Sword Edge

Blimey. Look what just arrived on my doormat from Sword Edge.*

Oh dear. I appear to have forgotten my manners. Mother, Father, allow me to introduce you to Stanway. Or, to be precise, the Stanway 120 grams DE Safety Razor. Come on, Stanway. Step forward. Shoulders back. Chest out. Firm handshake.

The Stanway weighs in at a nicely weighty 120 grams and arrives packaged in a neat little Sword Edge-branded pouch along with a pack of five Gillette 7o'clock Super Stainless blades. Now you're probably looking at this photo thinking, Bloody hell fire, Dave Shaves. Look at that. It must have cost an arm, a leg and a few internal organs.** But no, no it didn't. At the time of writing it costs £13.50. Let me say that again: It costs, at the time of writing (October 2019), £13.50. I know. I know.

Now, before you pass out with shock, cast your peepers over this attractive beast:

This is the Cheadle. Now, I've never owned a slanted-head razor before so I have absolutely nothing to compare it to and anyway I don't really like comparing razors. But crikey, this one weighs in at a more-than-generous 150 grams. Now, I like heavy razors and this one is a right hefty, handsome devil*** of a razor. It's going to be like shaving with Mjolnir****, but for me that's not a problem. Again, you're probably going, Stone the crows, Dave Shaves. So ok, the Stanway is impressively priced. But surely this one, right, this one must be prohibitively expensive? Surely I'd have to sell all my worldly possessions and some of my family even to be able to put a 50% deposit on this roaring grizzly bear of a razor? But, again, you'd be wrong. It's hilariously priced (still at the time of writing, which is still October 2019) at £17.99. Yes, £17.99. And that price also includes its own Sword Edge-branded pouch and a pack of Gillette 7 o'clock blades. It's just ... well ... insane.

Now - I'm expecting great things from these razors just from the looks alone. And yes, I'm well aware you shouldn't judge things by how they look. However, I'm extremely shallow like that. You'd think that having these two fine-looking razors in my collection would be enough but I'm finding it very difficult indeed to stop eyeing up the other razors on the Sword Edge site. I mean, for God's sake. Just look at the Eyan. Again, it comes with a pouch and blades and is down for a measley £11.99. I mean, come on. This is just getting absurd.

I'm going to be shaving with these over the next few days. And when I do, I'll write up my thoughts. But until then, I think I need to go and have a little lie down.

* I'm talking about the razors in the photos, not the slatted wooden IKEA storage box that they're standing on.

** Unless of course you've already used the link and gone straight to the website and seen the prices of the razors, in which case my long-winded jokes about Sword Edge's razor pricing will be rather redundant.

*** There's a reference for all you fans of The Smiths.

**** Thor's hammer.

#wetshaving #DEsafetyrazors #SwordEdge #traditionalshaving