I was not going to shave with the Osprey until the weekend as I wanted to put in a few shaves with some vintage Gillette Tech’s that I‘ve acquired recently but, I said “self, those Gillette Tech’s aren’t going anywhere, don’t be a pansy and get on with it.” I must say, self had a point.
So, this will not be extensive nor detailed just a quick shave report and a couple of observations from my perspective. As many here and across multiple forums have stated about the Osprey, quality, fit, finish and feel are world class and perhaps might have even set a new standard of those attributes for the house of Blackland and its extensive stable of razors. That’s no small feat as Shane & his team have come up with some of the more modern/contemporary razors in the post 2000 era that scream iconic and outside the box execution. One will never confuse a Blackbird, Sabre or Vector with anything else out there today. There are pretenders but, that’s all they are, pretenders. All right, enough brownie smooching.
Knob adjustment has a nice solid feel to it with good tension/resistance. Might be a little too much for some but, it works nicely for me. Installing a blade, making adjustments, unscrewing the handle, more adjustments and retightening was a bit off for me but, I’ll get it down with more use as I get familiar with what setting(s) I prefer. Nothing difficult to do, just one getting accustomed to a new way of doing things with an adjustable. A new Feather was installed and I just set it at 5 and left it there for the whole shave. Excellent 3 pass shave that had me at DFS in two. I chased the baby with a 3rd and it was fantastic. 3 tiny weepers on the chin and not an iota of irritation or discomfort to speak of. The handle felt great in the hands and somehow the hollowed out handle allowed my digits to seat comfortably within the recesses of those cutouts providing very good grip and tactile feel. Blade feel was minimal at the 5 setting yet it removed whiskers with ease and effective efficiency. To my minds eye, think shave feel of a Gillette Tech with cutting ability of an RR GC .84 SB or somewhere thereabouts. It’s not a loud singer but, it hums nicely on each stroke and one can hear those whiskers being cut while being smooth & comfy simultaneously. Early peeve? I wish the numbers were filled in black. It helps my poor sad eyes….
I want to point out something very quickly as I have come across a couple of critiques about the adjustment mechanism. On a social media forum a couple of shavers reported that their Ospreys would not adjust past the 8 marker once the razor was submerged in hot water to get some heat into the razor. Prior to them doing so, the razor went through a complete range of motion adjustment without an issue. Personally, I did not experience any such thing as my Osprey went through the range of motions on the adjuster both hot & cold, before and after the shave. An anomaly with those particular shavers? Don’t know but, I figured I’d mention it here. I say that because some of those forums and members can be a little suspect especially the more known social media sites. There are those that might have ulterior motives and again, they could be legit issues or concerns. Just reporting experiences from others that I can’t confirm, nothing more.
Excellent first start and on initial feel & performance, this has meet and far exceeded what I was expecting. Time and further use will tell how it compares with the other “Elite Adjustables” in the market today. For now, heck of a start for me.
Great shaves to all…
A few pics with gap dial size relative to actual blade and gap reveal. Real crappy pics. My apologies….