Recent acquisition and test shave of a 40's Super Speed and a black tip Krona

To make a long story longer, I have always loathed shaving. I found that the combination of an electric shaver on my face and a cartridge razor on my neck was the formula for the least amount of irritation. That being said, I took up shaving with a straight razor in January and I actually look forward to shaving now. Whodathunkit. A friend of mine found an old Gillette travel safety razor at an antique shop and he let me give it a spin. I wasn't impressed at all. I lucked out on ebay and acquired a 40's Super Speed (I think it's the very first model?) as well as a Schick Koronoa - the one with a black tip.

I dropped a Gillette Platinum blade in each of them and used the right side of my face for the Super Speed, and the left side for the Krona. They are both fine shavers, I will say I LOVE the Super Speed. The feel of the razor, though a little short for my preference, is absolutely great. I have heard the SS 40's models are decently aggressive and I figured it would leave me with some irritation. The right side of my face feels buttery smooth and when I rubbed my alum block on it, I didn't even get a twinge of pain. I'm absolutely amazed at how good this little guy is.

The Krona to it's credit did a very good job as well. In trying to play it fair, the left side of my face is probably just as smooth. I very much like the length of the handle on the Krona and I'm not bothered by the lack of a metal handle. If I wasn't testing the Super Speed on the right side of my face, I would have had nothing but high praise for the Krona.

At the end of the day, I absolutely love both of these. I got them for a very fair price for their condition and I couldn't be happier. I wish I knew about safety razors all those years ago. Life changing stuff it is.

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Cheers

They have there place,I have been have some bigtime hay fever problems of late,been in the 90s all week, 104 today, 112 tomorrow.
Straights just do not work for me this week.I get burn bigtime,My D.Es with feather blades do.

On days that I need a quicker but decent shave, I can definitely see myself reaching for one of these guys. I grabbed a 50's Super Speed an hour ago as well so I'll give that a shot in the next day or so.

The Krona is a milder razor than the SuperSpeed, which is probably why you feel you got a closer shave with the SuperSpeed. You might try some Feather blades to make the Krona a bit more aggressive. Those are the sharpest blades I have used.

I saw a deal on Amazon - 100 feather blades for $30. I thought about jumping on it but I'm thinking getting a sample pack would be a better choice. So far I have only used the Gillette Platinum and the Wilkinson Swords from Wal Mart. I've noticed that a lot of the forum members aren't overly excited about the Wilkies. They seem to do the job and for $2 at Wal Mart, it's hard to complain too much.