The President is a great razor
I brought out one of my other pre-shave soaps from the test run I did: one of the QEDreserve soaps (aka “cleansing bars”), which are excellent. Indeed, I liked this one so much this morning that I’m going to stick with it for a while.
I heard from Mike (of Mike’s Naturals, the shaving soaps I’m using this week). He pointed out that his shaving soap, because of the clay and lanolin content, requires more water than other shaving soaps, and yesterday I did indeed find it worked better with more water. Today I got out the lathering bowl to allow me to mix more water into the lather. I loaded the Vie-Long “Zurito” (as Phil of BullgooseShaving.net named it) and then worked more water into the lather, with good results.
The Gillette President (shown above replated in rhodium) is a wonderful razor, it turns out. Loaded with a newish Astra Superior Platinum job, it produced one of those remarkable shaves where things come together well. A splash of Alt-Innsbruck and I’m almost ready for the cleaning ladies.
At the HBR blog, the discussion continues.
Michael — I highly value your opinion, so please don’t take this as a challenge, but what makes the President better than any other flavor or the super speed family? I have also read other opinions that the Senator or the Aristocrat is better — and genuinely do not understand. Thanks for your expertise.
Craig
19 April 2012 at 5:34 pm
Your question seems perfectly appropriate to me. Somehow the head geometry of the President and the 1940′s Aristocrat (which, so far as I can tell, are identical, the only differences being minor details on the handle) is just right for me: both those models have always felt comfortable and suitably aggressive. The 1940′s Super Speed (and the gold Milord variant) seems to me just a bit milder than I like.
LeisureGuy
19 April 2012 at 9:19 pm