Thread: Project: "Shave with Eight SE hoe razors in a row"

Shave report #2 - Tip Top




Next up to bat is the rather striking looking "Tip Top". Another French hoe razor. There's not a whole lot of information about this brand available.
If I had to guess I'd say around the 1930's as far as years of manufacturing goes.

It does have a very, very neat feature and that's a knob on the back of the head that allows you to adjust the blade exposure to be exactly the way you want.

Here's a short video trying to demonstrate that:


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Anywho, since this was my second time using the freshly honed REX wedge blade I decided to strop it as well a bit prior to using it.
I promise I am not really this terrible at stropping normally (as you can see the spine is sometimes not flat against the strop on the return stroke, etc) but with having to shoot the video at the same time as stropping I had to secure the strop flat to a table (as opposed to the doorknob it's normally attached to). Excuses, excuses



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I'm sure @gssixgun is crying inside seeing how his blade is abused here

Popped the blade into the razor and off to the den we go.



I fiddled around with the adjustment knob quite a bit - unsure of 'where to start' but settled on something that looked ok and had at it.
Ouch, turned out that my guesstimating was a tad off - felt way too aggressive. Dialed it back a turn or two and it felt a whole lot more comfortable.

The razor doesn't have that same fantastic feeling of solid quality that the L'Essor for instance have. Don't get me wrong it's a very sturdy razor but if I had to guess I'd say it would probably had been a less expensive option back in the days.

Completed one pass and once again - just like when I used the L'Essor - it strikes me how much this feels like shaving with a straight razor. The blade is a bit more 'forgiving' I think than a modern SE/DE blade.

I lather up some more of the fantastic i Coloniali Mango soap and complete a second pass (ATG).
End result: Pretty clean shaven. Some touch ups required on the neck and under the chin but very passable.

Between the two razors I've tried so far I'd say the L'Essor holds the lead but it's hard not to give a nod to the Tip Top and its blade adjusting mechanism.