(11-28-2019, 04:58 AM)GlazedBoker Wrote: Oh-Oh-Oooohhh!!! This was a heck of a shave! First, the combatants were the upstart Taiga against the Unoficial King of the Adjustables and the pride of France, the Gibbs Rasoir Reglable No17. And this Gents was a true razor scrap. I want to mention that as I had stated in my previous post about the Taiga, I managed to get a bit more of adjustment that allowed me to open up the Taiga a bit more and nearly get to an unoficial 10 setting on it. Thanks to CK89 for the idea and just a bit of fiddling with it to get it to those settings. And let me tell you, did it pay off BIG TIME! That extra bit of adjustment really transformed the Taiga into one formidable whisker whacker without really loosing much in smoothness. I grabbed again 2 fresh blades, ASTRA SP’s and installed one in each razor and got down and dirty!
I waisted no time in turning both of these razors to their max settings and putting them to my face. I was going to perform a 3 pass shave regardless of how the 2 first passes went as I just wanted to get a good feel with both on blade feel and inherent smoothness with these two in conjunction with each ones shave prowess. The Gibbs went first and on max it is just a truly graceful yet superbly efficient razor that knocks down whiskers with ease and an understated tenacity. It’s pedigree shows through from the very first stroke as the blade engages the hairs with a smoother than smooth cutting action. Glorious first pass I have to admit with Monsieur Gibbs. Went right to the Taiga and even though it looked to my eye that it had a bit more gap spacing and blade reveal, I figured this young gun was going to be out matched and out razored against the Gibbs. Brought the Taiga to my face and Woo-Wee! That was some real nice blade feel, noticeably more than on the Gibbs. I completed a stroke and decided to just turn it down a bit so that I can get a similar feel to the Gibbs. So, down it went to about an 8 and I re-engaged the Taiga to the whiskers. Ooohh, soooo niiiicccee! A stroke in and I knew I had it dialed in nearly dead on and matched to the Gibbs. Cleared the face and brought it down to the neck. What smoothness yet excellent cutting feel did the Taiga exhibit. I was blown away on how close in feel and shave it was to the Gibbs. Phenomenal first pass by the Taiga and honestly excellent passes by the both of them. The 2nd and 3rd passes were identical to each other in terms of smoothness, cutting efficiency and the comfort that both of these razors exhibited. I was nearly BBS on both sides with these razors and went with the 3rd pass to see if I could catch any stragglers. I want to mention that I kept both razors at the same exact settings through all 3 passes. They both cut so smoothly and efficiently that my skin still felt comfortable with both of these razors set at their higher ends of the performance spectrum. Just an excellent shave and not a single issue to speak of with no weepers, cuts or irritation. Just a very slight tingle from the alum pass on both jawlines but, to me that’s more than acceptable. Everywhere else was as clean as a whistle.
I am more than pleasantly surprised that the Taiga stayed with the Gibbs during every facet of the shave. Though I have a fair amount of shaves with my Gibbs and know it well, I’m more impressed that the Taiga actually gave me the same confidence and reassurance as the Gibbs does but with less shaves. The Gibbs is in my eyes The Standard on how a well designed adjustable should perform. Smoothness with superb efficiency is a very hard combo to achieve and the Gibbs does it like no other. The only thing lacking in the Gibbs arsenal that would have made it perfect is balance from the head to the bottom of the short plastic handle, it’s Achilles heal. It’s just a bit top heavy and some just prefer that it had a bit longer handle, myself included. The Taiga gives you a very well balanced razor from head to toe. You feel no top heaviness or biased weight towards the handle. Plus, I believe the handle is just about right in terms of length and tactile feel. And it definitely beats the Gibbs in construction. One shave is not going to dethrone no razor, especially the revered Gibbs. The Taiga though on its first shave compares very favorably against the iconic French razor. This young gun may have something to say about who’s the best adjustable in the near future. It all depends on the final rendering of the production model and what tweaks will be made, if any to get this razor closer to perfection. I know I’ll be on that list to acquire one and continue this razor match up. Watch out Frenchie, the Russian Bear is coming....
Wow, awesome review!! Has anyone seen a picture of this razor with the OC plate installed?? Love the look of this and I’m sure the OC looks just as cool but I would love to actually see that.
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