OK first shave in and here are my initial thoughts.
The $199 price tag put this between a Blackland Blackbird and a Carbon Cx 316 of the razors I've tried so those will be the main comparions for me in terms of quality. I'll also compare the shave in terms if the Homelike Start & Colibri as those are razors with bigger blade gaps with 1.18mm and 1.50mm respectively.
Out of the box, it has a nice weight to it and I like the styling. The finish on the top cap didn't look Top drawer, particularly on the corners, it looked a little uneven to me but that could just be my eyes. Not as well finished as the Carbon, but I'd say on par with the Blackbird and Colibri.
Once the blade is loaded it looks scary, so I started with some trepidation, especially as some of the precious users have mentioned it can bite. I needn't have worried though, it has some blade feel so you know its there, but I never felt like it was going to cut me. I did my usual 2 pass shave and I didn't get any weeder, but I didn't find towards the end I was feeling a little razor burn. This for me was similar to the Blackbird, whereas the Carbon, Colibri and Start never had any burn whatsoever.
What I did notice was that towards the end of the shave I was naturally holding the razor more perpendicular to my face which lessened the blade feel and hopefully lessened the burn. I think I'll start with that tomorrow..
The shave was very close though, easily as close as the Carbon, Colibri and the Blackbird (on a good day). Initial impressions are that gives a wonderful close shave, but can be a wee but aggressive at the wrong angle. Personally it's not going to knock the Carbon off the top spot as that has little blade feel but gives an amazing shave. I can get a similar close shave with the menlo, but it burns more if I get the angle wrong.
