G.B.S5 Piece Shaving Set - Soap, Wood Bowl, Wood Straight Razor and Wood Badger Brush

-- I ended the review below about 4 hours ago. Spent some time on that razor with both my waterstones and a diamond-lattice block. I can get it just sharp enough to cut hair, but not sharp enough to cut thicker whiskers and also not rip and tear facial tissue at the same time. The problem is how it's engineered: The height of the blade (from the sharp edge to the blunt spine) and the thickness of the implement (at the point where the edge goes on) means that to get a "shaving angle" into the blade you have to lay the blade flat against the stone and actually grind away both the edge and also the wider/widest point which is that blunted spine. That's not how straight razors are built. Nothing in this box is worth 50 cents. It's nothing but decorative.I didn't read any reviews before I ordered. I really should have. My last straight edge was a Fromm and cost over $100 - my last strop was horsehide with a poly fine sheet and cost over $100, sold separately (it's over 2' long). For this price I expected a fair razor, a shorter than average strop as pictured, and some cheap shave soap. Basically I expected a mid-grade shaver and strop for around $50.I had the impression this thing actually came with a carrying/storage box, which it doesn't.The strop that came in my kit is not as pictured. I don't believe it's real leather. Just eyeballing the product photo, it's clear that this should have been a 1-piece strop with soft tan leather on one side and some kind of poly strip on the other and it's at least as wide as the razor's cutting edge. The strop I received is a darker brown and is very hard (to the point of brittle) - there were still strips/scraps of material hanging off the edges where it was stamped out. It's not a single piece of material either, but a laminate (separate layers glued together like plywood). The poly isn't attached to the "leather" but instead It's 2 separate strips, one "leather" and one poly, and both are actually narrower than the edge on the blade which is just a joke. I don't mean that I'm joking, I mean that any clown selling these items together is a joke. You can't hone a razor half the blade at a time and get a good shave out of it.On one end of the "leather" is a deeply etched GBS logo which anyone with stropping experience can tell you will ruin your edge if you drag over it. Given how short this thing is, I don't see how it can be used and not dragged over. It's literally just some piece of marketing trash the GBS people puked into the kit. All it could possibly be good for is decoration.I tested the razor's edge on my arm hairs - it won't even snip those. My pocketknife will shave my arm hair. A paring knife straight off the shelf at Wal-Mart will shave my arm hair. I imagine I can get a fine enough edge on this blade to actually shave with using my waterstones, but that's more work than I really want to put in after opening this disappointment up.So for $50, plan to throw out everything but the razor and spend some time fixing that. I'm honestly not sure why this blade shipped with a coating of jelly/grease on it. It's only on the dullish edge so it doesn't seem to be rust prevention. It's really very like vaseline so it isn't a honing paste that handily transfers to the strop or anything like that. Since you really can't get oil stones in the fine grit needed to hone a razor properly, it sure isn't any good there.What a mess.

Ordered this because I love straight razor shaves, nothing beats them. Unfortunately the razor came in a poor state. Thought maybe it was due to the edge not being sharpened fully. After running it through the strop a few times to try to improve this, it just would not cut properly or at all. On closer inspection the blade itself was warped/curved and I could only use the tip of the blade to cut my beard. The majority of the edge was flattened out when I took a closer look, and its beyond me to use a wet stone to properly fix such a sharp edge. I'm sure their products are not bad, I feel my shipment may have just been defective. I understand thin metals warp easy and may have been damaged during shipment. Packaging was GREAT! Along with the accessories, including the brush and lather. Just had issues with the razor itself.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m doing it wrong after all I’ve never use this type of razor before but it didn’t shave well at all if anything it just hurt a lot. It took more skin off my face than it did hair. The shaving soap didn’t lather at all no matter how hard I tried and that I do know how to use. The razor looks nice and feels nice to hold. Same for the brush. As for the sharping belt. Again I can’t comment because I’m not sure if I was using it right but didn’t seem to make a difference in the shaving. The blade was already shape when it came but I thought to trying to sharpen it more to see if it made a difference. It did not.

First off, everything else in this set beside the razor is fine. The razor worked well the first few weeks but when it came time to sharpen it, there lies the problem I have with this razor. The construction of the spine is very uneven and also it isnt flared out enough to give you a good sharpening angle. For this reason, when I went to sharpen the thing on a 1,000/6,000 stone, it went blunt. I essentially had to just stick to the 1,000 side to give it atleast a chance to catch the hairs. Also the fact that this blade is stainless steel light have played a part in it.

The soap and brush are amazing but the blade itself leaves something to be desired. By something to be desired, I mean you would have better luck shaving with a sock. Unless you are very confident in your use with a knife rock it isn't recommended to try sharpening the blade yourself lest you desire the appearance of a recently lost sparring match with a rabid raccoon. It's definitely worth the money though for the soap alone. Great stuff. Doesn't make my neck break out at all and doesn't burn the raccoon scratches too terribly bad.