Thread: Titan Straight Razor Unboxing - Shave To Follow Tomorrow

One thing everyone has to keep in mind though is the ops titan was $30 shipped from china. Where is there a brand new razor for this price point? It has flaws sure. But so do a lot of other makers and for 5x the price. For whatever it's worth you could shave your face daily for a lifetime with one. You can do the same with a vintage or other new maker. So end of the day it doesn't really matter utility wise. I've had a few. The scales are like knife scales. They shave well because I honed them to my liking. VG 10 Japanese stainless is what they said. I didn't bother to test it. Lol. Not knocking vintage or new either. Your money your choice is what I always say. Some guys would never use an old vintage because they're afraid of getting ebola or something. (Not a chance sanitize is very easy). But that's people for you.

Originally Posted by Bill31521

One thing everyone has to keep in mind though is the ops titan was $30 shipped from china. Where is there a brand new razor for this price point? It has flaws sure. But so do a lot of other makers and for 5x the price. For whatever it's worth you could shave your face daily for a lifetime with one. You can do the same with a vintage or other new maker. So end of the day it doesn't really matter utility wise. I've had a few. The scales are like knife scales. They shave well because I honed them to my liking. VG 10 Japanese stainless is what they said. I didn't bother to test it. Lol. Not knocking vintage or new either. Your money your choice is what I always say. Some guys would never use an old vintage because they're afraid of getting ebola or something. (Not a chance sanitize is very easy). But that's people for you.

Right you are, Bill. Of course a lot of members here do not care about low price, and some I think even prefer a higher price. To each his own.

I know that you don't care about bevel angle. Me, I do care, very much. And it is the one flaw with both Taiwanese (Titans are made in Taiwan and not China) and Chinese (Gold Dollars) that is most labor/skill intensive to remedy. And the Titans are worse than the Gold Dollars in that respect, though not quite as bad as the ZY razors. The P81 has a slightly better bevel angle and better grinding than the other Gold Dollars. As good as a Titan? Well, fundamentally, in terms of geometry, much better. Costs less, too. I haven't really sampled retail prices but wholesale the P81 runs about $3 each. I think I will check fleabay this afternoon and see if any Chinese resellers are dealing in the P81. What kills the Titan for me is the scales. I have a very hard time honing and stropping and shaving with superheavyweight scales. Some guys it probably doesn't bother a bit.

Member rbscebu on that other forum loves his Titans and I know he is not alone. It's all about what you like in a razor, not just what is "best". I think he has like 4 seven days sets of the different models, something like that.

I do find the steel alloys that they use to be interesting. Because I hone on film and post-finish on diamond on balsa, I don't mind hard steel. I will definitely break down and get myself a Titan one of these days, but before I even bother to hone it, I will rescale it. To me, those scales are horrible not only because they don't belong on a razor, but because they are just too heavy for even a stout razor like that. IMHO, YMMV and all that. Everybody gets to like what he wants to like.

Holey Cow!!! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Titan-Razor...sAAOSw~TBa9Gie
Only $118.77 with free shipping!!!

Another one for $42.95 and another for $35.

Originally Posted by ZipZop

Shave done this morning. Bottom line, very nice. I did an initial cheek pass with the factory hone and a quick stropping. I'd give the razor a 95 percent on shave ready. The way it was popping hairs on my arm put a cat's curiosity in me and I had to try a shave with just the factory hone. I then applied a 12k JNAT finish and went to work with a multiple pass complete shave.

Hi Bill,

I received my Titan a couple of days ago.

You said that yours was popping hairs, mine did cut hairs (shaved hair) and tree topped one or two about 1/8 inch from my skin.

I did an initial 4 pass cheeks shave, not impressed at all and could have had another shave immediately.

You touched yours up on a Jnat. How did you know what angle the bevel was set at?

I didn't know so I marked the bevel and used my 12k naniwa, the sharpie stayed on, so I used kapton on the spine, no. I used tape, no. I used tape and kapton, no. I used 2 layers of tape. no.

I wasn't going to work with at least 3 layers of tape so I started again.

I measured the bevel and used a layer of kapton to protect the spine. With the Kapton the bevel was 16.11 degrees.

I reset the bevel on 1K Norton, Well that's not quite true. I spent 40 minutes setting the bevel yesterday then walked away and came back this morning to try again.

I am still not satisfied. What's this thing made of?

I marked the bevel as usual and did a few x strokes, the sharpie remained on the heel third of the blade.

I have already ground the stabilizer with a dremel so the heel touched the stone OK.

I have it shaving hair like the bevel is set at the centre of the blade on both sides but the toe and heel thirds don't want to know on either side which confuses me a bit.

I have tried circles, straight strokes heel leading, x strokes, rolling x strokes and that's about the end of my repertoire.

I'm not completely useless at bevel setting, I have had great success on the other razors I have honed Including my GD which is a fantastic shaver now, I ground the stabilizer on that too.

I have used the one inch on the toe but don't know haw to do that on the heel.

Honestly, if I don't get this bevel set soon I might just put it in the kitchen and call it a $20 pairing knife.

If the steel is different in different priced razors then I bought the cheapest and got what I paid for I reckon.

I might give it an hour on my washita the see if I can set the bevel with that because it's only 2" wide and it seems the work well whatever the warping or other issues are. I've had success doing that way before when the 3" synths don't seem to work for me in some situations.

I'm not sending it out because I'm not admitting defeat and spending money getting a $20 Chinese razor honed and anyway, I bought my stones so I wouldn't have to send my stuff out.

Originally Posted by STF

Hi Bill,

I received my Titan a couple of days ago.

You said that yours was popping hairs, mine did cut hairs (shaved hair) and tree topped one or two about 1/8 inch from my skin.

I did an initial 4 pass cheeks shave, not impressed at all and could have had another shave immediately.

You touched yours up on a Jnat. How did you know what angle the bevel was set at?

I didn't know so I marked the bevel and used my 12k naniwa, the sharpie stayed on, so I used kapton on the spine, no. I used tape, no. I used tape and kapton, no. I used 2 layers of tape. no.

I wasn't going to work with at least 3 layers of tape so I started again.

I measured the bevel and used a layer of kapton to protect the spine. With the Kapton the bevel was 16.11 degrees.

I reset the bevel on 1K Norton, Well that's not quite true. I spent 40 minutes setting the bevel yesterday then walked away and came back this morning to try again.

I am still not satisfied. What's this thing made of?

I marked the bevel as usual and did a few x strokes, the sharpie remained on the heel third of the blade.

I have already ground the stabilizer with a dremel so the heel touched the stone OK.

I have it shaving hair like the bevel is set at the centre of the blade on both sides but the toe and heel thirds don't want to know on either side which confuses me a bit.

I have tried circles, straight strokes heel leading, x strokes, rolling x strokes and that's about the end of my repertoire.

I'm not completely useless at bevel setting, I have had great success on the other razors I have honed Including my GD which is a fantastic shaver now, I ground the stabilizer on that too.

I have used the one inch on the toe but don't know haw to do that on the heel.

Honestly, if I don't get this bevel set soon I might just put it in the kitchen and call it a $20 pairing knife.

If the steel is different in different priced razors then I bought the cheapest and got what I paid for I reckon.

I might give it an hour on my washita the see if I can set the bevel with that because it's only 2" wide and it seems the work well whatever the warping or other issues are. I've had success doing that way before when the 3" synths don't seem to work for me in some situations.

I'm not sending it out because I'm not admitting defeat and spending money getting a $20 Chinese razor honed and anyway, I bought my stones so I wouldn't have to send my stuff out.

Sorry I missed this post until now, Steve. One of our members states he knows (as a dealer) that there are differences between blades on the Titan models. My Japanese friends only buy the higher end razors $30 and above. There may be some serious validity to this based on your esperience, OR, as I posted when I first got my Titan, I may have gotten "lucky" with the one guy in the factory that knows how to sharpen a blade correctly. But I actually think you get premium service on the more premium razors with higher quality from start to final sharpening. Our colleague also says they are not Chinese but Korean. Perhaps, but I really think the factory may have moved to China. My shipping came from China, unless they are just using China for warehousing and shipping.

My bevel was fine for the Jnat 12k and I don't exactly think it "needed" it fully. Mine popped arm hairs right out of the box. The Jnat I used was my barber hone sized 2", wet. Smoothed out the shave IMO.

Too bad yours was a fail. Mine has been a pleasant surprise. If I had your scales, I'd be happier, but I'm not spending $20 just for the scales. I'll live with my scales with what is almost certainly higher quality steel and manufacture on the blade of my model.

I've honed lots of them on a 600 chosera to start. They need a little to get them straightened out. But I've had similar time put it straightening out other razors like TIs, dovos etc. It's a one and done. If you do not have a sub 1k stone than I suggest you should get one. It makes life much easier with the razors that need more than a refresh.