Thread: Kingsland Shaving Co.

Anyone seen these?


I saw it on eBay and later on Amazon and thought it was a cool design. It claimed to be "carbon steel," "hand sharpened," and "shave ready." It was $29 and change and I thought it was cool looking so I figured what the heck. It can always be a display piece if it isn't any good. The reviews I saw were mixed but most referenced the "handle" and "the piece sticking out of the back" so I didn't give them much weight. I did a search on here and didn't see anything about it so I thought maybe I'd get one and do a review so here goes.
I got it and after sterilization (seemed like a good idea even right out of the box) and stropping I shaved with it and it did shave acceptably. My thoughts on it or has follows.
The packaging was nice with the tin and closed cell foam insert that it fits snuggly into. It also has the crushed velvet / velour bag that the tin goes into and then a decent little cardboard box all with their logo which I thought was ornate enough to be eye catching but not overdone or silly.
The construction of the razor itself upon inspection seems fair enough. It has a nice weight to it and the blade has good magnetism, rings fairly well with the thumbnail and has beefy scales with a metal wedge. The same logo that appears on all the packaging is also etched on the blade. Nowhere on any of the packaging or anything I could find online shows a country of origin but I saw one thing in one of the reviews (which as I have previously said I mostly dismissed) that said made in China. I received mine from someone in Texas that goes under the moniker of wehavethegoods LLC which I believe is the same company that sells them on Amazon. Ergonomically it fits in the hand well, is well-balanced and has a good feel to it but has no jimping under the tang which would be a good addition especially in light of how sharp the point on the toe is. The scales are made of some sort of dark colored wood. They are very smooth and handsome enough. The wedge is made of metal and juts out at the top a little. More attention could have been spent making that the same shape as the scales. Also the pivot end pin is off center and hangs off of the bottom of the scale a little. While these things are definitely flaws they seem to be more aesthetic than functional because none of them affect the performance. As far as the shave, as I said it was acceptable. I have not honed it myself but it was sharp enough to give a clean enough shave without burns but I was very cautious with it because of how sharp the point on the toe is. I would not recommend this razor for a beginner as that point could cause serious injury even to someone who is experienced with a straight razor. My only other complaint with it is that stropping was a little cumbersome because of the shape of the tang, the curve of the scales and the length of the tail. All of these things make it interesting if not pleasing to the eye but do affect performance somewhat. It is somewhat of a shorty as you can see from the pic but the tail makes the overall length about average at about 5 1/2" from toe to tail. Overall I'm satisfied with the purchase in spite of the flaws that I mentioned. After all it is a $30 razor. I would not spend $150 on it. My overall impression is it is an interesting novelty which does in fact work acceptably but it would not be in my regular rotation.