Menlo Shaving

  Mostly I'm satisfied with this razor.[/font][/size]

Love it!  Beautiful razor, draebeard, and sorry to slightly derail the thread (okay, I'm not really, my love for the movie is too much for me to resist!)
And The Princess Bride provides soo many good scenes, right Dave in KY?!

My favorite at work:

You need to find this mug!

I had a fantastic first shave using a Gillette Silver Blue blade—BBS throughout. If this first shave is any indication of future shaves, I am going to love this razor. The gap and head design allows you to roll back on the cap or roll onto the blade guard to give you some micro-adjustments during shaving. I do a lot of buffing to get every last bit of stubble and this razor delivers without any nicks, cuts or irritation. No regrets purchasing this razor.

A note to Menlo Shaving: I would have liked to have a nylon washer between the head and handle, at least for shipping purposes. My handle was loosely tightened on the head, and I was lucky and incurred no scratches on the baseplate during shipping. I do use a washer between the baseplate and handle; the top cap on the Nealon has plenty of thread length.

Mine is supposed to arrive tomorrow. What aren't you satisfied with?

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Mine is supposed to arrive tomorrow. What aren't you satisfied with?

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I said I was mostly satisfied, and I've only shaved with it once.  However the weight balance between the head and handle is (in my opinion) very uneven.  The head weighs a mere 27 grams, and the handle a hefty 71 grams.  Also the head doesn't curve the blade as much as I had hoped for, making it a little less smooth than I desired.  But that could have been due to my choice of a new Feather blade.  For my shave tomorrow I'm going to use the Timeless TRH8 handle, which weighs 42 grams (1.5 x the weight of the head), and a milder blade (a Nacet or Voskhod, I haven't yet decided).  Right now I don't want to say anything other than that I'm mostly satisfied.

I do like that timeless razor handle. Need one... Other than weight, do you find the Menlo handle slippery? I've wondered about that with the high polish.

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I do like that timeless razor handle. Need one... Other than weight, do you find the Menlo handle slippery? I've wondered about that with the high polish.

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Not a fan of the handle but love the way it shaves

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I am now into my fourth shave with the Nealon. After the third shave with a Gillette Blue Silver blade I switched to a Feather. The Nealon is an aggressive razor and it clearly demonstrates this property when you shave with a very keen blade, like the Feather. You have to deftly shave all areas of your face as the blade exposure with a Feather blade on the Nealon will quickly wake you up while demanding respect and attention.

The head of the Nealon is visually deceiving as it appears to be more substantial when it comes to material than it is. Upon studying the head, Jeremy (the owner of Menlo Shaving) has gone to great extents in bringing every surface and thickness to the very cusp where removing further material would lead to failure. Dropping this razor and landing on its head, even in a sink, let alone to the floor will likely lead to a bent safety bar. I mean the safety bars are almost a skeletal metal version of a normal head. Tolerances are so close on the width of the razor that if you place you fingers on both sides go the top cap you just can just barely feel the tab edges of the razor blade. The head assembly is a work of art and deserves praise for its fabrication and weight.

Rawfox1 and draebeard have mentioned, among others, their concerns regarding the handle. I do not mind the handle as it has characteristics I look for in a handle, but dreabeard is definitely onto something when he switched the Nealon handle for a lighter titanium handle. I switched to my Paradigm Shaveware Ti I handle and it makes a marked difference when using a sharper blade. You not only have a better balance, I have found that all aggressive DE razors benefit from being fabricated with lighter materials, such as titanium. Lighter weight simply allows you to gauge blade pressures much better the more aggressive a razor is. Other than liking the handle, I do agree that this particular Menlo Shaving razor would be much better with a lighter handle than the existing handle.  Playing on dreabared’s comments, my Paradigm Ti I tapered handle is only shy of 47 grams versus the 71 gram Nealon handle. The head assembly weight of the Paradigm Ti I is shy of 23 grams versus the 27 gram Nealon head assembly, so the Ti I’s handle plays and shaves well with the Nealon head assembly. Using the Nealon with a current Menlo Shaving handle (there are four Menlo Shaving handles to chose from) will work well with a smoother razor blade. If you want to reach the Nealon’s full potential and take advantage of the blade exposure I would use a lighter handle and sharper razor blade whereby you will be rewarded with an excellent shave.

My favorite DE razor is the Paradigm Ti I and the Nealon is the same category. For a first razor from Menlo Shaving the Nealon is a keeper and a great start to the ones to come.

I really like the æsthetics of the Menlo handle, but functionally it's just too long heavy and slick.  This morning I used a Timeless titanium TRH8 handle and a Nacet blade, but I think I like the even smaller and lighter Tibam handle (80 mm X 12 mm @ 33 g), or the chromed brass Durham-Duplex handle (75 mm X 10 mm @ 43 g).  I'll be using those over the next few shaves.  Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the Menlo handle.

Got my first shave in and if I could only use one word to describe it, it would be: harsh. The first time I use any razor I always use an Astra platinum blade, which is clearly the wrong pairing for this razor. Got lots of nicks which hasn't happened in a long time for me. Not sure what to pair it with, and to be honest I might go use another razor for my next couple shaves before coming back to the Menlo. It is definitely an aggressive razor with lots of blade feel. I know many on this forum like a more aggressive razor, and the Menlo falls into that category. I don't love the handle, but I also don't hate it. It is heavy, but slipping wasn't an issue for me.

Now I need to decide what blade to use in the future.

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Nealon is in stock and shipping immediately now