Great news, I sent an email with pictures to homelikeshaving and they're sending me a replacement titanium handle at no charge. Great customer service!
Very happy I don't have to return it because
Olegausany was right, sending a simple letter to Russia via USPS (only option) costs as much as the handle, what a ripoff.
Traffiktiger thanks for the tip, the issue is with the other end of the handle, it looks like it's not been fully bored, the bottom knob only gets less than half-way in.
Traffiktiger and
george1906: beautiful pictures, you guys have superb razor collections many people would dream of, me included. Hopefully the taiga will take care of my RAD...
AJSharp great review you wrote there! The production version is lighter at 108g vs 110g for the Variant, although the balance feels very different since the head accounts for 65g (with the adjustment ring) and the SS handle only 26g (14g for the titanium one).
I had a more classical shave on my 2 day growth this morning, WTG pass at 6 and AXTG pass at 2. I tried AXTG at 5 on half of my neck, first time I try that blade gap with no irritation, with the variant I'd have a turkey neck for the rest of the morning whereas this time I got zero feedback from the alum and after 10 minutes all redness had disappeared. I left a bit of whiskers for the tech and the variant and both felt almost harsh in comparison. Crazy considering how much I've loved them (notice the past tense). It will take a while to find the optimal routine like with every adjustable and there's some adaptation needed for the balance which is more towards the head than I'm used to. It might require shaving daily for a while