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Above The Tie Slant Review (sort of)
In my first year of returning to traditional wet shaving I discovered the Merkrur 37C slant and became a confirmed slant-fan. I began to collect them, finding them on the bay, the classifieds. Variously branded slants made by Merkur, plus other Solingen made marques and a slue of 'no name' slants from the pre-WWII era. Then the straight razor virus infected me and the slants went on the back burner. So when the wet shave renaissance we are experiencing moved on to small shops putting out high end stainless steel DEs I was not that receptive.
I did think to myself, if they would only put out a slant I'd bite. The Ikon was the first I'm aware of, and I didn't grab one immediately, these things ain't cheap after all. I finally saw one on ebay at a great BIN price and pounced. I didn't like the shave at all due mostly to insufficient (for me) blade gap, and the profile of the top cap was too thick to get under my nose between the pencil mustache, and the nostrils. Now as noted above I've got a heckuva lot of slant DEs. I've tried dozens of different brands and the Merkur always came out on top ........ for me.
So my friend Obie, a definite connoisseur of wet shaving goods, had highly praised Above The TIe. I had gone to their site and at the time I don't recall them having a slant. Eventually I went back and saw the 'slant two pack'. A bar guard and an open comb available sans handles if you just wanted the heads. I resisted for a considerable time, but curiosity finally got the better of me and I pulled the trigger.
I first opened the package and looked at the itty bitty alignment pins I almost sent the heads right back. I took the open comb and loaded it up with a Gillette Platinum. Found it difficult to load because I started with the blade on the curved top cap without the usual tall thick alignment pins. Anyway, the shave was okay but the tiny pins were a deal breaker.
So I packaged it up and put it to the side and was going to mail it back next morning. Slept on it, figuratively speaking, and after my morning coffee I decided to give the bar guard head a try. This time I loaded a Feather laying it on the base plate and maneuvering the top cap in place. Needless to say that worked far better, and I got a great shave to boot.
So my first impression was that if I was only going to order one of them it would have been the open comb, sexier than the bar guard. I'm very happy to have both, and to my surprise I like the bar guard better as far as the shave, though both are great. These are subtle performers. IME the Merkur 37 and it's brother the 'Sledgehammer', are nicely aggressive. The ABT slants don't feel aggressive (to me) but they just shave super comfortably and clean. So some more arrows have joined the shaving quiver and a hat tip is due to Obie for keeping us up to date on the finer things of the wet shaving world. :chapeau
(the ABT slants, with Jurgen Hemple titanium handles, shown with a Merkur 37C for comparison)
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