Blackland GEM

I love this guy. It simply delivers no fuss, no muss shaves every single time. Great balance, easy to handle and it gives great feedback on what is going on between your face and the blade. Moderately priced and executed to near machining perfection. If you like GEM style shavers with their distinct feel and want to have a modern & contempory tool in the vintage collection, then this is THE BEST modern GEM razor made to date. It’s the Vectors big brother and first SE from Blackland. It gets my respect and much love.....

Been using the Sabre for 4 days now. I am impressed all over again! With the 2 plates, this very easily could be the only razor I need. Onlyl liking variety prevents me from going solo with the Sabre!

As good as it gets. One of the best dumb reach razors that I own. And what I mean is that when I have a day that I can’t figure out or make up my mind on what razor to use, I reach for this beauty right here. The Sabre & L2 combo. And it delivers every single time. The ease of use, the great cutting ability of the PTFE GEM blade and the geometry of the Sabre is simply world class. No, it’s not the best razor ever nor is it the best razor for everyone. But, if you want to get into the SE Gem bladed field and can’t quite get into the vintage realm for whatever reason whether it’s too old, too dirty, it was used by someone else or it’s simply just not to one’s liking, the Blackland Sabre is a real good option and the only option in modern/contemporary design in my humble opinion.

4+ years and going with the Sabre in my rotation. It never gets old or boring either….

Just a superb & wonderful shave this morning with to me, one of the more iconic modern day looking razors made today. The Blackbird from Blackland Razors may symbolize this manufacturer but, to me this razor embodies the ever thinking forward process of this manufacturer throughout their whole product line. I consider the Sabre to be one of the crowning achievements in Blacklands line up alongside the Vector. With the Sabre though there is no revolutionary design as it exemplifies more of a steady evolution of a GEM styled razor tool that has subtle styling & performance tweaks implemented to create a more comfortable and satisfying shaver to the wet shaving masses. It’s my favorite Blackland razor, period.

And the V2 Dragonsbeard is simply magnificent. If the houses of Tom Ford, Gucci or Givenchy had produced a scent like this, we’d be lauding this creation with some of the more iconic fragrances in the history of perfumery. This is a modern, yet classical & masculine scent that is only surpassed by its performance. In terms of grooming products geared towards shaving, this is a masterpiece.

World class construction, world class shave. The Sabre/L2, Ethos & Terre D’Hermes. It just doesn’t get any better Gents.

Love this razor - super comfortable, smooth BBS

Straight on a stick 

Growth: Two day beard.
Prep: Warm shower: Stirling Sheep bar soap
Pre: Washed face with Stirling Glacial unscented pre-shave soap  then reapplied before lathering.
Brush: Rudy Vey 25 mm STF
Lather : Razorock XXX  Italian shaving soap
Blade:  GEM Personna SS  (D8)
Razor: Blackland Sabre
Base Plate:  L2 with shims
Handle: Blackland Sabre
Post: unscented Stirling witch hazel and PAA Mysterium Serum

I was wondering how I could squeak out a little more efficiency out of the Sabre L2 plate and decided see how the L2 plate would work with shims. Since I don't have any used GEM blades and I was not about to destroy any brand new GEM blades, I took three new box cutter blades and cut off the cutting edge and the spine using my Craftsman rotary tool (Sear's version of a Dremmel) and a cutting wheel. I decided to cut the spine area off so that the shaving GEM blade would keep the same angle when shimmed without me having to remove the spines of new GEM blades just to use a shim.  The Sabre top plate could support even more shims but I figure three shims is as many as I would use for a shave in any razor.

Even though I had been trying out cold water shaving, I decided to go back to warm water rinses for this shave. I did that since my first cold water shave was with the Sabre L2 plate and it was not very good or pleasant. (My second cold water shave was with a more efficient razor and it was a great shave).

I did the first pass with one shim going WTB. That left quite a bit of stubble in the mustache and chin areas. It was slightly more efficient than the L2 plate by itself, but I was looking for more efficiency.

The second pass, I used two shims and went Outside-In for the mustache area, E-W on the chin then a W-E pass on the chin (so that was a third pass for that area). I went my normal ATG on the neck. Two shims probably put the Sabre into medium aggression territory for me. Not too much blade feel but even more efficient from my estimate.

I then did a tiny bit of touch up with three shims to see how aggressive that would be. I really didn't need to do much touch up but I was curious about three shims. Three shims was a little too aggressive for me. Too much blade feel.

The overall shave was BBS/BBS-. This was the best shave I have achieved with the Sabre.

I think I will try full shaves using each shim level starting with two shims as the additional directions for sure cut down more stubble no matter the shim level.

The shims worked well. The side posts on the top plate along with a tiny bit of the center blade hole top kept the shims in place and away from the edge of the shaving blade. I don't know what kind of steel these box cutters are made of so I am making sure to dry them very well so they don't rust. Once I have some used GEM SS blades, I may cut them down so they will be more rust resistant. The spine of the shaving GEM blade is unsupported by shims but I did not notice any issues. If it becomes a problem I may put some shims under the GEM spine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF4e_MUn...landRazors

Redesign is in the works apparently

This is directly from Shane's YT description: Spoiler: this isn't a satisfying video. 

But it's not forgotten! Love my Sabre, both levels. Looking forward to seeing what the updates will be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF4e_MUn...landRazors

Redesign is in the works apparently