As you’ll have read by now, I was gifted one item from my shaving wish list on Christmas–the Oliworks M3teorite aluminum razor in red. I’ve been seeing some good reviews and generally positive comments about it, and it seemed to tick the boxes for what I look for in a razor. It looks cool, is adjustable, tends toward the mild side for its shaves, and is right in what seems to be my sweet spot price-wise (at around $70).
It comes with three plates (mild, medium, and aggressive). I’ve heard some claim that the aggressive is very aggressive, but the medium and mild are on the milder side. But we’ll see. I do plan on giving all three plates a try this week to start to find out which I prefer. Unlike the Rockwell, though, the Oliworks plates are single-sided, so there are only three options.
So I juggled the shaving schedule and dropped it in to this week’s shaves, using it to continue testing the Gillette 7 O’Clock Sharp Edge (yellow) blade. I’m excited to give it a go and fit it into the usual schedule!
Let’s see how it goes!
The Ratings
Sunday’s Shave, #222. The Proraso blue and Oliworks red shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Oliworks M3teorite aluminum (medium plate)
- Blade: Gillette 7 O’Clock Sharp Edge (yellow)
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Protective pre-shave cream (blue)
- Brush: Proraso boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Proraso Protective shave soap (blue)
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Proraso Protective aftershave balm (blue)
- Stats: 1st shave with the Oliworks, 19th shave with the 7 O’Clock yellow blade, 47th almost perfect shave, 36th shave with an overall rating of 23 of 25.
Alrighty: first shave with the Oliworks M3teorite. It went well, really. I mean, every new razor has a learning curve to it that requires some getting used to and adjusting technique. And after shaving with the Hensons, I’m needing to find the right angle with the Oliworks head–it’s rounded and not flat like the Henson razors, so it requires some work to find the right angle for the head and blade on the skin.
But even with the medium plate (and I’ll talk about a complaint about these in a moment), there was minimal blade feel, resulting in a minimum of irritation. The medium plate feels like it’s milder than most medium razors, so I did need to make a lot of extra strokes, though, to get the closeness I want on my neck. This did contribute to some more alum sting than I’ve had lately, but not enough to lower the comfort rating.
So all-in-all, this shave was almost perfect, with a closeness and comfort I would be happy with in the future. Once I dial in the correct head angle, it will be that much better.
Okay, to the complaint: the plates aren’t clearly labelled as to which their aggressiveness. There’s an icon on the top of the plate that looks like a blade or razor plate and 1, 2 or 3 wavy lines rising from the plate. I’m assuming that those are the aggressiveness levels in order (mild=1, medium=2, aggressive=3), but there’s no documentation on that, and the only references I’ve found online say that they should be numbered, or people are finding them to be pretty self explanatory, but I don’t see that as terribly clear. For reference, the plates for the Rockwell are clearly labeled P1, P2…P6, and even the Henson plates let you differentiate the models with the number of plus signs on them.
At any rate, I do intend to try all three plates this week, so I’ll be able to confirm which are which. I’m certain, though, that no matter what, I did choose the medium plate for today.
Comfort: 23 of 25
Quality/Closeness: 23 of 25
Overall: 23 of 25
Tuesday’s Shave, #223. The Barrister & Mann 42 shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Oliworks M3teorite aluminum (mild plate)
- Blade: Gillette 7 O’Clock Sharp Edge yellow
- Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Unscented pre-shave shaving stick
- Brush: Omega 10019 boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Barrister & Mann 42 soap
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Dollar Shave Club Post Shave Cream
- Stats: 2nd shave with the Oliworks, first with the mild plate; the 3rd shave with Barrister & Mann 42 soap; 20th shave with the 7 O’Clock yellow blade; 48th almost perfect shave, and the 38th shave with an overall rating of 23.
You know those meals that you have that are really good and taste fantastic and are generally perfect for what you wanted at the time, but really didn’t thrill you? No? Just me? Hmm…
I’m not sure what it is, but this shave just didn’t thrill me. It was objectively an almost perfect shave–very comfortable, pretty good closeness, even though the Oliworks mild plate is truly very mild. But it was just a shave today that was just a shave.
Each component is fine or better: The Barrister & Mann 42 shaving soap just doesn’t excite me. It lathers fine, has okay slickness and does fine in terms of lubrication. But the fragrance is a little weird, and I can’t put the lather into the luxurious category. While I’m not a fan of it, I haven’t used it since early October, so I thought it was time.
I’m still learning with the Oliworks, but today it worked extremely well, and I’m happy about that. The pre-shave and after shave are…fine. I mean, they work very well and are consistent. But I can’t say that I really look forward to using them.
Or maybe I’m just looking ahead to other upcoming shaves, which is probably unfair.
At any rate, this was a great shave that I’d get a lot of joy from normally, but today it just kind of feels meh.
Comfort: 23 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 23 out of 25
Overall: 23 out of 25
Thursday’s Shave, #224. The New Year’s Day shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Oliworks M3teorite aluminum (aggressive plate)
- Blade: Gillette 7 O’Clock Sharp Edge (yellow)
- Pre-Shave: Stirling Soap Co. Unscented pre-shave soap
- Brush: Yaqi Rainbow synthetic brush
- Lather: Stirling Soap Co. Sheep shaving soap
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Nivea Men’s Sensitive Soothing Post Shave balm
- Stats: 3rd shave with the Oliworks M3teorite and 1st with the aggressive plate; 49th almost perfect shave; 39th with an overall ranking of 23; 21st shave with the 7 O’Clock yellow; 1st shave with the Stirling unscented pre-shave soap; 6th shave with the Stirling Sheep soap; 23rd use of the Nivea aftershave balm.
Okay, now I can definitively say that I’m done with the 7 O’Clock yellow blade for a bit.
I’ve read some posts that said that the Oliworks mild and medium plates tend toward the very mild side, and I can confirm that. It needed a lot of extra strokes to get the closeness I want. But those same posts said that there’s a big gap between the medium and aggressive plate. So I was a little worried going into the shave that the aggressive plate would be too aggressive for me. I’m pleased to say it isn’t. Yes, it’s aggressive, but I wouldn’t put it any more aggressive than plate 5 on the Rockwell 6C, and just slightly behind the King C Gillette. So it’s manageable. On the whole, this is a very nice, solid razor that has a place in my collection.
It was more efficient than the milder plates, though, which I really appreciated. Fewer strokes were needed for better closeness. And while there was more blade feel, there wasn’t substantially more irritation and discomfort. So all-in-all, a very nice, almost perfect shave again with better closeness than the week’s other two shaves.
This shave marked the first use of the Stirling unscented pre-shave soap. And it was okay. Not nearly as slick as I’d like–not as slick as any of the Proraso products, and also not as slick as the Razor Emporium pre-shave soap stick. But the Razor Emporium product did take a few tries to figure out how to use it optimally, and now I’m very happy with it. So I’ll comment again at a later time.
The Yaqi also struggled a bit to lather like I want with the Sheep soap. I did finally get a good lather (not great), so I’ll have to keep trying, but it didn’t work as well as it has in its first shave with the TOBS. That’s just one of those learning things, and I may just have to use the Omega brush with the Sheep soap going forward. We’ll see.
But this was a great first week using my newest razor. I’m going to set it aside for a couple of weeks as I try something new to me starting on Sunday.
See you later!
Comfort: 23 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 24 out of 25
Overall: 23 out of 25