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Never Alone 6 Razor The Aylsworth Never Alone 6 shares a substantial amount of DNA with the Drakkant Plus, which was discontinued in late 2024. The NA6 was produced for The Razor Company as part of its 2026 Never Alone 6 Men’s Mental Health Awareness campaign, alongside a soap, splash, and EDP from Ariana & Evans and a series of brushes from AKA Brushworxx. Although ShaveSplash hasn't tested the Drakkant Plus, the two razors share several critical specifications, including a 0.99mm blade gap, 0.125mm blade exposure, a weight of approximately 107g, and a bead blasted finish. Placing the two razors side by side makes their common heritage immediately apparent. The most obvious differences are found in the shape of the safety bar and the carve out along the top of the baseplate. Interestingly, the NA6 baseplate appears to make greater contact with the underside of the top cap, potentially contributing additional support to the blade. Both razors share a somewhat traditional Edge Clamper design, which can also be found in peers such as the Karve Overlander and Bison, Atelier Durdan Le Maurice, Tatara Nodachi, and even the Wolfman WR1. What makes the NA6 unique is its treatment of the other dimensions that also play important roles in performance. The top cap is a very wide 20mm, revealing only 1mm of blade on each side and providing strong support to the top of the blade. In addition, the baseplate is a wide 25mm, which serves both to elongate the shave plane and expand the guard span. Although blade gap and exposure play important roles in performance, the three key architectural features that ShaveSplash has found most determinative are clamp width, reveal, and plate width, and the NA6’s combination of 17, 1, and 25mm is quite unique. In terms of razor behavior, the closest comparisons are the Overlander and Le Maurice. Overall, the NA6 is an exemplar of well executed Edge Clamper architecture. Its 17mm clamp width and narrow 1mm reveal provide extremely strong support to the blade, with virtually no perceptible flex. Yet the substantial 0.99mm gap and pronounced 0.125mm exposure give it plenty of authority at the cutting edge. The result is raw Efficiency toward the medium to high end of the spectrum, earning an 8. What is particularly impressive is that this assertiveness does not come at the expense of comfort. Blade rigidity and the elongated shave plane created by the wide baseplate help keep Comfort exceptionally high at 9. The wide plate does, however, create a somewhat shallower working angle that can initially feel counterintuitive, making the optimum cutting angle slightly more difficult to locate. For that reason, Ease of Use and Consistency, while still very strong, are both capped at 8. The resulting Composite Score is 33 out of 40, placing the NA6 near the upper end of the high performance artisan razors tested by ShaveSplash. Across repeated shaves, it consistently delivered a BBS, 7 out of 9, on the ShaveSplash DFS to BBS+ result scale, an exceptional result. The Never Alone 6 Razor One question repeatedly came to mind during testing: why was the Drakkant architecture retired in favor of the Apex? Although the Apex and NA6 share the same headline specifications of a 0.99mm gap and 0.125mm exposure, their performance in ShaveSplash testing was materially different. The NA6 produced higher scores in Comfort, Ease of Use, and Consistency, along with a modestly better overall shaving result. The Apex earned a Composite Score of 29 and an average result of BBS/BBS- (6), compared with the NA6’s 33 and BBS (7). Looking more deeply at their geometry helps explain why two razors with identical gap and exposure figures can behave so differently. First, the Apex has a clamp width of 16mm. Although only 1mm narrower than the NA6, that difference can materially affect the amount of unsupported blade extending beyond the clamping structure. Under ShaveSplash’s classification system, the 16mm clamp moves the Apex into the Hybrid category rather than making it a true Edge Clamper. The Apex also uses a 24mm baseplate, 1mm narrower than the NA6, slightly shortening the shave plane. But perhaps the most interesting difference is a dimension that receives far less attention: guard span. Guard span is the distance between the blade’s cutting edge and the point where the guard or baseplate contacts the skin. It is a dimension emphasized by experienced razor designers including Augustin Durdan of Atelier Durdan and Dawid of Nord Razors. Guard span influences how much unsupported skin lies between the guard and the cutting edge, and therefore how readily that skin can deform toward the blade. A simple analogy is a diving board. The longer the board, the farther it can bend under the same load. In much the same way, a larger guard span gives the skin more room to deform toward the blade. The NA6 has a measured guard span of approximately 2.3mm, compared with approximately 1.4mm for the Apex. ShaveSplash believes that the combination of the wider guard span and stronger clamping helps explain the NA6’s higher Composite Score and Result, producing superior comfort, ease of use, and consistency, and ultimately slightly higher “net” efficiency. At 3.75", 109g and machined from 316L stainless steel, the NA6 has a reassuring heft that feels substantial in the hand and helps keep strokes smooth and controlled against the face. Its bead blasted finish gives the razor an attractive satin appearance while adding a subtle texture that complements the already excellent handle knurling and improves grip. The Never Alone 6 ultimately feels every bit the sturdy workhorse: solid, predictable, highly efficient, and remarkably comfortable. For wet shavers who missed the Drakkant, the NA6 offers the opportunity to experience a refined evolution of that architecture at an exceptional value, while also supporting an important cause. The Never Alone 6 Can be Purchased at The Razor Company. Please consider using this link to support ShaveSplash. Please also consider downloading our app, ShaveSplash: The Rabbit Hole on iOS and Android. If you like our content, you can also support ShaveSplash by buying us a cup of coffee. View the ShaveSplash complete Razor Rankings here Check out the new ShaveSplash Community website here

To buy one of the remaining tickets contact Glen Sherman at gbsher@icloud.com.

Average Result: BBS Composite Score: 35/40 The Five Pointed Star Benten, by Kojak Razor in Japan, first launched in December 2025. Its backstory follows a journey of discovery familiar to so many wet shavers: a discovery that grows into a passion, and ultimately into a decision to join the ranks of the community’s artisans. The founder of Kojak Razor, Mr. Kosaku Ota, explains that his awakening to traditional wet shaving began in 2015, when his father passed away. Memories of his father using a DE razor inspired him to try one himself, beginning with a purchase on Amazon. He quickly fell in love with the ritual. “Shaving every morning creates a rhythm. Life is a daily battle outside the home. Every morning, I'm performing a ritual before going into battle. From the first thing in the morning, I can interact with people at work with a clear mind. What has happened to me is that I have become able to treat people kindly. My life has started to change for the better! I can clearly feel that.” Mr. Kosaku Ota The Ota family has a long history in retail, operating a women’s apparel store in Toyooka, Japan, called Tamaya, dating back to 1966. In 2023, Mr. Ota opened Kojak Razor, an online store dedicated to wet shaving gear from around the world. In 2025, he took the next step and launched his first in house razor, the Five Pointed Star Benten, CNC machined in Toyooka. The Benten is clearly the product of careful attention to detail and thoughtful design. The head is made from 316L stainless steel for corrosion resistance, while the handle is made from 304 stainless steel for strength. ShaveSplash chose the 85mm 202 handle, which features three broad grip sections separated by attractive scalloping and proved exceptionally secure in the hand. With the 202 handle, the razor measures 93mm overall and weighs 109g. Although substantial, it remained surprisingly nimble and maneuverable throughout the shave. The Benton with 202 Handle But what really sets the Benten apart is its inspired and highly unusual approach to blade clamping, which holds the blade extremely rigid and, to ShaveSplash’s knowledge, is not duplicated by any other modern razor. Three elements work together to achieve this. The first, and probably the most important, is the narrow 11mm clamp width. ShaveSplash defines razors with clamp widths of 7mm to 11mm as Blade Benders. Rather than clamping the blade close to its cutting edge, these razors secure it nearer the center of the top cap and rely on bending the blade downward to generate rigidity through torsion. In our testing, only three other razors have so far fallen into this category: the Blackland Blackbird at 7mm, the Tedalus Velocity One at 8mm, and the Rocnel Elite 2023 at 11mm. Five Pointed Star Benten Tedalus Velocity One Blackland Blackbird The second factor is the width of the top cap itself, which measures 20mm. Since a standard DE blade is approximately 22mm wide, the Benten leaves a very narrow reveal of only about 1mm on each side. This gives the blade a broad span of support across its upper surface while minimizing the amount of unsupported steel that can flex during the shave. The third element is the shape of the top cap. Its sides slope sharply downward, giving the head a pronounced trapezoidal profile. That steep geometry forces the blade downward and places it under additional tension, further contributing to the rigidity of the cutting edge. Blade rigidity is the attribute that, in ShaveSplash’s testing, appears to have the strongest relationship with a razor’s overall performance. And overall performance means considerably more than efficiency alone. It also encompasses Comfort, Ease of Use, and Consistency. When it comes to raw efficiency, meaning the cutting ability of a single stroke, Blade Gap and Blade Exposure become particularly important. Neither measurement has been published by Kojak, so ShaveSplash used ImageJ to estimate both from photographs. Our measurements put the Blade Gap in the region of 1.2mm. More interestingly, and somewhat counterintuitively, the images suggest that Blade Exposure sits just shy of Neutral. This was also supported by the simple test of running a piece of cardboard along the shave plane. 1.2mm Blade Gap Slightly Negative Exposure Despite that slightly negative exposure, the Benten is a forcefully efficient razor. The combination of exceptional blade rigidity and a substantial gap gives it tremendous cutting authority, earning an Efficiency score of 9 out of 10. The large gap and rigid blade also produce a deep and assertive blade feel, something ShaveSplash happens to enjoy. It approaches the sensation of the Blackbird and Velocity One, which is particularly interesting given that both of those razors have considerably larger blade reveals of roughly 1.5mm. That assertiveness ultimately caps the Benten’s Comfort score at 8 out of 10. Where the razor becomes especially impressive is in Ease of Use and Consistency. Once again, much of this appears to come back to rock solid blade control. Both attributes score 9 out of 10, bringing the Benten to a class leading Composite Score of 35. Across multiple test shaves, the Benten repeatedly delivered the same result: an exceptionally smooth, buttery BBS. As a Blade Bender, the Benten uses an architecture perhaps closest to the Blackland Blackbird and Tedalus Velocity One. But in terms of the actual shaving experience and the balance between its individual performance scores, the razor it most brings to mind is the Nord Freyja with the E plate. Architecturally, the two could hardly be more different. The Freyja is very much an Edge Clamper, with a 20mm clamp width. Yet it shares two important characteristics with the Benten: a narrow blade reveal and a strongly trapezoidal head shape. Nord Freyja with E-plate The result is that both razors feel extraordinarily controlled on the face. Both routinely deliver BBS level results, although the Benten may have a slight edge in outright efficiency. Both are also beautifully machined, thoughtfully engineered, and unquestionably deserving of the description of premium, high performance razors. ShaveSplash cannot help but admire the design intelligence behind both. As for the Benten, there is a Five Pointed Star rising over the wet shaving world, and its light is shining brightly. With the Five Pointed Star Benten, Kojak has added something different from Japan: a thoroughly modern artisan safety razor with distinctive engineering, exceptional blade control, and performance capable of standing alongside some of the finest artisan double edge razors anywhere. A star is born. Five Pointed Star Benten Details Please also consider downloading our app, ShaveSplash: The Rabbit Hole on iOS and Android. If you like our content, you can also support ShaveSplash by buying us a cup of coffee.

Phoenix Shaving ShaveSplash was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Phoenix Shaving's upcoming new brush, WÜRM. As with many things from the fertile and inventive mind of Douglas Smythe the product is a bit of a roller coaster ride back in time, and into the future, at the exact same moment. It draws its inspiration from the Klenzo B1086 from the 1950s, the backstory of which is described below by Douglas himself. We tested the brush over multiple shaves and here are our impressions. In addition to its retro-space-age alien good looks, the handle of the WÜRM fits nicely in the hand. It's 3.5 ounces feels solid without feeling heavy, and its accordion ridges provide excellent grip. At 22mm, the knot is on the smaller side, which has pros and cons. ShaveSplash typically builds lather in a bowl, and the compact size requires a full brush load and a little extra swirling to achieve maximum lather volume. Conversely, the smaller profile allows for neat and precise application of the lather, putting it right where you want it with no mess. The knot is Phoenix’s Micro Super Future Hybrid, made from an in-house designed black synthetic fiber. The crimping gives it a look and feel that approximates natural badger, while remaining softer, as is typical of synthetics. By ShaveSplash’s subjective estimation, the fibers come closest in softness to the Mondial Krex and Plisson High Mountain White synthetic fibers. Overall backbone is on the lighter side, making the knot soft and forgiving on the face, but still substantial enough to work up an excellent lather. It is difficult to compare backbone between knots because loft, width, density, and the set of the knot all play a role. We found the Atomic Rocket knot to be ever so slightly stiffer, with the Moon Stryker stiffer still. Much of that difference, however, appears to come from knot construction rather than the quality of the fiber itself. On a crowded playing field, the WÜRM stands its ground. As with all things from Phoenix Shaving it has a wildly unique retro charm married with futuristic innovation, while also being easy to use and extremely comfortable on the face. Once again, Phoenix delivers something from the past which feels new, and is likely to be an icon of tomorrow. Visit Phoenix Shaving to Learn More Brush Comparison Photo Brand Brush Knot Fiber Size Fiber Softness Rank Mondial Gibson EcoSilvertip Krex 25 1 Plisson Essential Plisson Style High Mountain White 22 2 Phoenix Wurm Micro Super Future Hybrid In-house design 22 3 Phoenix Atomic Rocket Synthetic Suave In-house design 26 4 Razorock Beehive Plissoft In-house design 28 5 Phoenix Moon Stryker Snickle Synth Hybrid In-house design 24 6 Maggards Custom Timberwolf In-house design 26 7 Please consider using this link when buying from Phoenix Shaving to support ShaveSplash. Please also consider downloading our app, ShaveSplash: The Rabbit Hole on iOS and Android. Here's what Douglas Smythe from Phoenix Shaving writes about the WÜRM..... TLDR: The Phoenix WÜRM takes its physical inspiration from an obscure American vintage brush, the KLENZO B1086, a clear, rectangular, accordion-bodied Pure Badger shaving brush produced for the Rexall/United Drug empire around the middle of the 20th century. Its original base is marked U.S.A., STERILIZED, SET IN RUBBER and PURE BADGER. Surviving Klenzo records show Lucite lather brushes being sold by Rexall by 1948 and genuine 100% badger Klenzo brushes set in rubber being advertised during the early 1950s. [The exact B1086, however, appears to be remarkably elusive. Despite a surprisingly active community of vintage-brush collectors, I have yet to locate another documented example. Any help with this side quest is greatly appreciated. Also: Being that you are a fellow Shnerd or Shave Nerd, you might just find the following ramblings of a man, who breathes in way too much essential oil, interesting. Or at the very least, mildly entertaining...and possibly useful in a future blackmailing opportunity. Just read it.] WÜRM Specimen B1086? The story behind WÜRM begins with one of the more stranger vintage shaving brushes I have ever come across, the KLENZO B1086! Originally made in clear Lucite, the brush has a rectangular footprint and a deeply segmented, accordion-like handle that feels far more mechanical than ornamental. Or maybe that's just me...But you have to admit, even its name sounds oddly futuristic. KLENZO B1086 could just as easily be the designation of a rather cute droid, a laboratory unit, or some forgotten piece of starship trooper tchotchke. No? --Turn the brush over and things only get stranger (kinda). As expected you get the usual branding and wording typical for that time: "KLENZO, U.S.A., STERILIZED, SET IN RUBBER, PURE BADGER, along with the B1086 model number...but then, there's a mysterious circled M whose meaning, as far as I can determine, has been lost to time. (maybe we can solve this today too! If you know anything, I'm all ears!) To brush collectors however, KLENZO itself has considerably more history behind it. The name belonged to the United Drug Company, the organization behind Rexall and one of the great American drugstore empires of the twentieth century! United Drug began operations at 43 Leon Street in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1903, and the KLENZO name was being used for brushes by the early twentieth century. United Drug's trademark records specifically include lather brushes and claim first commercial use in 1909. By the 1920s, Rexall stores were already advertising KLENZO shaving brushes, including models proudly promoted as being “set in rubber,” a construction feature important enough to eventually find its way directly onto the bottom of brushes like the B1086. Fun Fact: “Set in Rubber” wasn’t just vintage advertising language. It described a real manufacturing improvement. Instead of setting the bristles in glue, makers anchored them in rubber, creating a more water-resistant and durable bond. By the early 1900s, the phrase had become such a valuable selling point that competing brush companies actually fought over its use in court! (Rubberset knew what they were doing with that name!) The word “STERILIZED” opens another, much darker chapter of shaving history. During the early twentieth century, contaminated animal-hair shaving brushes were linked to outbreaks of cutaneous anthrax. Wartime shortages and poorly disinfected animal hair created a genuine public-health problem, serious enough that sterilization and labeling requirements became part of the American brush industry. By the time brushes such as the B1086 appeared, the word STERILIZED had become a mark of reassurance. PURE BADGER mattered too, because KLENZO offered brushes in different grades. The B1086 was not coy about what it contained. This was a genuine badger brush from an era when knot material told the customer a great deal about the quality level of the tool in his hand. ANOTHER FUN FACT: Early shaving-brush makers used several different sterilization methods. Some boiled the loose animal hair in water for hours. Others exposed it to pressurized steam in an autoclave, used prolonged dry heat, or soaked the finished brush in heated formalin, a formaldehyde solution. These treatments were meant to kill anthrax spores that could survive in contaminated horsehair and other animal fibers. #TheSporeYouKnow Anyways... The material of the handle is just as important to the story. The original B1086 was made from Lucite, and that meant something very different when the brush was new than it does today. Lucite was DuPont's name for a clear acrylic material introduced commercially in the 1930s. During World War II, acrylic became closely associated with aircraft canopies, windows, gun turrets, instrumentation, and other applications where engineers needed something transparent, lightweight, strong, and less fragile than glass. When these same materials began moving into civilian products after the war, they carried some of that technological prestige with them. Rexall was advertising Lucite shaving brushes by 1948, at a time when a transparent acrylic object still looked strikingly modern. That is one of the things I love most about the original B1086. Today we look at a clear Lucite handle and see vintage design. When the brush was new, people would have seen the future! If you really want to shave like grandpa, you need to think like grandpa too. Come with me now as we crawl inside his mind. To him, this new material belonged to aviation, machinery, laboratories, and the rapidly advancing world of postwar technology! Exciting stuff for sure. The B1086 was not retro futuristic when it was made. It was simply futuristic! Time eventually caught up with that future, passed it, and left behind this wonderfully odd little object that now seems to belong equally to the 1950s and to some science-fiction world that never existed. [the perfect candidate for the PAA Universe.] All that just to say, this is exactly why we chose acrylic for WÜRM. Simply recreating the B1086 in clear material would have turned the project into a reproduction, and that was never our intention. We wanted to preserve the material language of the original while pushing the design somewhere new and fun. The connection to the Lucite ancestor remains immediately visible (right?), but the green transforms the character of the brush. Like a single, fractured facet of an alien prism, light moves through the segmented handle and catches the repeating geometry, creating shifting layers of depth throughout the body. Depending on the angle and the light, WÜRM can resemble vintage scientific equipment, an obvious energy cell, a reactor component, or some unknown irradiated specimen recovered from a craft whose point of origin has yet to be disclosed. #GiantHungrySpaceWorm #BÜRP #EverythingIsFine We also increased the scale. WÜRM is larger than the KLENZO that inspired it, with considerably more presence in the hand and a satisfying heft and weight that make the handle feel every bit as substantial as it looks. The enlarged proportions give those unusual accordion-like segments room to breathe, and acrylic brings enough density to the design that you immediately feel the difference when you pick it up. [You could also knock out a rabid squirrel with this sucker. I speak from experience. #Fact] Mass Soul There is another fun connection here that we could never have planned. [I mean, not without traveling back in time and moving things around.] United Drug began in Boston, Massachusetts. Our business also began in Massachusetts! More than a century separates those two origins, yet this obscure design tied to an old Massachusetts operation, disappeared into shaving history, resurfaced decades later, and eventually found its way into the orbit of another Massachusetts shaving operation with a long-standing weakness for forgotten hardware, lost designs, obscure history, and unexplained details. Even the original B1086's circled M remains unresolved. [Seriously, it keeps me up at night.] I mean, when I allow my mind to wander...it may have identified a manufacturer, mold maker, supplier, factory, or something else entirely! Given the Boston connection, Massachusetts is tempting, but there is no evidence strong enough to claim that, so for now the M remains exactly what it should be: a mystery. [Again, all ears if you can solve this riddle. #PappyNeedsHisSleep] What YES, Is In A Name? The name WÜRM brings another thread into the story for me. It is an indirect nod to “Starship Trooper” by YES, one of the great progressive-rock epics of the early 1970s! The final section of the piece is titled “Würm,” and it always spoke to my soul. In my minds eye right now I can conjure back up the images that music paints in my brain; a freaky, kaleidoscopic, scifi space worm! Turning and twisting, crawling through space-time, devouring everything in it's wake; stars, planets, galaxies...mankind? Rabid squirrels? Sorry, forgot where I was for a sec. Ahem...just listen to the track. [and wear headphones. *very important] Soooo...I guess what I'm trying to say is, the original provides the theme. What comes next is interpretation. [at this point I totally forgot what we were even talking about. I sat there staring at a doorknob for like 2 minutes before it came back to me. But hey ho!] WÜRM: Your New Favorite Brush At this point, WÜRM started becoming more than the name of this ferocious brush. It became a new character in the PAA Universe, although exactly what kind of character still remains unclear. #irony--Machine, organism, droid, experimental grooming unit, recovered artifact, translucent extraterrestrial life-form with an inexplicable talent for building lather & world eating? We are still waiting on that report. People Love This Knot For the business end of the brush, we brought back one of your favorite PAA knots, the 22mm Micro Super Future Hybrid Synth. Longtime Phoenix brush collectors will remember this knot from the Astraeus, where it quickly earned a following because of the particular balance it offers. The fibers are exceptionally soft and can give an almost gel-tip-like sensation on the face, yet the knot retains enough backbone, spring, and pushback to remain lively in use. ["lively" may be the wrong word. How about, Punchy?]-- It does not collapse into a shapeless puff, nor does it rely on stiffness to create backbone. It has enough structure to work a lather while retaining the softness that made the Micro Super Future such a pleasure to use in the first place. Can I get an amen? Bringing it back for WÜRM also creates a little Phoenix continuity of our own. Astraeus was another exercise in Retro Shave Tech, taking inspiration from an unusual vintage transparent brush and pairing that visual language with modern synthetic fiber technology. Pointing out, this knot really looks great in translucent handles and it's a real daily driver too! And this brings us to the end of yet another epic, proto, PAA product description. Oh and remember: The world is WÜRM. [Specimen B1086] ...and it makes one hell of a shaving brush. "Sci-Fi Shaving at its finest, Phoenix Shaving." #JustSayNo If you like our content, you can also support ShaveSplash by buying us a cup of coffee.

Urkunet Assassin Master According to Urkunet, the Assassin Master is a complete overhaul of the original Assassin razor, with a new look and new baseplate configurations. The original Assassin had 3 plates with gaps of 1.5mm, 2.0mm, and 2.5mm while the Assassin Master plates have been revised to 1.2mm, 1.7mm, and 2.2mm. Visit Urkunet to learn more.

A&E and The Razor Company In support of September being Suicide Prevention Awareness month, on September 12th the Razor Company will launch its line of Never Alone 6 products, the proceeds of which will be donated to help support the cause. The new line will include a soap and splash collaboration with Arian & Evans and the NA6 razor manufactured by Aylsworth Razors based on the Drakkant but with an all new head design. NA6 Razor Specs: • 316 Stainless Steel • 3.75” overall length • 109 grams • 24° shaving angle • .99 mm blade gap • .125 mm blade exposure The new products will be released on September 12th at The Razor Company. Visit the Razor Company

Average Result: BBS/BBS- Composite Score: 31/40 The story of the Yaqi Bohemia, inspired by the Bohin razor, begins in 1833 in Normandy, France, where Benjamin Bohin established the Bohin metalworks. After a century spent producing mainly needles and pins, Bohin turned its attention to the shaving market in the 1930s. But the real prize was not razors. It was blades. Bohin Blades The Bohin Company Established in 1833 By 1918, Gillette was selling more than 30 million blades per year, a market that must have looked especially attractive to a company built around precision metalworking. To support its move into blades, Bohin filed a patent in 1936 for a proprietary razor design, published the following year. Rather than trying to reinvent the market, Bohin hoped to enter it with something familiar but improved. The razor accepted the standard three hole blade popularized by Gillette, while introducing a number of unusual design ideas of its own. Even the patent title was direct: “An Improved Safety Razor.” The razor appears to have been produced for roughly five to ten years and is now highly prized by collectors. Whether it truly improved upon Gillette’s design is open to debate. What is clear is that Bohin made several bold choices that were both technically adventurous and aesthetically distinctive. Bohin Razor Patent 1937 The most innovative aspect of the Bohin was its reversible base plate, which ranks among the earliest, and possibly the very first, of its kind. Each side offered a different level of efficiency, described as “close shave” and “very close shave,” although no published specifications for blade gap or exposure appear to have survived. To make the plate easily reversible, the design remained symmetrical on both sides, and that requirement may also have driven its most visually striking feature: the large, bulbous comb. It is so pronounced that it resembles the baleen of a blue whale. Open combs are generally intended to increase interaction between the blade and the skin while still providing a degree of protection. The tradeoff is usually greater raw efficiency at some cost to comfort. On most razors, the vertical height of the comb is modest, often around 1 to 2 mm, roughly the depth of a typical base plate. The extraordinary feature of the Bohemia is that its comb rises to an extremely tall 7 mm, creating a tremendous amount of surface area between the razor and the face. The base plate is also unusually wide at 26 mm, compared with roughly 25 mm for many conventional designs, which again keeps the blade farther from the skin. The result is a highly protective geometry, but one that comes with a price. The broad plate and towering comb narrow the usable cutting angle, making the optimal angle of attack somewhat tricky to find and maintain. Another defining characteristic of the Bohemia is its heft. At 131g, it feels impressively substantial in the hand. Its mass and density give it a planted, sure footed feel and allow the razor to do much of the work on a typical downward WTG pass. At the same time, that bulk can make it feel somewhat unwieldy, especially when trying to stay within its relatively narrow range of effective cutting angles. On the 0.95 mm side, efficiency is fairly modest, landing in the region of a 5 or 6 and generally producing results in the DFS+ range. Flip the plate to 1.35 mm, however, and the character changes noticeably, with efficiency rising to an 8. Unlike many designs of the period that fall into the Hybrid category, with clamp widths around 12 mm such as the Merkur 34, Bohin appears to have understood the benefits of a much wider clamp. Perhaps reflecting its metalworking DNA and understanding of metallurgy, Bohin chose a substantial 19 mm clamp width, making the design a strong Edge Clamper by ShaveSplash classification. The result is excellent blade rigidity, which, together with the protective comb and broad base plate, makes Comfort its strongest attribute at 9. The comb, however, is also something of an impediment. Combined with the razor’s girth and narrow cutting window, it makes angle control more demanding and drops Ease of Use to its weakest score of 6. Repeated shaves proved fairly predictable, with Consistency earning an 8 and bringing the Overall Composite Score to 31, squarely in premium razor territory. As for outcomes, a standard three pass WTG, XTG, and ATG shave with a Personna Diamond Gem delivered a respectable BBS/BBS- result, worthy of virtually any occasion, with strong supporting scores outside of Ease of Use. Despite its quirks, in the eyes of ShaveSplash, the Bohemia and its progenitor, the Bohin, are gems. Bohin occupies a fascinating place in the history of wet shaving, with the company surviving and thriving today even though its razor did not. Yet what makes the design most compelling is its unmistakable French Art Deco elegance. Its curves, proportions, and eye-catching base plate crystallize a moment when wet shaving and men’s grooming were closely associated with cultivation, refinement, and sophistication. Ultimately, it is that beauty, as much as the engineering beneath it, that makes the Bohemia so intriguing and so worthy of a place in the enthusiast’s collection. The Bohemia For the complete review visit here Find the Bohemia on Aliexpress

Coop The year is 1989. The “Me Generation” of Wall Street wealth, conspicuous consumption, designer labels, nightclub excess, and “dressing for success” is about to face a backlash. The 1990s usher in a generation that disavows the badges of materialism and searches for authenticity. Grunge erupts out of Seattle and in 1991 the flannel-clad Nirvana drops Nevermind like a bomb. Sensitive, self-conscious masculinity goes mainstream in Singles in 1992, with full-blown Gen X disillusionment arriving in Reality Bites in 1994. Joop! Homme, the inspiration for Coop, was released in 1989 and sits directly between these two cultural movements, with a foot in both worlds. It carries echoes of the confidence and projection of the 1980s while simultaneously hinting at the brighter, softer, more playful direction masculine fragrance would soon take in the coming decade. In the evolution of masculine fragrance, ShaveSplash sees three major historical movements: Citrus-Florals, Fougères, and New Fruits. The Citrus Floral era begins in the 18th century with Eau de Cologne, a citrusy bouquet built around bergamot, lemon, orange, and neroli, blended with orange blossom, petitgrain, jasmine, and lavender. In 1882, Houbigant invents the fougère with Fougère Royale, introducing a new paradigm of powdery lavender, dark oakmoss, and warm coumarin. The fougère movement reached its loudest expression in the late 1980s through the rise of the power scent: fragrances like Drakkar Noir, Azzaro Pour Homme, Kouros, and Tsar. Soon afterward, the fougères gave way to what ShaveSplash calls the New Fruits style, built around juicier, sweeter, lighter notes such as melon, watermelon, pineapple, plum, blackcurrant, and green apple, embodied by fragrances like Escape for Men, L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme, CK One, and ultimately Aventus. Joop! represents a bridge between the age of power fougères and the coming evolution into the New Fruits wave. It retains much of the classical fougère architecture while introducing a brighter, sweeter, more playful modernity through fruits, spices, vanilla, and honey. Its similarity to the power fougères of the 1980s lies not only in its composition, but in its structural balance. Traditionally, a fougère is built around lavender, oakmoss, and coumarin. Joop! notably contains no lavender, yet heliotrope creates a surprisingly similar effect through its powdery, floral, almond-like softness. Patchouli provides much of the green, earthy darkness associated with oakmoss, while the heavy lean into tonka bean supplies a deeply warm coumarinic backbone so often found in the power fougères and fundamental to classical masculine perfumery. Vetiver further deepens the composition, giving the fragrance a rich masculine gravity despite its sweeter profile. Joop! ultimately feels fougère-descended. Despite its Oriental elements, including cinnamon, jasmine, and orange blossom, it transcends both categories. Where it differentiates from the classical fougères and power scents of the 1980s is in its complexity and tonal contrast. Mandarin orange and orange blossom introduce youthful brightness and softness. Honey adds richness. Vanilla contributes smooth confectionary warmth. Tobacco creates a velvety creaminess that anchors the sweetness with darker masculine depth. Phoenix Shaving’s Coop masterfully preserves the legendary projection and longevity of the original. With restrained application, the fragrance becomes less of an overwhelming power scent and more of a sophisticated bouquet balancing warmth, sweetness, florals, spice, and juicy brightness. For the collector who already owns the classic fougères and barbershop staples, Coop offers something genuinely different. That may ultimately be its greatest strength. It is familiar without being conventional, sweet without abandoning structure, modern without severing its historical roots. For the connoisseur looking to add breadth and historical perspective to a den, Coop earns its place not merely as a novelty or homage scent, but as an important evolutionary step in the story of masculine fragrance. Despite its roots in the late 1980s, it remains remarkably relevant today. The fragrance avoids feeling dated or trapped in the excesses of the power-fragrance era, instead presenting a balanced profile that still feels attractive, wearable, and contemporary, giving it a versatility many classic powerhouse fragrances lost long ago. Shave Soap Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements’ flagship CK-6 soap base is a vegan formula that founder Douglas Smythe calls the “Mystical Trifecta of Slick.” It blends three Amazonian butters, bacuri, cupuaçu, and murumuru, with shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil, and glycerin to create a voluminous, high-density lather with exceptional moisturiztaion properities that offers excellent cushion, above-average slickness, and rock-solid stability. Skin Foods: Glycerin, Kokum Butter, Shea Butter, Cupuacu Butter, Jojoba Oil, Murumuru Butter, Bacuri Butter. Aftershave Skin Foods: Aloe, Vegan Liquid Silk, Bayberry Extract, White Willow Extract. Learn More about Coop at Phoenix Shaving Phoenix Shaving

The Golden Age Wet Shaver Anyone who knows Jason Miller, AKA The Golden Age Wet Shaver, knows that he is all about positivity. Jason has always been candid that his life has been filled with both tremendous joys and deep challenges, experiences that clearly inform his empathy, generosity, and soulful perspective. His passion for wet shaving, and perhaps even more importantly for the community surrounding it, is legendary. It pours out of him with an almost religious enthusiasm, punctuated by his now famous exclamation: “Shababa!” Spend any time around Jason and you can’t help but feel his acceptance, his passion, and his joy. There is a tremendous amount of Jason himself in his collaboration with Heritage Hill, aptly named The Golden Age Wet Shaver. His passion, warmth, and exuberance all seem to be captured inside the fragrance, like lightning in a bottle. It opens with energy, settles into a glowing sweetness, and finishes with an enveloping earthiness. In many ways, it smells exactly like the personality that inspired it. While the inspiration is unmistakably Jason, Heritage Hill is responsible for bringing that personality to life, masterfully blending what could easily have become competing forces into a fragrance that is bursting with character yet remarkably wearable. The composition opens with a mouthwatering burst of pomegranate, sharpened by the slight bitterness and aromatic snap of juniper. The effect is juicy, refreshing, and electric. Vanilla sugar quickly introduces a warm confectionary sweetness, deepened by an amber accord that gives the fragrance an almost caramelized glow. Violet provides a subtle floral lift around the edges, preventing the sweetness from becoming too heavy. Underneath, sandalwood creates a smooth, creamy foundation, while musk gives the composition body and a soft, hazy sensuality. Finally, oakmoss contributes a loamy green earthiness that grounds everything and makes the fragrance feel remarkably alive. Perhaps the most interesting part of The Golden Age Wet Shaver is the way it evolves. What begins bright, tart, and energetic gradually becomes warmer and richer as the amber emerges. Over the course of the wear, that initial burst of color seems to soften into a golden veil of warmth and sweetness, much like Jason himself. Jason Miller and Heritage Hill have created something genuinely distinctive, a fragrance that is bright, warm, exuberant, and overflowing with positivity. It is especially well suited to summer, yet possesses enough depth and richness to remain interesting well beyond the opening splash. A Golden Age treasure. Shave Soap For the complete ShaveSplash review visit here Find it at The Razor Company

I can’t express how excited I am about this launch. ShaveSplash: The Rabbit Hole Gen 2.0 represents a complete restructuring of the app and, in my opinion, makes ShaveSplash dramatically more useful for the wet shaving community. The biggest change is that ShaveSplash is now cloud-connected. Your entire Den now lives securely in the cloud and can be accessed from virtually any connected device at ShaveSplash.app. And that cloud connection opens up a whole new world of features. Your Den is now directly connected to the ShaveSplash BST. See something in your collection you want to sell? You can move it from your Den to the BST with just a few taps. You can also post WTBs, trades, and even PIFs for the entire community to see. Looking for something specific? Expert members can create BST alerts and receive a notification when the item they’re hunting for becomes available. Your daily Shave Logs can now be converted automatically into public SOTD posts for the community. No more recreating your shave or copying and pasting everything into another post. You can even share your Den with friends, giving other wet shavers a look at your collection through a simple web link. Gen 2.0 also adds a community forum, in-app messaging, advanced analytics, community insights, and much more while still including all of the ShaveSplash reviews, product information, collection management tools, and features you already know. And perhaps most importantly, ShaveSplash: The Rabbit Hole remains almost entirely free to use. The core experience is available to everyone, with optional Expert features for those who want even more functionality. An enormous amount of work went into Gen 2.0, including tremendous contributions from ShaveSplash members who shared ideas and helped test it, and I genuinely believe it has the potential to become something special for the wet shaving community. ShaveSplash: The Rabbit Hole Gen 2.0 is available now for iPhone and iPad on the Apple App Store. Give it a spin, build your Den, post a shave, browse the BST — and let me know what you think! Explore ShaveSplash: ShaveSplash.app Download on the App Store:ShaveSplash: The Rabbit Hole

The Design94 Infinity Average Result: BBS Composite Score: 30/40 The Infinity is a bit of an anomaly. Although it shares the same basic architecture as the classic Hybrid design, its efficiency and overall performance tend to be higher than many of the razors that share its common DNA. The defining attribute of a Hybrid is a clamp width between 12–16mm, the distance measured between the widest points at which the blade is clamped. The classic Hybrid design features two pillars, or ridges, that rise from the base plate to make contact with the top cap and secure the blade. Interestingly, the design first appeared in the UK in 1927, developed by two little-known British inventors, John Henry Morgan and Alfred Stewart Mumme. The design was later sold to Wardonia UK, which appears to have licensed it to Merkur before it eventually evolved into the legendary Model 34. Interestingly, proponents of this design language have largely been concentrated in Germany. In 2007, Mühle, working with Edwin Jagger, introduced a similar architecture with the R89/DE89. Then, in 2014, Giesen & Forsthoff launched the strikingly similar three-piece Timor. Finally, Design94 introduced its first model using the same basic architecture in 2021. All are Hybrids with clamp widths of approximately 12mm. However, despite sharing the same basic structure of twin pillars and a roughly 12mm clamp width, the Design94 is markedly different from its predecessors. The challenge common to all Hybrids is that, because the blade is clamped roughly halfway between its center and cutting edge, it tends to suffer from flex, or chatter, reducing both efficiency and comfort. This is because the blade is neither supported close to its edge nor bent sufficiently to create rigidity through torsion. The Design94 also exhibits some noticeable flex, but where it departs from the others is in its much wider blade gap and unique blade exposure. The Design94’s blade gap is a prodigious 1.1mm, a size that usually requires at least a modicum of caution and skill. Although the 34C’s blade gap is not officially published, it is believed to be around 0.70mm, similar to the Timor and Yaqi Orion, while the R89 is estimated at only 0.45mm. But the single biggest difference, and the Infinity’s defining characteristic, is its blade exposure. While the others are all neutral to slightly positive, Design94 publishes an exposure of negative 0.05mm. Or at least, that is what they say. The feel and efficiency of the Design94 simply do not suggest a razor with negative exposure, and it is ShaveSplash’s contention that, in practice, this is not really the case. On close inspection of the top cap, two raised bumps can be seen that appear to create a flat ribbon designed to control the movement of the head against the skin. If a straight line is drawn from the top of the bump to the shave guard, the resulting shave plane does indeed appear to place the blade edge behind that line, creating negative exposure. However, after numerous shaves with the Design94, ShaveSplash does not believe this is the shave plane actually utilized during the shave. The bump may instead force the skin to fold slightly lower, pushing it into the true shave plane created by the broader curvature of the top cap. Therefore, while the geometrically calculated exposure from the top of the hump may be negative, the effective exposure along the functional shave plane is positive, and by no small margin. ShaveSplash would estimate effective exposure at between +0.10 and +0.20mm, placing it in the realm of some famously efficient razors such as the Blackland Blackbird, Tatara Nodachi, Wolfman WR1 0.74, or even the Timeless 0.78. And herein lies the secret power of the Design94. Its effective exposure is formidable, and when combined with its substantial blade gap, it delivers tremendous shaving power. As a result, its Efficiency is Medium-High, scoring a 9, with an average result of BBS. However, it cannot entirely escape its Hybrid genealogy and the resulting lack of blade rigidity. Comfort noticeably suffers as a result, scoring only a 7. Consistency is sound, with repeatable and predictable results, earning an 8. But the combination of a wide gap, high effective exposure, and noticeable blade flex creates a recipe for mishaps and requires both practice and careful attention, particularly when paired with a sharp blade. Cuts, nicks, and weepers appeared during multiple early test runs, and for this reason Ease of Use was scored at 6. So while the Design94 delivers an impressively close shave, it comes at a price. Its titanium construction is precise, and its mirror polish is lustrous. At 75g, it feels nimble while still possessing enough weight to feel substantial. Essentially, it is the same razor as Design94’s first titanium edition launched in 2021, which received a Special Mention at the German Design Award in 2022. The aluminum Aviation94 and steel-headed Life series from 2023 share identical head dimensions, with a 1.1mm gap and stated exposure of -0.05mm, although the Infinity is the first to feature a 92mm handle with a new three-sided fluting pattern. In addition, the Infinity is bundled with a matching titanium stand, the first in the series to allow the razor to stand upright. Hybrid Razor Comparison Among Hybrids, its Composite Score of 30 is above the class average of 29, and it is one of only two to achieve an average result of BBS or better. The best-performing Hybrids tend to employ trapezoidal head shapes that create additional torsion and rigidity by bending the blade downward to better control flex, as seen in the Maxwell June, Yates Winning, and class-leading Stando Sarmata. Among non-trapezoidal Hybrids, however, the Infinity is the most efficient, and its Composite Score is surpassed only by the Hone Type 15, Rocnel 304, and SV 2.0, all of which emphasize Comfort and Ease of Use over outright Efficiency. For lovers of fine workmanship, innovative design, and a close shave with a healthy growl, the Design94 Infinity should be on the short list. See the full ShaveSplash Review of the Design94 Infinity here Read the Art & Science of Razor Evaluation to learn about our scoring methodology Visit Design94 to learn more about the Infinity