Blackland Blackbird and blackbird lite comparisons

[SaguaroSmart]

Greetings fellow wetshavers,

I am considering trying the Blackland Blackbird or the Blackbird lite but I'm trying to know a bit more about the razor and how it compares to others I have tried in terms of blade feel.

For background, I don't have the easiest beard to shave: dense and coarse beard and somewhat sensitive skin but I tend to shave everyday as I like the clean shaven look.

Some razors I have handled well and that stayed in my den:

• RR GameChanger .84P
• Edwin Jagger 3one6
• RR GameChanger 1.05P (cannot shave everyday with it, more like every 2nd or 3rd day)

Some razors I did not do well with:

• EJ DE89 (too inefficient, leads to irritation to repeating strokes)
• Lupo 95 (I am still puzzled as why this one did not work for me, somehow it lead to irritation, maybe the blade exposure is too positive ? Not sure)

I guess the challenge I'm having is due to how coarse and dense my hair is, I usually do not do well with mild razors as a lot of them lack efficiency and lead me to get irritated due to repeating strokes and passes too much to get a decent result but at the same time my skin is sensitive enough to not do well with shaving everyday with an aggressive razor like the Lupo 95.

Long story short is I'm looking to acquire a new razor in the near future and I am really interested in the design of the Blackbird or Blackbird lite, love the looks but have heard very conflicting information about it, some people say It's not that aggressive and that it feels very comfortable (nick shaves, Matt from razor emporium) while some others say it has a lot of blade feel. How much blade feel are we talking ? Is it similar to the Lupo 95 in blade feel ? or closer to the EJ 3one6 ?

Basically I shave everyday and tend to do 2 to 3 passes depending on how aggressive the razor is. (3 passes if not a ton of blade feel and 2 if very efficient with some blade feel). As I mentioned above, I tend to like efficient razors as I do bad if I need to do too much buffing and repeat strokes too many times but while I can tolerate some blade feel I don't do very well with high blade feel.

Feel free to recommend other razors you think I'd like.

Have a great shave and great day!

 

[Island]

I find the blackbird Ti an amazing razor, which gives an almost perfect shave but sometimes feels a bit too aggressive. For me, the lite version felt like an inferior blackbird: not safe and smooth enough to use like a timeless, Overlander, or feather but not efficient like the original. The angles that work are much narrower with the lite version as well.

 

[SaguaroSmart]

I find the blackbird Ti an amazing razor, which gives an almost perfect shave but sometimes feels a bit too aggressive. For me, the lite version felt like an inferior blackbird: not safe and smooth enough to use like a timeless, Overlander, or feather but not efficient like the original. The angles that work are much narrower with the lite version as well.

Interesting. What other razors do you typically enjoy and how do they compare to the Blackbird in blade feel ? Have you tried any of the ones I mentioned by any chance for comparison ?

Thank you for your input by the way!

 

[Big_T]

I have the standard and lite Blackbirds. I'll suggest the standard Blackbird because of the coarseness of your beard.

And remember Blackland has a 30-day return policy.

As to other razors to consider, I'll suggest the Timeless .95 and Lambda Athena. If you are as sensitive to blade feel as it sounds like you are, then the Athena might be the better choice. Or perhaps the Lambda Ares V2 instead of the Athena because of the coarseness of your beard, but I have no hands-on experience with the Ares.

I'm sure you'll get quite a variety of suggestions from the good people here, from Henson to Wolfman.

 

[John Stetson]

I don’t use the Lite anymore. I feel like I can find the angle of the Lite on the regular plate if I need to. The main difference to me is that the Lite has a narrower shaving range is all. It feels a bit safer because the regular plate goes outside that range and if you are not careful, you can nick yourself-something I haven’t done with the regular plate after I had used it for about 2 weeks. Everyone is different, but I’d recommend getting the regular plate and leave it at that. For me, there was a steep learning curve compared to other DE’s. Took me a good two weeks. But once I found the sweet spot (a shallow angle, riding the cap and a very light touch, it produced an absolutely fantastic shave-very mellow and super efficient. But it took more skill to get there than any of my other razors, but worth it.)

 

[SaguaroSmart]

I have the standard and lite Blackbirds. I'll suggest the standard Blackbird because of the coarseness of your beard.

And remember Blackland has a 30-day return policy.

As to other razors to consider, I'll suggest the Timeless .95 and Lambda Athena. If you are as sensitive to blade feel as it sounds like you are, then the Athena might be the better choice. Or perhaps the Lambda Ares V2 instead of the Athena because of the coarseness of your beard, but I have no hands-on experience with the Ares.

I'm sure you'll get quite a variety of suggestions from the good people here, from Henson to Wolfman.

Thank you for your suggestions. I will definitely look them up as I'm not familiar with them. You are right, essentially, when buying a new razor, I struggle to find the perfect balance between blade feel and efficiency, my beard requires good efficiency but my skin does not like too much blade feel (especially for everyday shaving).

 

[SaguaroSmart]

I don’t use the Lite anymore. I feel like I can find the angle of the Lite on the regular plate if I need to. The main difference to me is that the Lite has a narrower shaving range is all. It feels a bit safer because the regular plate goes outside that range and if you are not careful, you can nick yourself-something I haven’t done with the regular plate after I had used it for about 2 weeks. Everyone is different, but I’d recommend getting the regular plate and leave it at that. For me, there was a steep learning curve compared to other DE’s. Took me a good two weeks. But once I found the sweet spot (a shallow angle, riding the cap and a very light touch, it produced an absolutely fantastic shave-very mellow and super efficient. But it took more skill to get there than any of my other razors, but worth it.)

You are not the first person to mention this, I've read about the learning curve. I don't mind giving it the time and to be honest, I tend to like riding the cap. That being said I wonder if the blade feel is in a range that's even remotely tolerable for me or if it's way past that. For example I wanted to love the Lupo 95 but my face just could not agree with it as a daily driver no matter how light a touch I tried using etc... I could shave fine with it If I only shaved twice a week.

 

[Island]

What other razors do you typically enjoy and how do they compare to the Blackbird in blade feel ? Have you tried any of the ones I mentioned by any chance for comparison ?

I've used a Henson +, timeless .68 and .95 sb, Overlander ss, Tatara Masamune, Tatara nodachi, feather As-D2, one blade genesis, and a few others. The blackbird is unique in its very shallow angle and light touch requirement. The blade feel is actually a good thing as it helps me make sure I am not applying pressure. The Blackburd is surprisingly smooth and gentle if done right. The lite is ok but a bit lacking.

 

[SaguaroSmart]

I've used a Henson +, timeless .68 and .95 sb, Overlander ss, Tatara Masamune, Tatara nodachi, feather As-D2, one blade genesis, and a few others. The blackbird is unique in its very shallow angle and light touch requirement. The blade feel is actually a good thing as it helps me make sure I am not applying pressure. The Blackburd is surprisingly smooth and gentle if done right. The lite is ok but a bit lacking.

Interesting, how do you think the Blackbird compares with the Tatara Nodachi, they both have positive blade exposure from my research but a very different geometry it looks like. What's your take on it ?

 

[Island]

I found the nodachi smoother but just as effective.

 

[SaguaroSmart]

Thank you all for answering all these question by the way.

I think I need to do more research before buying. To be fair I'm new to these forums, I have been wet shaving for a few years now but mostly with 3 razors that are decent commercial widely available brands like Razorock.

After joining B&B and reading 0.00001% of a trove of information that it contains, I'm realizing there are a lot of razors I didn't even know about that seem like fantastic options. For example someone brought up the Lambda Athena, I've read some people mentioning Timeless razors and many more that look really interesting. I never knew there were razors like the Athena with such low blade gap and neutral to slightly positive exposure, I'm curious to learn about those and the kind of blade feel to efficiency ratio they provide.

I might actually post another thread to discuss some of these razors or even just razor characteristics that make a razor mild to medium yet very efficient.