Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements META-4 Safety Razor

slapo

It's... alive!
Hi everyone,

look what I found today:









I have ordered one, too. I hope I'll like it at least as much as the Ascension. :)
 

Dcw7830

Forum GOD!
Hi everyone,

look what I found today:









I have ordered one, too. I hope I'll like it at least as much as the Ascension. :)
Me too. Just hoping it makes it through customs!
 

slapo

It's... alive!
Me too. Just hoping it makes it through customs!
Yeah... but my order from 31 December 2020 (Starling v2) had its last scan in the USA two days ago. Not PAA's fault, they handled it over to USPS on 2 January, though.
I suppose the postal services were pretty badly swamped. We'll see whether they aren't still, but hopefully it'll get here while packages are getting through just fine.
 

Dcw7830

Forum GOD!
Yeah... but my order from 31 December 2020 (Starling v2) had its last scan in the USA two days ago. Not PAA's fault, they handled it over to USPS on 2 January, though.
I suppose the postal services were pretty badly swamped. We'll see whether they aren't still, but hopefully it'll get here while packages are getting through just fine.
Post is a nightmare. Ordered a different package from paa at the beginning of December. Last spotted in Belarus on the 8th according to tracking 🙄. My Meta has been processing in customs for the last 2 days so fingers crossed.
 

slapo

It's... alive!
I've had 3 shaves with mine before I started playing around a little.
Stock, I found that the threads on the handle and top cap aren't the best of matches, they could be smoother. Oddly enough, the handle is very smooth with just about any other top cap and the Meta-4 top cap is very smooth with pretty much any other handle. :confused:

Positives so far:
- smooooth (but see negatives),
- decent efficiency, just a hair below GameChanges 0.84 SB, but smoother,
- stock handle is reasonably grippy (but not above average),
- blade tabs covered,
- top cap (in fact, the whole head) is really thin,
- I like the matte finish on the top cap,
- fun can be had with the top cap.

Negatives so far:
- the top cap and the base plate meet primarily clamped at the edges. This means I needed to pay extra care to tighten the handle well enough, otherwise the shave is rather rough.
- The head is about 1mm wider than it needs to be to cover the blade tabs. This means that shaving right under the nose horizontally can be challenging even with the nose nudged to the side. However, because the top cap is so thing, shaving downwards and upwards is actually very easy, so it rather makes up for that.

Notes:
Top cap fits the Colibri base plates I have (1.3 OC and 1.5 SB). Only one shave in so far and I suspect the blade had been on its way out, so I need to give it another go. Preliminary observation - actually lot smoother than with the stock top cap. Need to re-test with a fresh blade and compare again, though.
 

Zhang Doe

Forum GOD!
^
Any sense of flimsiness given how thin the top cap and base plate are? I like sleek razors, but this looks a little too thin, almost like tin rather than stainless steel.
 

SeanC

Forum GOD!
^
Any sense of flimsiness given how thin the top cap and base plate are? I like sleek razors, but this looks a little too thin, almost like tin rather than stainless steel.
Agree. The head components look almost like they have been punched / stamped rather than machined
 

slapo

It's... alive!
They're available again, if anyone fancies it. I snagged one on Wednesday night after I got the notification they were back in stock.
 
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