Well, after working a few days of overtime and a decent quarterly bonus I decided to overly spoil myself on this one. Most of my razors are of the vintage type, but I had my eye on one of these over at www.bullgooseshaving.com and decided I had to have one.
Heres a bit of a spoiler for you. If you have tried the old muhle OC, fat tip OC that phil has occasionally, or fendrihans muhle-99r..they are all the same razor head design. It is an aggressive design that requires some attention, but is rewarding in the end if you do your part.
Now, there is a huge level of difference in QC. I'm assuming joris buys the heads bare and either polishes them up themselves, or has their plater do the polishing/prep work. The palladium finish on the joris is impeccable and no flaws are present in the base metal....where as the fat tip/muhle 99r exhibit quite a few pot marks, pin holes, small dings, etc in the base metal.
Now the chrome plating on my muhle 99r head was a little bit shinier before, as I took some abrasive compound and buffed it very lightly to give more of a satin look....but as you can see no plating was removed and most of the flaws are in the base metal itself. Funny, as I look at some of the scratch pattern in the head it doesn't really match up to the direction I was buffing which was from comb side to comb side, never once did I buff end cap to end cap yet there they are. The compound used was a 900 grit non embedding lapping compound. Give them credit, the plating seems to be thick. Towards the bottom what looks like dust on the muhle 99r head is actually part of the flaws I mention. What looks like dust on the joris razor head...is actually dust/smudge print.
Now back to the joris...one of the most surprising things to me about the razor was the handle. I've never had any razors or brushes that had horn handle so I had no idea how they would feel when wet. I very well figured it would get slippery and be a bit of a problem while shaving. Much to my delight this was not the case. The shape and material provide a good griping surface.....a smooth metal handle I would not opt for here, not sure how wood would stand up either maybe its the same as the horn.
One thing I have to get used to is the longer handle....it requires a little change in technique over the fat tip/muhle 99r setup. With the horn I did coat it very lightly with some neatsfoot oil, something one has to consider when dealing with horn.
So there you have it. The joris is superior in the fit and finish dept, elegant handle that is functional, and comes with a nifty little box and terry cloth storage pouch. Is it worth the price tag over a fat tip or muhle 99r....well, to me it was but thats going to be a huge YMMV. Next move is to have Bob make me an ambonya burl handle for the satin head I have.
Heres a bit of a spoiler for you. If you have tried the old muhle OC, fat tip OC that phil has occasionally, or fendrihans muhle-99r..they are all the same razor head design. It is an aggressive design that requires some attention, but is rewarding in the end if you do your part.
Now, there is a huge level of difference in QC. I'm assuming joris buys the heads bare and either polishes them up themselves, or has their plater do the polishing/prep work. The palladium finish on the joris is impeccable and no flaws are present in the base metal....where as the fat tip/muhle 99r exhibit quite a few pot marks, pin holes, small dings, etc in the base metal.
Now the chrome plating on my muhle 99r head was a little bit shinier before, as I took some abrasive compound and buffed it very lightly to give more of a satin look....but as you can see no plating was removed and most of the flaws are in the base metal itself. Funny, as I look at some of the scratch pattern in the head it doesn't really match up to the direction I was buffing which was from comb side to comb side, never once did I buff end cap to end cap yet there they are. The compound used was a 900 grit non embedding lapping compound. Give them credit, the plating seems to be thick. Towards the bottom what looks like dust on the muhle 99r head is actually part of the flaws I mention. What looks like dust on the joris razor head...is actually dust/smudge print.
Now back to the joris...one of the most surprising things to me about the razor was the handle. I've never had any razors or brushes that had horn handle so I had no idea how they would feel when wet. I very well figured it would get slippery and be a bit of a problem while shaving. Much to my delight this was not the case. The shape and material provide a good griping surface.....a smooth metal handle I would not opt for here, not sure how wood would stand up either maybe its the same as the horn.
One thing I have to get used to is the longer handle....it requires a little change in technique over the fat tip/muhle 99r setup. With the horn I did coat it very lightly with some neatsfoot oil, something one has to consider when dealing with horn.
So there you have it. The joris is superior in the fit and finish dept, elegant handle that is functional, and comes with a nifty little box and terry cloth storage pouch. Is it worth the price tag over a fat tip or muhle 99r....well, to me it was but thats going to be a huge YMMV. Next move is to have Bob make me an ambonya burl handle for the satin head I have.