Menlo Shaving Nealon Razor - DFS Pass Around

Final shave with the Nealon tonight. At the last minute since I was lathering my Hawaiian Shaving Co Laupahoehoe soap, I decided to swap handles and use my Hawaiian Milo wood handle.



As with the previous night, there was not much stubble to shave off, however I lathered up anyway. For the WTG pass, I tried an in between angle, and there was significant blade feel and noise. the shave was efficient though and so for those that need to hear the razor do it's work, I guess this would be the angle. I eventually reverted back to riding the bar for ATG and it was very smooth and efficient. It appears that the Nealon was designed to be a bar rider. I finished up with an XTG along my jaw line and under my chin only because that was what I did the previous nights. Another comfortable and efficient BBS.

I have to admit that the Nealon impressed me very much. I am not sure I will end up getting one only because my preference is to ride the cap and not the bar too much, however I am also very aware that the Nealon has given me three great and consistent shaves for the time I had it.

I would like to thank ALI and Menlo Shaving for putting this pass around together. The Nealon is packed up and will be sent off to Whisker_whacker tomorrow.

1. Dave in KY (Completed)
2. gvw755 (WA state) (Completed)
3. Whisker Whacker (TX state)(enroute)
4. Keto (MO)
5. Shavemd (Ohio) removed at my request
6. slantman (Florida)
7. OptoCritic (Maine)
8. Marhos24 (Michigan)
9. Razorman (New Jersey) Removed at my request
10. drdeemanda (MA)
11. cino (Georgia)
12. bobmsp (Minnesota)
13. vadim (Maryland)
14. gwsmallwood (AZ)
15. Ketotrader (VA)
16.
17.

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Received the razor and handles today. Won’t be shaving tomorrow but the next day will and will post initial thoughts. Razor has a beautiful finish. Thanks for letting me be a part of this passaround!

Thank you and looking forward to hearing your thoughts

First Shave 

First shave with the Menlo Nealon razor complete with 48 hr growth and a 3 pass er. 

Blade: Astra SP
Razor: Meno Nealon
Soap: Seaforth Sea Spice Lime
Brush: Prometheus B11
Aftershave: ETHOS unscented 

First thing I noticed was that the threads on the post of this head are quite long as seen in the pic below compared to a Lupo .95. So for those of you who may want to swap out the handle for yours, it would have to be a pretty deeply bored handle. While all 3 handles are nice, I enjoy knurled handles the most so will try it out with my Weber wave handle tomorrow. 

If your looking for a super smooth, no blade feel razor like the Tatara Matsume or Karve then this one is not for you. She’s got quite a bit of blade feel, on the same playing field as my CG lvl 3 or ikon shavecraft. A bit less blade feel on my carbon Ti .68 and Wolfman WR1 .80. 

I’ve been going back to the basics lately playing around with shave angles and found the WTG & XTG pass with this first shave to work best with a steeper angle. When it came time for the ATG pass the steep angle was a bit uncomfortable so I switched to a standard 30° and it seemed to smooth it out a bit. 

Tomorrow will begin daily shaves until Saturday and I will ship the razor to the next participant Monday. I’m going to run it up against my CG lvl 3 tomorrow and switch to a little sharper blade to see what kind of results I can find. 

The scent of the sea spice lime is amazing. The lather however is the reason I ended up passing along my Heather soap by them. It’s a bit airy and doesn’t seem to hold the water/structure well throughout the shave. I’ll switch to a synthetic tomorrow to see if it can get it dialed in a little better. 

All in all, a great BBS/glass result from this razor. 2 small weepers at the end. 48hr growth is my sweet spot but unfortunately for work, daily shaves a re required. Happy shaves everyone!

Second Shave 

Second shave with the Menlo Nealon razor complete with 24 hr growth and a 3 pass er going up against my CG lvl 3.

Blades: Personna lab blue
Razor: Menlo Nealon/CG lvl 3
Soap: Seaforth Sea Spice Lime
Brush: PAA Solar Flare
Aftershave: ETHOS unscented 

Today I swapped the Menlo handle for a UFO titanium handle. I ended up with a little better control of the razor overall. 

I was surprised to find that the Menlo had less blade feel than the CG lvl 3. Went with all steep angles this time for all 3 passes and the sharper blade made the shave a smoother experience (or possibly due to 24 hr growth vs 48). The audible feedback on the CG lvl 3 was more noticeable. Can confidently say now that it’s a step below the aggression/blade feel of the CG lvl 3 and Ikon tek as I previously posted. 

Feeling my face now 15mins after the shave I’d say a very slight tiny nod goes to the CG lvl 3 for the efficiency side of things. But it’s almost too close to tell. Both razors require your upmost attention during the shave but the Menlo was a bit smoother so there’s a trade off.

A great razor that I didn’t think I would enjoy this much. But I love these passarounds, it’s how I found and fell in love with the Carbon Ti. Will the Menlo join the ranks in my den, too soon to tell but it’s a damn good razor. 

If I were god for a day I’d probably loose the wavy top cap design as I don’t see it serving a purpose other than to set it apart from other razors/asthetics. Maybe it cuts costs somehow? I’m sure that there’s a purpose for the rather large safety bar portion but I’d prolly slim the recessed portion down as well as it’s not as easy to get into tight spots due to the size the lather channels make the head. Would these change the way the razor shaves, I don’t know. Maybe Menlo can speak to this design and it’s purpose? 

Using my PAA synthetic today yielded much better results with the seaforth soap. Not pictured is my copper captains choice bowl which I recently acquired and has been the best bowl I’ve tried yet (part of my whole going back to the basics). Best results when bowl lathering and then painting onto face with no face lathering/scrubbing. Starting to think face lathering might be irritating my skin a bit throughout the weeks daily shaves. 

Tomorrow the Menlo runs up against my Carbon Ti .68 which is one of my top performers. Enough blade feel to get my stubborn whiskers but smooth enough to get BBS all day everyday. Happy Friday everyone! 

These design choices and considerations are a result of making a fresh from the ground up new design on a razor head.  The cap grooves are simply aesthetic.  We wanted it to look unique.   The safety bar's size is just a projection / extension of the shave plane angle.  Yes it could be smaller but after testing that's what was settled on.  It still can get into tight places since the cap is a slim head.  Most of design in general is a series of compromises and considerations.  I'm loving the feedback.  Thanks all!

Thanks for the reply and the look into the process