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Tradere razor - first impressions

My tradere head arrived yesterday, so this morning was the first shave with the combined head/handle combo for me.

Unfortunately, it was not the best day to do an initial shave test as there were many variables changed. Instead of shaving in peace and silence at 4:30, I slept in and was shaving in noise and distractions with wife/daughter coming up to ask/tell/report on things so I was distracted. I was in a hurry, and to top that off, my lather wasn't the best, so anything about the shave quality needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Anyway...

  • It is a nice heavy razor. It is certainly easy to let the weight of the razor do all the work. Loaded with blade it shows up on my scale as 123 g (about 4.34 oz).
  • The tabs to hold the blade in place was on the cap, unlike the iKon H2O that has them on the base.
  • The tabs were longer and thicker than the iKon.
  • I found it much easier to load a blade in the Tradere than the iKon. The tabs held the blade securely in the cap. The blade seated well without any opportunity to wiggle or be less than lock down straight when the head was screwed down.
  • The curvature on the side of the head was less pronounced than the iKon. It fit my thick fingers better, and I liked the grip lines in the inset curve.
  • The grip was great - no worries about the handle. I have been using the handle for a while and it is a champ!
  • The balance was great. I have had heavy razors where the upstroke was a mess and the balance just wasn't there. I didn't have to think about grip or balance, it just worked.
  • Acoustics? I didn't notice, people were talking to me. I will have to have a good listen next time.
  • Aggressiveness? Well, I got a few tiny microweepers, I didn't feel anything but there were red dots. I don't usually get myself like that anymore, so either the razor is a touch aggressive, my lather was poor, or I wasn't paying attention. As we already established that my lather wasn't 100% and I was distracted, I don't know that I know anything about the aggressiveness of this razor yet.
  • Shave quality - some of my trouble spots are BBS (yay!), but on the other hand, some of my normally BBS spots were not (huh?). Dunno... but I had non-stop chatter the entire shave and by the end of the shave was not paying attention.
 
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