Great shave from a Wilkinson Empire Razor

[specialk]

Used my Wilkinson Sword Empire Model Razor from the 7 Day set I got back in December for the second time but with much better results than the first go 'round. This time I used a NOS Wilkinson Sword Wedge Blade that came in another Empire set that I got early this month. There were 3 blades in this set and all were still in their wrappers. It was evident that they had not been opened since the glue was still in place. I took one out of the wrapper and cleaned it off as some of the wax paper had stuck to the blade. Gave it a quick bath in some Barbicide Plus and was ready to go. Even though the instructions in the set say to strop new blades, I chose not to because i wasn't sure about the shape of the strop that came in the set. First two passes were a little rough and felt some tugging also included a few weepers. Decided i better strop it. After stropping for 10 passes, the blade was very sharp and did an awesome job on the ATG pass. It was really cool to use this razor. The razor is very hefty and the roller bar is definitely a different feeling than I am used to.

[mbwhoosh]

Congrats on the shave Kevin! ;D ;D ;D

I had trouble the first few passes as well, though mine was corrected by fiddling with the blade exposure.

Q: When you stroped the blade did you hold the razor with an upward pressure like the instructions say? Want to find out if it makes a difference at all to the blades performance.

Glad you got a great ATG pass from the razor I found the heft at the back of the head to be a little counter productive when doing a ATG pass but nothing serious.

haha told you that cylinder comb was an experience

Looking forward to how the shaves hold up or improve, still need to give mine another go once I get caught up on things

[specialk]

Thanks, man.

A. I did not quit understand that part of the instructions but now I get it. I was stropping with a downward pressure. I will try the upward pressure this weekend.

[specialk]

I stropped it with the upward pressure this time. I do think it got the blade sharper than using downward pressure. While stropping the string broke off. It was all rotted out under the flap. I was able to "modify" it so its still usable.

Results for this morning shave after a proper stropping...much better and all good until the ATG pass. I try a little to hard to get BBS and used a little too much pressure causing some irritation but it did calm down and an hour later the end result is a DFS.

[Admin]

awesome. just awesome.

i still need to get one of these

[wchnu]

Mar 26, 2010 18:43:24 GMT -5 Admin said:

awesome. just awesome.

i still need to get one of these

Yea I agree they look neat as all get out.


kevin glad it is all working for you.

Fuzzy

[rapperley]

Hi all. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm assuming these only use the Wilkinson wedge blades, not standard SE blades? The reason I ask is I have just found one in excellent condition for very little money (but I can't spend any more money on razors.... SWMBO would gut me).... but may be able to justify it if I can use modern blades.

If anyone is interested in it, because in reality I most likely won't be buying it, then let me know and I'll try to help you out...

[mbwhoosh]

Wow I am way late in responding to this sorry midterms and all

Thank you for the update Kevin! ;D Happy to hear the stropping helped with the shave. I think the different pressure is more so that the mechanism that flips the razor blade over on the strop flows smoother rather than making any differance on the edge of the blade itself yet another thing to test...one of these days

rapperley- Afraid not good sir this razor uses a system similar to the Rolls razor for holding the blade so a modern blade would have to be drastically modified to fit in one of these.