HomeLikeShaving Taiga adjustable razor DFS pass around

andrewjs18 would it be possible to be added to this passaround? I am in Texas.

I added you to the West coast list to help balance it out some.

andrewjs18 would it be possible to be added to this passaround? I am in Texas.

I added you to the West coast list to help balance it out some.

Thank you!

I have sanitized the razor and mailed it priority 2 day shipping (insured for $250) to the next person on this list. I'll post my comments later today. Andrew thanks for allowing me into the pass around!

Razor is sanitized and shipped west coast to next person with $250 of insurance I will post my feelings later

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I already own the original Taiga. Along with my Rocnel Sailor they are my favorite adjustables. The pass around Taiga had a better polished finish than the original and the head was slightly thinner. The shave was identical. Smooth at every setting and efficiency is excellent. Great razor at a very fair price. Highly recommended!!!

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* Build quality, balance, and aesthetics. Build and finish is excellent. Gopneg ’s stand is a very nice complement to the razor. The Taiga’s handle has a hole at the bottom (like the Merkur 34c or Rex Ambassador) so the stand has a metal peg that nicely holds the razor in place. The razor itself is well balanced - neither handle nor head heavy. The adjustment knob is engraved and very comfortable to turn and requires enough force to turn that it will not move accidentally.
* Setting range and useability. It is useable and comfortable at its highest settling level, i.e. at 5+. In fact, the razor can be set to a significantly higher rating than 5 because you can turn the dial to unscrew the top cap. For me, the daily driver setting would be 4. The lower settings 1-2 were, to me, certainly usable, but a tad too mild using my current technique. When compared to the Rex Ambassador, the higher settings of the Rex feel a lot more aggressive to me so the efficiency range is wider on that razor. I can use the Rex at all settings and can even get a very close shave at setting 1.5 but would have trouble doing that on the Taiga.
* Comfort and smoothness. To me, it felt there was relatively little blade exposure. I could often not feel the blade even though stubble was being removed. The razor is extremely smooth and comfortable with a variety of blades that I sampled including Med Preps, Astra Greens, Feathers, and Wizamets.
* Shaving against-the-grain. The Taiga is extremely comfortable to shave against the grain - a razor’s litmus test in my view. In fact, it is one of the most comfortable ATG razors I have used.
* Open-comb option. Not only is this razor gap adjustable, but it also comes with an open-comb base plate in addition to the solid-bar base plate. I am not a fan of open comps generally and did not feel that open comb option was comfortable on this razor either. It felt to me that the open comp was significantly more aggressive than the solid bar, and, as you would expect, had much more blade feel. I did also get a couple of weepers while using the open comb. That said, it is nice to have the open-comb option, and I’m sure many users will appreciate it. I have not seen an adjustable razor with an an open-comb option before; in fact, the Taiga may be the first adjustable open-comb razor on the market.
* Aggressiveness-to-feedback ratio. The Taiga’s feedback-to-aggressiveness is proportional. There was minimal alum burn for me after each shave.
* Assembly. Assembly is a bit of a pain. When you remove the blade, the piece at the base of the handle comes off completely. If not careful, it can be dropped. I would imagine that it would be fairly easy to attach it to the base of the razor with a spring, such as with the Merkur 34c or the Rex Ambassador. Furthermore, changing from the solid-bar to open-comb is quite cumbersome - doing so in between passes is not going to happen for most users.
* Shipping. If Homelike would like to sell this razor at scale in the US it will likely want to figure out a more efficient shipping option. I ordered a Start Kit which was shipped in early June (and paid $25 for shipping, I might add) and as far as I can tell the razor is still sitting in Russia somewhere. Were they to get a US fulfillment agent, I would bet their razor sales would increase significantly in the US.

Thank you again to andrewjs18 and Homelikeshaving for the opportunity to try this excellent razor.

I just received the West Coast Taiga today. Just doing a quick inspection, I have to say that the fit and finish is very good and the razor has a good balance in my hand. It came with two base plates and no instructions and so I had to try to figure things out myself to change the base plate. I assumed that the handle needed to be unscrewed first, then the adjustment ring, but it took a while to figure that the threads were reversed and so to remove the handle, you turned in the direction that you would normally do the screw things in.




So now that I know how to take the razor apart, I decided to try the OC base plate first.. In assembling the razor, there are marks on one side of the head parts (similar to the Progress and Variant). On the Taiga there are actually three marks (on the cap, base plate, and adjustment plate).  All three need to be on the same side, otherwise the razor will not zero at 1 (or close to 1). Two things I noticed immediately in trying the adjustment is that unlike the REX Ambassador, the Taiga will not stop at the highest number, but will continue going around and getting more aggressive. Also unlike the REX, there is no red dot on the adjuster and so it is very hard to see where the mark is, which is not a real problem because the numbers on the base plate is also hard to see. Thirdly (yeah I know I said two), the adjustment plate does not have tabs on the sides like the REX (or the original Gibbs) which made it easy to keep the adjustment plate in alignment.




So on to the first shave. I used the OC base and started with a setting of 3.5 using a relatively new blade with just two shaves on it. WTG was very rough and even after adjusting the angle, it still was quite aggressive. As rough as it was, a lot of whiskers was taken off in the WTG pass. For my ATG pass, I dropped the setting down to 2.5 and the comfort level increased significantly. I ended up with a two pass BBS with minimal touch up.

Tomorrow, I will continue with the OC base plate, but this time, I might start with a lower setting and maybe even move up a half step for the ATG pass.

I just received the West Coast Taiga today. Just doing a quick inspection, I have to say that the fit and finish is very good and the razor has a good balance in my hand. It came with two base plates and no instructions and so I had to try to figure things out myself to change the base plate. I assumed that the handle needed to be unscrewed first, then the adjustment ring, but it took a while to figure that the threads were reversed and so to remove the handle, you turned in the direction that you would normally do the screw things in.




So now that I know how to take the razor apart, I decided to try the OC base plate first.. In assembling the razor, there are marks on one side of the head parts (similar to the Progress and Variant). On the Taiga there are actually three marks (on the cap, base plate, and adjustment plate).  All three need to be on the same side, otherwise the razor will not zero at 1 (or close to 1). Two things I noticed immediately in trying the adjustment is that unlike the REX Ambassador, the Taiga will not stop at the highest number, but will continue going around and getting more aggressive. Also unlike the REX, there is no red dot on the adjuster and so it is very hard to see where the mark is, which is not a real problem because the numbers on the base plate is also hard to see. Thirdly (yeah I know I said two), the adjustment plate does not have tabs on the sides like the REX (or the original Gibbs) which made it easy to keep the adjustment plate in alignment.




So on to the first shave. I used the OC base and started with a setting of 3.5 using a relatively new blade with just two shaves on it. WTG was very rough and even after adjusting the angle, it still was quite aggressive. As rough as it was, a lot of whiskers was taken off in the WTG pass. For my ATG pass, I dropped the setting down to 2.5 and the comfort level increased significantly. I ended up with a two pass BBS with minimal touch up.

Tomorrow, I will continue with the OC base plate, but this time, I might start with a lower setting and maybe even move up a half step for the ATG pass.

Glad you received razor. I would switch to the SB. It is smoother and efficient even on the higher settings.

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Tonight's shave was the second shave using the OC base plate. I decided to dial down the WTG setting to 3 and rode the cap a little more than last night. Blade feel significantly dropped, but was still present. However, it was bearable and not rough. The WTG pass actually turned out more efficient than last night and so I moved on to the ATG pass. This time I dialed down the setting to 2.25 and again, a much more comfortable shave with greater efficiency. At that point I ended up with a two pass plus no touch up BBS.

As I disassembled the razor after rinsing in order to change the base plate to the SB plate, I noticed that a lot of lather was trapped between the base plate and the adjustment plate. I think for the ones to follow, be sure when you rinse, you direct water between the base and adjuster plate to prevent soap build up.

I have to say that I am more impressed with the razor now than last night.

Is the spring for the adjustable razor stainless steel?