New razors using the GEM Blade?

Thanks for all the input.  I'm about to start blogging and was thinking about an article for those truly wanting to reduce shaving cost, such as those living on fixed income.  

I went and checked out the Blackland Sabre and am very impressed by several things:

• The pricing is very fair for a machined stainless razor made in the USA.
  
• I know more about steel used for cutting edges than for applications like this.  Having said that, it looks like they chose the right steel for the application.  Many are familiar with another company that made premium razors.  They didn't select the right steel for the job and the razor would break if dropped, which wasn't covered by warranty.
  
• Being made in Illinois and finished in OH means a lot to me.  As a country, we are moving towards a society with rich and poor and not much in the middle. US manufacturing creates jobs for the middle.
  
• Further, I believe a country's ability to manufacture is important for security reasons.  One of the reasons the Nazi military was so effective in the early years of WW2 is because they were the manufacturing shop for all of Europe.
  

I look forward to seeing the next version of PAA's Starling.

Thanks for the comments! I agree on all fronts. We also use custom USA-made packaging and offer a 30-day return policy. There are a lot of great razors and razor makers out there. It’s tough to go wrong with most of them and I’m happy to see great products and service becoming the standard in this market.

Stud


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I cant remember for the life of me but people were posting pictures of the issues, was it regarding the blade not resting on the blade stops? How are the new plates, did you change up few things and got the issues resolved or you think the reported issues were people over reacting?
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I think it was a little of both. But as I mentioned above, we were relying on the community for feedback, which it provided. All that went into the development of the new base plates. The original base plates had a "floating head" which didn't gel with everyone, and that's cool. But I think the new bases will really get folks stoked!
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now that caught my attention, thanks

Anybody else able to snag the new Starling V2 from PAA today? It sold out in under an hour I guess. Looking forward to trying it out when it arrives.

I look forward to trying it as well.

I snagged one. It will get here Friday. Can post some notes after the shave that night.

Been on hiatus from the DFS forums, and first day back I order two razors.

Got the Starling in today. Will post pics and thoughts after I shave tonight.

It does look nice!

Ok. So got the shave done. This is my first time with a GEM style SE razor, and this was with a blade from CVS since my sample from tryablade comes tomorrow.

So first I will look at aesthetics. The razor looks nice. The finish on all the pieces is very nicely done. I do not see any place where the finish looked bad.

The threading was smooth and tightened nicely. Of course not over tightening the aluminum. Both plates seemed to tighten down nicely on blades with no noticeable play in the plates or blade . I chose to use the open comb plate for the first shave.

The shave? It was pretty darn good. Used my PAA Cedar Fever soap. Two passes and some small touchups gave near BBS.  It was pretty easy to find a good angle. I has a slight clog at one point on the first cutdown pass. This was just me not rinsing the razor frequent enough. My normal shave schedule this should never be a problem. The razor had a good feedback. I definitely could hear that I was shaving, but it was not too loud. I had no knicks or scraps. Zero irritation. Even with poor quality blade. It felt very solid while shaving. One thing I noticed. I was able to get the area under my nose easier than any of my DE razors.

It is definitely different that my DE razors. I really liked shaving with it. I am looking forward to getting the better blades in, and experimenting.

Nice initial review and great pictures, momor! Thank you, sir!

momor, you should notice a big difference once you shave with the GEM PTFE coated blades. They are MUCH better than the ones you can buy at the drug store in my experience.

Thanks for note. I have some of those blades arriving today. So I expect the shave with the Starling to be even more enjoyable.