Paradigm Diamondback Titanium Pass Around

Wow - these were some intense responses and all seem to indicate "much more efficient." Fascinating, as I didn't pick up on that but I also wasn't paying attention that closely as most razors for me don't pass this phase. 

Ok - I need some more info.

spacemonkey42
Stickshift
Dave in KY
dtownvino 

May I ask what your shave routines are? Shaving every day, every other day, how many passes, are you going atg, etc.?

I shave every other day. Every time I shave, I do two passes on my head (WTG & ATG) and three passes on my face (WTG, XTG & ATG). I tend to prefer higher efficiency razors with some blade feel, and my current favorite razor is the Yates 921-EH.

This is interesting for sure. This is 100% the first time when I have thought a razor was as mild or milder than others when the consensus is it is more efficient or aggressive. I usually am incredibly sensitive to this and prefer milder razors. An example of this is the Athena. Most people claim this is a tick above or equal to the Overlander when I believe it is orders of magnitude more aggressive. 

Maybe this is a testament to how smooth the Diamondback is. I have another shave planned today for it.

Had a fantastic shave with the Ti DB today. As is my practice when shaving after a 2-3 day interval, I loosened the handle by approximately
half a turn...this bumps up the efficiency I need to take down a more challenging growth.

Smooth as can be with no irritation...I think in the $350 category, this razor is unbeatable.

Had a fantastic shave with the Ti DB today. As is my practice when shaving after a 2-3 day interval, I loosened the handle by approximately
half a turn...this bumps up the efficiency I need to take down a more challenging growth.

Smooth as can be with no irritation...I think in the $350 category, this razor is unbeatable.

I think you're right in the $350 price range area of Ti  razors the DB is up there.

This is interesting for sure. This is 100% the first time when I have thought a razor was as mild or milder than others when the consensus is it is more efficient or aggressive. I usually am incredibly sensitive to this and prefer milder razors. An example of this is the Athena. Most people claim this is a tick above or equal to the Overlander when I believe it is orders of magnitude more aggressive. 

Maybe this is a testament to how smooth the Diamondback is. I have another shave planned today for it.

I found the Diamondback to be pretty similar to the Athena.  I think the Athena is a couple notches more efficient than the Overlander.

Cutty Sharp what do you think about the razor after a few more shaves?  More efficient than the Overlander?

Second Shave

I decided to do a side-by-side to see if I could parse out the differences between the 2 razors. Right side of my face was the Diamondback and the left side of my face was the Overlander. Both had new Treet Classic blades in them. Went wtg-atg-atg (same as before).

Pass 1 – WTG – The side-by-side was very helpful here. I did notice the Diamondback to be better in efficiency. This was by both visual and fingertip feel– there was no mistake about it and was impressive. However, the feeling of the razor and blade on my face did not feel harsh (which is the usual case with me when I try “more efficient razors”).

Pass 2 - ATG – I did not get any hangups with the Diamondback and it plowed through pretty well. However, I did notice some reverberation (some may call it chatter) when shaving. In the hollow of my cheek especially. I am not sure if you all remember the old thread on TOF about rigidity and clamping but the “test” was shaving a bar of soap and you could see the horizontal lines on the bar if there was more chatter. I actually saw this on the soap that was left on the skin. I am hesitant to call it chatter as it didn’t cause irritation or even tugging (like other razors I have used). It just felt weird. I also don’t know if it was that I went too steep in that area. Interestingly enough – I noticed it in the first shave in the same spot but thought it was just my technique.

The Overlander – felt smoother atg because it didn’t have that reverberation effect but I have a heavy patch on my left cheek and it got hung up this time. I’ve had had this happen before and I think it has to due with the lack of efficiency  in the spot on the first WTG for that area. I felt I had to dig in a little bit there which was not ideal. The Overlander did however shine on the upper lip – I felt no blade feel with it at all. I did feel more blade feel with the diamondback, enough to make me want to make sure I was using light pressure and the blade feel disappeared.

Pass 3 – With over 95% probably already taken care of – this was a very smooth pass with both razors. I think I did feel the Diamondback’s blade feel, ever so slightly more.

Overall impression – I didn’t get any aftershave burn or feeling with either razor which was nice. I felt that the end result was very similar. I am not sure I could pick a winner if the results were the determining factor. WTG – the Diamondback was really impressive. ATG – I think the Overlander was slightly smoother. It feels like I got to the same point, just in a slightly different way.

Shave 3

I was originally going to do another side by side comparison but this time with the Diamondback on the left side of my face and the Overlander on the right side of my face. However, I decided to do a full Diamondback shave. Sometimes you just have to live a little.

Loaded up a fresh Treet Classic and did the same Wtg-atg-atg as I did with the previous two shaves.

So a lot of this is the same as the first two shaves. The wtg efficiency is definitely still noticable. Atg seems the same too - I am still getting some of that reverberation and the soap lines in my right cheek again. I played with different angles to see if it was an angle thing. Honestly, it was hard to tell. Going shallow seems to help but at the expense of more blade feel.

I had no problem getting through the difficult part of the left side of my (where the overlander sometimes struggles) and I am assuming the efficiency of the Wtg pass really allows for it to plow through atg.

If I had to make a guess, I think the DB is slightly more efficient atg as well. It felt like I didn't have to be as precise with the attacking the hairs directly atg like I feel I sometimes do with the Overlander. This may be just a feel thing though. These razors are still so close to me.

Ultimately, it was another great shave with the Diamondback.

One thing I am curious about is if this razor can go Atg comfortably on longer growth than the Overlander i.e. is it able to do a first pass ATG after 24 hours of growth. My overlander still needs a first pass wtg before I go atg. I might sneek another shave in tomorrow morning before this goes to the next guy!

The razor has been disinfected, cleaned, packaged, insured, and sent to SinCityAg 

I am going to post a final thoughts when I get a chance. This was a tough one to send away!

Next time I want to go after another rookie like me.  Cutty Sharp reviews were amazing.  I feel like George Selkirk with a lot less talent.  I am bringing to bat my Oliblade, Merkur 34C, and a Schick Krona for comparison.  I am also going to dust off my thesaurus to at hopefully at least find unique adjectives to dazzle you with.