Member
Some time ago Shane kindly reached out to me asking if I wanted to give an early plastic prototype version of his Blackbird OC baseplate a try. As I had a very favorable impression of his SB version I readily accepted the offer.
Disclaimer:
This is a plastic, lightweight prototype and for that reason I will not, for obvious reasons, be able to comment on finish, durability and build quality. This will be more of a high-level impression "preview" focusing on design and shave quality (taking the prototype limitations into consideration). Phew.
So let's have a closer look at...The Blackland Blacbird OC
[Image: 2zezg2b.jpg]
First impressions/Design
Ignoring the fact that it's printed in white plastic (
) the first thing one notices is of course the teeth.
Counting the end-teeth there are 12 in total which is actually fewer than you normally see on a head of this size (iKon B1: 14, Gillette DR: 14, Wolfman: 16) so I was intrigued to see how comfortable it would feel with fewer teeth supporting the blade against the skin.
There's a balance, I would assume, when designing this - between lather flow-through and face-comfort.
The second thing you may notice is that the corners have received a slight design change.
Gone are the sharp edges that some users felt were too sharp during the shave.
Personally I never had any issues with the edges but I think it's a very clever design change.
Apart from the above the rest of the design is very "Blackbird" as you can see below.
[Image: ezj0iu.jpg]
[Image: w1zs08.jpg]
The white "Dove" next to the Blackbird for comparison.
[Image: 2m5kl5g.jpg]
[Image: 2rgkl7b.jpg]
Loaded with a blade:
[Image: k9uz5v.jpg]
[Image: v6ptg9.jpg]
[Image: 1255oo4.jpg]
SHAVE REPORT 1
This morning I had my first real shaving experience with the Blackbird OC.
I loaded a Personna blade into it, lathered up some Jabonman Rosas soap and had at it.
I typically don't shave on the weekend so it had about three days worth of stubble to deal with.
The first thing I notice is that it's a very, very efficient design. I angle the razor as I do when using it with its SB baseplate and the stubble is being cut down very close to my skin in a rather effortless way.
I complete one pass (WTG) and it was quite honestly 'enough' as I had achieved a very socially acceptable shave.
I believe I rated the Blackland SB as a 5-6 on a Gillette Slim.
I would, comparing it to that, say that the OC baseplate is more in line with a 7, maybe 8 on the Gillette Slim.
More aggressive but not quite 'barking about to bite' like, say, my King Cobra.
I feel it's hard to really assess how comfortable it is due to it being in printed plastic and that material does have more of a tendency to 'drag' a bit against your skin and not being as smooth as, say, a stainless steel baseplate would be. I would however say that adding a couple more teeth may, to me, not be a bad idea as the [at least perceived] wider gap between the teeth had a more noticeable feel against my face and I'm thinking a couple of more teeth could mitigate that feeling.
I'll be shaving with it again this week and will post the next shave report here as I don't think one shave is enough to get a complete feel for it.
[Image: aylok5.jpg]
Disclaimer:
This is a plastic, lightweight prototype and for that reason I will not, for obvious reasons, be able to comment on finish, durability and build quality. This will be more of a high-level impression "preview" focusing on design and shave quality (taking the prototype limitations into consideration). Phew.
So let's have a closer look at...The Blackland Blacbird OC
[Image: 2zezg2b.jpg]
First impressions/Design
Ignoring the fact that it's printed in white plastic (
) the first thing one notices is of course the teeth.Counting the end-teeth there are 12 in total which is actually fewer than you normally see on a head of this size (iKon B1: 14, Gillette DR: 14, Wolfman: 16) so I was intrigued to see how comfortable it would feel with fewer teeth supporting the blade against the skin.
There's a balance, I would assume, when designing this - between lather flow-through and face-comfort.
The second thing you may notice is that the corners have received a slight design change.
Gone are the sharp edges that some users felt were too sharp during the shave.
Personally I never had any issues with the edges but I think it's a very clever design change.
Apart from the above the rest of the design is very "Blackbird" as you can see below.
[Image: ezj0iu.jpg]
[Image: w1zs08.jpg]
The white "Dove" next to the Blackbird for comparison.
[Image: 2m5kl5g.jpg]
[Image: 2rgkl7b.jpg]
Loaded with a blade:
[Image: k9uz5v.jpg]
[Image: v6ptg9.jpg]
[Image: 1255oo4.jpg]
SHAVE REPORT 1
This morning I had my first real shaving experience with the Blackbird OC.
I loaded a Personna blade into it, lathered up some Jabonman Rosas soap and had at it.
I typically don't shave on the weekend so it had about three days worth of stubble to deal with.
The first thing I notice is that it's a very, very efficient design. I angle the razor as I do when using it with its SB baseplate and the stubble is being cut down very close to my skin in a rather effortless way.
I complete one pass (WTG) and it was quite honestly 'enough' as I had achieved a very socially acceptable shave.
I believe I rated the Blackland SB as a 5-6 on a Gillette Slim.
I would, comparing it to that, say that the OC baseplate is more in line with a 7, maybe 8 on the Gillette Slim.
More aggressive but not quite 'barking about to bite' like, say, my King Cobra.
I feel it's hard to really assess how comfortable it is due to it being in printed plastic and that material does have more of a tendency to 'drag' a bit against your skin and not being as smooth as, say, a stainless steel baseplate would be. I would however say that adding a couple more teeth may, to me, not be a bad idea as the [at least perceived] wider gap between the teeth had a more noticeable feel against my face and I'm thinking a couple of more teeth could mitigate that feeling.
I'll be shaving with it again this week and will post the next shave report here as I don't think one shave is enough to get a complete feel for it.
[Image: aylok5.jpg]
