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The Valynor

This is a re-up of a post I made in the Journal section. I thought some others might enjoy it here in the DE section.

When I got home, I went to the PO to pick my newest razor up. I had phoned while on holiday to ask them to hang on to it for a few days extra and was told no problem. Excellent.
So this is the Valynor from The GoodFellas Smile. I bought this a while ago and they didn't ship until Sept 29th.
When I saw it I appreciated it because it was different from most other razors and I liked the design. Now others may not like it...ok. But it worked for me.
This is a 4 piece razor, the cap, the baseplate and a two piece handle. The shaver is brass and aluminum, with aluminum being the main grip part of the handle. No slipping here. I think it breaks down as shown to facilitate easy rinsing and cleaning. You can undo the end knob/inner part of the handle and just leave the aluminum piece by itself if you prefer a lighter/head heavy feel, although that doesn't really make much sense to me.
So the first shave involved a Nacet blade with a couple of shaves on it just to see what the razor could do. I used Tabac shaving cream and my re-knotted DaniDom brush. I had to use more cream than usual because the brush is still being broken in and right now doesn't lather up as well as my other brushes. Hopefully it improves or it's the bin for it. Also lathered up with my Naked Armor SS scuttle. Nice warm shave.
Now the razor weighs in at 78 gm and is nicely balanced. Pretty agile and mobile. It was like shaving without a blade on the WTG pass. I mean, it had zero blade feel...nothing, nada. I could feel some on the ATG pass but all in all a very quiet and easy shave. There is nothing to concern yourself with this razor. I got a very nice 2.5 pass, with buffing shave, and finished off with some Thayer's skin toner and set out about the day.
This is not an overly expensive shaver and despite the "LOTR" vibe a nice addition. This makes 12 razors in all and where I plan to stop for a while at least. Oh yeah, the guy who "found" the ring was from Rome.
Cheers
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Iridian

Cool and slimy
I rather wish they would make the Styletto again, I got the black 1.10 version but when they offered it in stainless steel without coating, I thought it would be around for a while. Definitely want to get one, but then it sold out.

This one seems rather MILD or medium at max, if I may take a guess? What do you say?

I am not much into aluminum and mixing materials, also not that much a fan of the design but what does it matter. YOU must like it, after all, not your neighbor or their dog. :)

I am looking forward to their future designs, though I am afraid they will go for mild to medium at max. The Syntesi is also pretty fancy to look at, but falls into the rather mild range again. Good for some, but I usually want a bit more.

Enjoy the Valynor, the guy from Rome is apparently still on the run with his brother Mario.
 
I rather wish they would make the Styletto again, I got the black 1.10 version but when they offered it in stainless steel without coating, I thought it would be around for a while. Definitely want to get one, but then it sold out.

This one seems rather MILD or medium at max, if I may take a guess? What do you say?

I am not much into aluminum and mixing materials, also not that much a fan of the design but what does it matter. YOU must like it, after all, not your neighbor or their dog. :)

I am looking forward to their future designs, though I am afraid they will go for mild to medium at max. The Syntesi is also pretty fancy to look at, but falls into the rather mild range again. Good for some, but I usually want a bit more.

Enjoy the Valynor, the guy from Rome is apparently still on the run with his brother Mario.
Well, for me, it's an easy going but effective razor. Efficient and intuitive. I quite like it. If I don't like the design, I find I won't enjoy the razor. As you say I usually don't care for aluminum either but it's only the outer handle that's AL. The inner brass rod gives it more heft and better balance. I'm going to try a new blade with it today so I'll see how it behaves in that case.
 
Nice to read about your review. Definitely a unique (possibly visually polarizing) razor but I'm in the camp that actually likes how it looks. I'm sure at some point I'll end up getting one. Nice that Goodfellas' offers something that's as unique as the Valynor. That's what will keep me looking out for other designs they might come out with.
I have the Stainless Syntesi and the aluminum Styletto and both are very good razors. They make quality stuff that's reasonably priced.
Enjoy it!
 
Nice to read about your review. Definitely a unique (possibly visually polarizing) razor but I'm in the camp that actually likes how it looks. I'm sure at some point I'll end up getting one. Nice that Goodfellas' offers something that's as unique as the Valynor. That's what will keep me looking out for other designs they might come out with.
I have the Stainless Syntesi and the aluminum Styletto and both are very good razors. They make quality stuff that's reasonably priced.
Enjoy it!
I also tried something different yesterday...I used a shim with the Valynor and got A. some blade feel, B. some audio and C. a better shave. The shim has improved the efficiency of the razor to where my other razors are. Which is good because I like this thing.
Cheers!
 
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