Haircut & Shave P076 17-4 SB & OC Passaround Review – World Class Artisanal Craftsman

I've had a couple of more shaves in with the DC 17-4.
    I've used a feather blade with  1 or 2 uses with A&E soaps. 
  I've used this razor with two days of growth and one day of growth so far. It goes pretty good with the feather which seems to give more efficiency to me.
I got a pretty good shave with it, although in my worst problem area below the jawline, I can't seem to get quite the closest cut that I can get with a few razors, and that's one of my criteria with razor test/using.
  I think I've used it enough to say the OC side is not my favorite, I think I do prefer the SB side. 
Since I own one of these in the SB version I just wanted to make sure and try the OC also, now I know. 
   These razors are very nice made, and really a pleasure to look at and use. They've got a magnificent polished finish to them.

It appears that the Polished 17-4 SB razors are out of stock. Does anyone know if or when these will become available again?

They are now available via special order. Reach out to Aji

This is a late review.  I was fortunate to be able to use the P076 Ti for a week, but the 17-4 SS for only one day, when an emergency caused me to have to send it on it's way.  It caused me sufficient enthusiasm however to decide to buy one. 
 
The first one that I bought was a Ti SB, which I used almost exclusively for about a month.  Then I was offered the opportunity to buy a 17-4 SB as well, which I did.  I found that I liked the 17-4 SS over the Ti, because of it's greater weight.  So I just recently sold the Ti.

At this point I should note that I strongly favor short handles, and used my own handle mostly, rather than the ones that came with the razors. 
 
However I did notice a balance issue with them.  They both seemed to me to be somewhat handle heavy (IMO).  The Ti head weighed only 14 grams, and would have been better served by a 30 gram handle (which I did not have), than the 46 gram handle that it came with, and the 17-4 SS head at 24 grams was grossly outweighed by the 79 gram handle.  

My solution was to match the 24 gram 17-4 SS head with the 46 gram Ti handle, which resulted in a nearly perfectly weight balanced razor (again IMO).
  
If anyone reading this has an H&S Ti, and thinks the handle is too heavy, I suggest that they reach out to Jimmy H.  He has a Jurgen Hempel 80 mm Ti handle that weighs 30 grams which I almost bought but didn't, as things took a different turn.  

In any case my favorite handle weighs 45 grams, and is a perfect weight match for the 17-4 SS head.  Some purists might not agree with matching a 100 year old chromed brass handle with a brand new high end state of the art stainless steel razor head.  To which I can only say:  Oh well.

Lastly, I want to mention blades.  The blades that worked best for me with this razor were:  Polsilver, Feather, and Nacet, in that order.  Derby and Voskhod didn't make the cut.  That's all folks.

Wondered why you sold the Ti. Get it as lightweight razors typically are less appealing from my perspective (as indicated in the passaround review). However, I really like the H&S Ti, as a first for Ti, retaining one. That stated, the real star of the show is the copper. You really should try it on passaround. If you favour heavy razors....

Wondered why you sold the Ti. Get it as lightweight razors typically are less appealing from my perspective (as indicated in the passaround review). However, I really like the H&S Ti, as a first for Ti, retaining one. That stated, the real star of the show is the copper. You really should try it on passaround. If you favour heavy razors....

I thought I would way in on this as I really love the copper version as well. I am one that likes a bit of weight to my razors so for that reason, I swapped the titanium handle that came with my titanium DC for a polished stainless handle and it is perfect with that titanium head. The copper though really is the best out of the 3 materials he has released this razor in and it is absolutely beautiful!! I love my copper DC and passed on the 17-4 that I had preordered and got the copper instead. Sent the shorter handle back as Aji had promised me the first 95-97mm copper handle that he makes. Should have that one late this week or next week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Aji is also making different length handles, albeit 17-4 only on request henceforth

Update:  Well, if you read my three days of reviewing the 17-4 above, you can see that I didn't love my experience with it -- and I thought it was the metal and not the design.  I've now tried the Ti version in that pass-around and I had a wonderful, really fabulous shave.  Entirely different from the 17-4.  So, I guess it was indeed the 17-4 steel that didn't work for me because the design of the PO76 certainly does work for me. Probably the best shave I've ever had.  I'm sold on it.  My review is in the other thread.

Late Review.  This was the second dual comb H&S P076 I received in a pass-around.  The first was the Titanium (Ti) version, and the second was the 17-4 version.  I loved the Ti version and actually had one of the top 5 best shaves of my life with it.
Unfortunately, I had the opposite experience with the 17-4 version.  This razor has the same efficiency as the Ti version, but for me it was orders of magnitude lower in the smoothness and ease of use.  I had the Carbon Titan (Hybrid Handle) Ti razor in-house at the same time as the 17-4 H&S, and was able to compare them both side by side (with a variety of blades).  Through those shaves, I found that I prefer lighter razors, and those with small compact heads regardless of the material (Al, Ti, SS, Composite or Bakelite).
Both the H&S P076 17-4 razor and the Ti version, were the highest quality polished finishes I have ever seen.  IMHO, even better than the gold standard Wolfman.
My personal preferences aside, I recommend the P076 design to anyone who wants the highest quality artisan polished steel razor on the market today. You have a choice between a lighter Ti version and a heavier 17-4 version.  The architecture of the two razors is identical, therefore it is only the weight difference, and your shaving technique which will affect the shave quality.  The design is proven to be excellent, from the many shave forum reviews.   Only you can judge which of these P076 razors is best for you.

Might be a typo but the 17-4 SB has been bumped up to $600. The DC is still listed at $500 but maybe it hasn't been updated as it's listed as sold out.