Charcoal Goods DESIGNED Heads & Handles

As I recall several years ago (Sept 2017) I bought my first "high end" razor from WCS. It was from the collaboration with Brian of Charcoal Goods which had those exact SS handles. It was $180 and came in a wooden box with WCS branding. The reason I had gotten it was there was actual CG was more expensive, stock was limited and he was going to a waiting list (lasted almost a year before Brian scrapped it). Now that WCS-CG made razor included a head made by Brian as well and years later I discussed the shave quality with Brian who said it was similar to his Level1.

WCS has been selling these WCS-CG handles periodically without heads over the last 3 years. These current razors either have those left over handles or Brian made more handles for WCS. I do not think the heads are the matted CG SS heads (by picture or description). BTW that 2017 collaboration had a very smooth and comfortable shave.

I communicated with Brian several years ago regarding the handles and heads. All he did was design them for WCS nothing more. Apparently WCS has a machine shop that fabricates everything but uses CG name as a draw to their razors.

Looks like West Coast Shaving has simply combined their existing stainless steel handles with their existing zinc alloy heads.

The marketing is indeed a bit deceiving. I’ve had the razor head in question for months now, with two base plates, the Brawny and the Toothsome. I like the Brawny. (Toothsome is not very efficient.) Trouble is, the top cap will not thread with all of my handles.

WCS also has a razor handle line called “Titanium”. Anyone want to guess if they’re made of actual titanium? It’s disappointing when companies resort to such questionable tactics.

Yet another reason WCS sucks and they'll never get my business.

I think the head CG designed (similar LVL1) was the previous.
[Image: source]

The new ones are quite different.
[Image: source]

Was curious to see if anything was here mentioning the razor heads. AJSharp has it right about the price and what happened around then. There was a sale for half off Cyber Monday I think. I just narrowly missed out. Wanted a Hyperion originally but was also distracted by the subpar base plate and cap as well. I never did forget it, and decided to buy it on a whim after picking up an Omega brush during their last sale just recently on it. Just barely missed an extra 10% off and could've gotten something else to get me back to free shipping, but whatever.

I won't do a full review as I was a bit all over the place with testing multiple razors. Also got in a Timeless .5 slim plate, a .95 OC plate, and then the WCS Space Needle and head set. Funny as I thought it was the Hyperion, and guess I just panicked and thought maybe they won't ever be back in stock and took what I got. I'm actually well pleased with it. Handle grip is good. Not as good as the crown handle from Timeless I also picked up I've wanted to try for some time, but nothing one pass of alum didn't take care of. I was more interested in testing the Timeless .5 Slim SB and the Timeless .95 OC, but couldn't help but give the Brawny as well and had to say I was initially more impressed with the first swipe of the Brawny than the Slim SB. More efficient cutting on my 3 week beard. No offense tot he Slim SB, but it was just more than it was really cut out for this try.

I hadn't finished my first pass yet, and wanted to see how the OC Toothsome did, and wasn't as impressed. A much harder time trying to plow through my scruff than the Brawny, so I just let that be and decided 3+ weeks wasn't the best work scenario for this. It was at that point I finished half and half with the Brawny on the left and the OC .95 on the right side. The Toothsome got in one area on the left, and the SB on the right.

When I did my second pass I did the Timeless .5 Slim SB on the right, and the Brawny on the left, and only those. Something about that pass the Brawny just felt better. The Slim didn't feel bad per say, just not as good. Didn't help I had used so many different razors, and just was left impressed with something I thought wouldn't match up to the Timeless in any way did quite the admirable job. I'm not too much of an open comb guy, but have found Timeless's design works good for me, and when I need something to plow through those weeks I let my beard grow I'll be reaching for the .95 over the .68. I think the .95 easily established itself for unbelievable shaving jobs to tackle, but I think I found a surprise winner in the SB category that can work too should I desire. I still need to try the Lithe base plate, but have to say I like the cap on this set of razor base plates. Looks different, but more importantly it seems those looks also translated to easily finding the right angles to shave with.

The base plates and the cap are polished and don't have the brushed like surface that the razor handles do. A little distracting when you're not using it, but never bothered me during use. I was too surprised by how well I liked it to be distracted. Thought it might be worth giving a nudge and a reminder to this.