The Big Spendur: Out of 34 razors, I have two that leaped to the front of the line the first time I used them; a new 6/8 Thiers-Issard Le Grelot and a vintage 5/8 J, A. Heckles 72 1/2. All of the other razors shave really quite well but these two feel like an extension of my hand and arm and the shave is so effortless that both razors fall into the exceptional quality. As I compare shaving with any of the other razors to these two, the other razors come out lacking something, yet it is very difficult to verbalize exactly what quality is missing. However, during the past couple of days, I have found your three categories of Excellent, Outstanding, and Exceptional have enabled me to more clearly rate my razors. All of them are excellent, about a fourth of them (especially those with professional honing) are outstanding, but only two are exceptional. That said, I love using all of them. Using a razor that is "only" excellent makes me appreciate the exceptional razor even more.