to try premium razors at the cost of shipping. How awesome. 

The West Coast Razor is on its way to kooshman7. Thanks again to Andrew, Homelike, and everyone here at DFS involved in putting this passaround together.

I'm 9 1/2 weeks of waiting for my Start razor because it shipped out Nov 26th.
It finally got to K.C on the 22nd and supposedly left K.C. on the 26th. In transit to the next facility that's like 9 1/2 weeks in travel.
Edit: This was the $14 international shipping from my order. I'm not sure at this point if there was another option, but this one stinks!

Amazon got 3 tools here from probably K.C. in 1 day .

Does anyone know when the website will restock?

Took delivery of the Start today here for West Coast. I’ll get my shaves in and have this out Monday morning!

Doing my review for this razor I want to keep as many variables consistent as possible.
 
Noting that my standard gear will be:

• G20 Scuttle
  
• Proraso Preshave
  
• Alum bar (also as grip aid)
  
• Simpson Cream Lavender & Vetiver
  
• Nivea Face Wash
  
• Personna Lab Blue (New Everyday)
  
• Brush will vary, but I’ll keep it to badgers
  

 
Taking everything out of the box I was left with a good impression. The base plates look well polished, have a good heft to it which I prefer, and left a good impression. The knurling on the razor at first felt a bit too little, but warmed up to it fast. I thought grip might suffer from not having deep knurling and being polished, but using alum on all fingers before shaving helped significantly.

I chose the 1.18 gap having about 2 days of stubble. It typically takes about 4-5 days to get any appreciable growth, but it seems to escalate quickly after that. I’ve never used a gap this high before from what I know of the gap numbers for my other razors. I grabbed my Blackbird as I was expecting an efficient and aggressive shave from the 1.18 gap, which I did get. I view the Blackbird as my most aggressive and efficient for what I have. It mows down hair fast, but can leave the skin feeling harsh. I only used the Blackbird for a few strokes to confirm my thoughts I had going into the shave with the 1.18.

I was expecting the Start razor at this gap to be quite efficient and aggressive, and I was right, but from years of reading the forums of slow and steady and letting the razor head do the work popped into my head like usual whenever I have something I’m expecting to be a bit harsh. I consider myself to do this pretty well, but I think I did even better with it this time, and it really helped. I could feel some harshness like I’ve experienced with other aggressive razors like the Blackbird and an ATT H1, but this shave went good. Good enough to easily say it was my best shave with an aggressive razor. I used the Blackland for just a short bit to confirm my experience with that, and found the razor a bit more aggressive and harsh.

Balance for the razor I noted when I first held it felt a bit off, as if it was maybe too short before shaving, but once actually shaving with the razor, it felt like an old friend I’ve used for a long time. I noticed my hands moving around instinctively closer to the end and closer to the top unconsciously, but conscious enough to note the hand movement. Finding a good blade angle came easily, and had a wide sweet spot. Some razors like the Blackbird are a bit more finicky, but not excessively so. One extra area of note that seemed to work especially well was around the lips and under the nose which can be a bit of a tougher area to shave cleanly in one pass. On blade chatter, I can’t note about that as I can’t think of a razor where I felt like the blade wasn’t secure. I didn’t have this here and won’t talk about it again unless I feel like it is there. I can’t see this being a problem as I just can’t think of any times in 10 years where I’ve had concerns the blade wasn’t securely held down.

The shave I got for my first shave is BBS. Simpsons shaving cream has always been good to me, and leaves my face feeling great, so I don’t expect there to be much variance here. The blade I chose has been a reliable blade as well, and I want to minimize as much as possible any problems down to my own technique. I have a bit of razor burn at my neckline, but this is common when I use an aggressive razor. This I believe is due to technique not being up to par, but do note this is my best shave I have had with such a wide gap razor and goes to show me to pay attention to technique! A definite great start for the Start razor!

Received the razor from Drew!

Second day:

Brush for the day was Declaration B1 Franklin. Used a Feather AS-D2 to compare with the Start .69 gap

I forgot to mention yesterday that I only do two passes when I shave. One WTG, and one which mostly approximates to a ATG while bordering close to WTG still. My neckline is where I have the most sensitivity and I shave it in a particular way that would be too hard to describe. I use Coral Skin Food or another ASB I forget the name of right now. I'll use it next time and take a picture.

I used the Feather with a Personna Lab Blue on my left side of my face, and the Start .69 on my right side of my face. Glad I chose such mild razors for my face as my face hasn't seen daily shaves for awhile now. A bit of soreness, but the CSF works well in helping that. Might delay my next shave a day or not. Both passes were pretty similar. I did note that the Start .69 is just a bit more efficient and aggressive with more blade feel than the AS-D2. The Start razor has a bit more heft with a thicker handle, but the AS-D2 obviously has a better grip with it's knurling. Balance felt good on both, and both razors left me with a fine shave on both sides and can't feel a difference between the two in terms of the shave. In terms of my preferences I would give perhaps a slight nod to the Start Razor. There's just a bit more gap there to get hairs that the Feather doesn't get to normally, but when you make the Feather a daily razor you can overcome its shortcomings and it makes an excellent daily razor. When you factor in the cost of the Start and all the plates you get vs the price of the Feather it really is no contest there. Value is easily on the side of the Start razor in it's complete bundle. I prefer the handle of the Feather more with its aesthetics and grip, but note that grip hasn't been a problem for me while using Alum. I'll try to not use alum a few times to see how the grip is on the Start without Alum, but that might be hard. I use alum to aid with brush grip even, and it is mostly unconsciously done so I have more than one scenario when I might grab it.

If anyone has any suggestions on what to comment on feel free to share them. I haven't done too many razor reviews. I'm not sure of the value two razors together for a shave as my right side grows thicker and is a touch more complicated than my left side, and I feel like that can skew things a bit. I just would like to give as much information as I can comparing how this performs to what I have.

Good Morning

The next batch of START is ready for sale, on the website we will add on Monday both sets and accessories.