You've read the reviews. You've looked at the pics.

Much too many things to list.

I think we can all agree on Merkur blades.

You have to try a product for yourself before you'll ever know for sure whether you will like it which, should go without saying. I was sort of guilty of this in the MWF thread where I said I wasn't planning on ever trying that soap for 3 reasons. The biggest reason I gave was that I heard it is very similar to another soap I own and love, thus why even bother. Now here I sit eating those words after another member replied and made a good case on why I should try it.

I consider the reviewer more than the review. After a while you recognize which members have similar preferences to your own. I would say scent is the most subjective and hard to describe, yet I've bought some of my favorites based on reviews or PMs back and forth with members who own the products. Most of my purchases are for software, and scent is what concerns me most. If the performance isn't there I just write off the brand.

Hardware has not worked out so well for me with reviews. I tried a lot of razors based on reviews and only liked a few of them. Fortunately I gave in and bought the AS-D2 based on one review on Amazon that made perfect sense to me, and that razor has been my favorite since I bought it. I don't even consider razors anymore really, nor do I look at brushes. I like my lower priced silvertips as much as I liked my higher priced ones.

One thing I try to avoid is buying products that appear to be over-hyped. I gave in on a couple just to see if the hype was there, but I try to avoid it. However, I have to admit that most of the hyped soaps I tried turned out to be great. I don't believe some of them should cost as much as they do, but I do believe the quality is there.

Wolfman.

Standard blade gap. Perfectly built but I don't really get on with the shave and don't use it much. Just not a very smooth shaver. Not bad just not great. Overhyped imo.

That was my experience too. I'd return to it periodically but found it overly aggressive. Then after about a year I tried it again this time with a Feather blade in it. Now I wouldn't ordinarily have been so reckless as to put such a sharp blade in such an aggressive razor but I'd been having such a great time with the feather in the Rockwell 6s on any of the baseplates that I decided, what the heck. You know what? The feather works really well in the Wolfman. I decided to try the feather in the ATT M2 I have that I also found to be really aggressive and again, the feather blade worked really well in that razor too. I'm not sure if it's my technique that's improved or that for me, the most aggressive razors that I have seem to work best with the sharpest blades.

Razor blades for me, I have the stand byes that just work and some that others rave about give me the worst/roughest shaves, the only way to tell is just to use the product and see, at the end of the day there is yet to be a shaving product I can't work with, there's some that work better than others and you just have to experience them and decide. After all if this weren't the case I'd still be shaving with my Dovo, TOBS Sandalwood, and rough cheap badger brush. I prefer a daily choose your own adventure


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Gillette Tech. I had an aluminum one, with the holes in the baseplate, and all. I hated shaving with it. It was touted as being a great and mild(yet efficient) razor, but I hated using it. No matter what blade I used it gave me an uncomfortable shave. Compared to my Super Speed(which was supposed to be indiscernible from the Tech in terms of shave comfort), it was horrible.

Something else I bought based on rave reviews and never "got it" was the Naniwa Super Stone 1k for razor bevel setting. It's a soft stone that required a TON of lapping to keep flat, sometimes even requiring a bit of lapping DURING the bevel setting process. It worked well, but it was so dang soft and easy to dish, I stopped using it. Gave it away recently, in hopes that someone can use up the remainder of it's life and put it to rest.

On the other side of the equation, I had many people try to warn me away from honing razors on Arkansas stones, saying I wouldn't be able to produce edges that would perform, but I use Arkansas stones fairly often, and my surgical black produces an edge that is every bit as keen and comfy as my Jnat with nagura...

feathers are harsh on my skin in every razor I've tried them in EXCEPT for my feather as-d2.

Exactly the same for me. Kai blades also do well in my Feather. Putting either in a more aggressive razor is a good way to get a terrible shave.

Speaking of blades: Personna labs which were incredibly hyped, Super Iridium (the first time they were discontinued, people talked about them like Personna 74s), Permasharp, and lots of obscure blades which ended up being inferior to the very humble Gillette 7 O'clock/Silver Blue line.


Sometimes I read hype about a shaving product and wonder if there isn't an unwritten competition to write the most glowing review. Soaps that if you look at them funny produce enough lather for fifteen passes, razors made from pure unobtanium, brushes that are soft as a baby's bottom yet have incredible backbone, etc. Maybe I am older and more jaded but there is little I've tried where in good faith I could tell someone "you are missing out unless you've tried it."

Wolfman.

Standard blade gap. Perfectly built but I don't really get on with the shave and don't use it much. Just not a very smooth shaver. Not bad just not great. Overhyped imo.

I have wanted to post this, but didn't want the lynch mob to attack me lol. I'm glad people enjoy them though. Another razor that I had to sell off was the RR stealth slant, but I like the baby smooth. Go figure.

I think we all agree you never know what your are in for until you try it.  And I am fine with that.  I must admit that I have had many more likes than dislikes and only a couple that were just bad when it comes to soaps.  And, sometimes it is part of the game which I do not mind playing.  It is however, like trying to throw hard eights on the crap table in Vegas.

I also have had many more likes than dislikes.

I think we can all agree on Merkur blades.

YES

Yes, there have been some times that the product/hardware hasn't lived up to the hype. That said, there's been many things revisited after ample time away, that ended up being equal to the hype or at the very least serviceable.

It is really easy to get caught up in the hype when you're enjoying the ride and when you just really enjoy the variety. There isn't a lot that I've found to be absolutely horrible, just different and that's usually good for me. When I say that I enjoy the variety available to me, I truly mean that. Every little "something" adds to each and every shave.

PS:
Now I need to see if I have any Merkur blades stashed around here someplace. I really don't remember trying them before. I would imagine some came with my Merkur 34C HD? Or, maybe I should just leave well enough alone, vtmax?

I haven't had too much disappointment lately. I have been very selective in what I buy because of many hard and expensive lessons learned in this hobby earlier on.

The most recent and drastic turn from giddy anticipation to flat out anger had to be Clubman shaving cream and soap. It's been a little while now. All I know is the soap is tiny and the cream doesn't lather. Smells very little like Clubman at all.

I think I was one of the few to get it somewhat early on and I was first irritated by the small size of the soap. Next by the smell being almost nothing and hardly anything like what I was expecting. It latherers just fine though.


The cream is vile. It's white. It's cold. It doesn't lather. I dipped my favorite brush in this junk too. It's very greasy. Same disappointment regarding the scent too.

Big fat bummer.

I'd use the soap again if it were less expensive. The cream might be nice to wipe on my heels and pull thick socks over them. It might also be a viable product to season a cast iron pan if I ever find an old roached out rusty one. The tub is huge and the shock of feeling that cold slime hitting my face for the first time followed quickly by the realization that I had just gunked up my brush with it haunts me still to this day. I was angry. I'm getting angry just thinking about it. Hahahahahaa.