The Derby Extra and other topics

When I first got into wet shaving, I did a lot of research. I looked at reviews on Amazon. I watched tons of videos (Thanks, Nick Shaves!) I read stuff in forums. I didn’t know anything. I had to rely upon the wisdom of others. What razor would work? How many passes? What soaps were best? What blades?

From there, I had to begin buying stuff, trying stuff, and coming to grips with what worked for me. In the end, no amount of reading about what other people have done or have enjoyed will get you all the way into the light. You have to try things yourself, or your knowledge is only theoretical and incomplete.

I bought some soaps. Some that worked. Some that didn’t. I picked up a collection of blades and started working through them. Many of the blades, I just didn’t know. They were altogether a mystery to me. Some were lauded in the forums. Some, however, tended to get a lot of derision. One of those was the Derby Extra. Half the shavers that I’d read about would say how dull and useless the Derby blades were. With each negative review, I’d filter the Derby down further into the lower stratum of my blade choices. Because they’d probably be crap. Because everyone seemed to think so. And they were cheap.

So, I went along, finding blades I liked and hated, until that fateful day when I finally tried the Derby. I had to, because by then, I was writing reviews online, and using a psuedo-scientific method to describe them, and everything. Great science, as it were, demands that we try things, even if we think we already know the answer we’ll arrive at in the end. Evidence is paramount. Or words to that effect.

I loaded the blade into my Feather AS-D2. I didn’t have high hopes. On paper, it looked like a poor combination. Gentle razor. Less than super-sharp (if I was being charitable with what I “knew”) blade. Sounded like it would be a case of a lot of skating over the stubble, juddering, and a poor shave. But…but that wasn’t what happened.

Weirdly, I got a fantastic shave. Comfortable. Close. No issues. Maybe it was a fluke. Other elements can make or break a shave. How your feeling. The prep. The lather. Tons of synergies or negative synergies. All the X factors.

Puzzled, I tried it again. It worked again. I doubted the evidence. I had to have another blade, another try, and in another razor. The Derby…the much-maligned Derby. It worked great in the Merkur 39C, too. I wrote a review. I tried to explain my findings. I probably failed. I ended up buying a hundred of the darned things.

If the Derby blade doesn’t work for you, I respect that. That they work so well for me is still something of a mystery. Lately, I’ve been using them in conjunction with Gillette Fatboys set on “9”. I use them for two shaves, then toss them. Given their price per blade, I never feel like I’m throwing money away. Good shaves, every one. Not quite as close as ones done with, say, a Polsilver Super Iridium blade, but the only person in the world who knows the difference is me. And it’s super slight.

The upside with using a smooth blade with a fairly aggressive razor is that the stubble comes off quickly, and without a lot of drama. I don’t have a perfect idea as to why the Derby blade gets such bad rap. One thought is that they might be one of the first blades a lot of people try, and they end up having bad experiences because they’re just starting out. I can’t support that thesis, but it’s my best guess.

I think pairing blades with razors is a lot like what we see with electric guitars and amplifiers/pedals. Some combinations work great, some not so much. It’s all in what you’re hoping to find. Some things obviously work great. A Fender Strat into a Super Reverb. A Gibson Les Paul into a Marshal JTM-45. With the things that work for almost everyone work well for you? Probably. But the fun, for the shaving hobbyist, is to find that combination that surprises you. The unheralded synergy that gives you a great shave, even when logic would say that it shouldn’t.

That’s enough of a ramble for me today. I’d planned to sing the praises of Cella soap today, but I’ll leave that soliloquy for another post.

Cheers, and Happy Shaving!

Suddenly, I’m A Keyboard Outfitter

Over the last few weeks, I’ve built three keyboards for my friends, and another one for myself. I’ve been instrumental in corrupting more than a few folks into buying their own mechanical keyboards, as well. Through my well-documented geekery, I’ve become the go-to guy in my circle of writer friends when anyone has a keyboard question. In another few days, I’ll building another custom-job for a friend. Things have developed that I can probably build up most any color, type, and shape of mechanical keyboard that the average human can think of. Well, maybe my game isn’t as strong on ergonomic ‘boards, but that’s generally true for most people.

How did I get here? Shrug. Not sure. It started with a broken key, I guess. I had a DasKeyboard that broke one of its keys, and I really only needed a single key to fix it. Of course, Das didn’t sell single keys. I would have to fully replace the whole key set if I wanted to have my…”L” key, it seems to me now. And…there were a lot of options. A. LOT.

Thus, I started looking around online to find what I could in terms of new key caps. That took me down into the weird other realm. I learned lots of stuff. I’ve shared much of it on this forum. The things that were fit to print, in any case. I purchased more keyboards and parts than any one human being would ever need. I watched videos about how it all worked. I read articles on Deskthority. Your boy set himself to learn all about that shit. And…kinda did.

I let a few friends try out a few ‘boards I had kicking around. I would say that at least 3/4ths of the people who have tried mechanical keyboards have enjoyed them. The bulk of those have either asked me to build them up something, or bought a board on their own.

What I noticed about the people for which mechanical keyboards weren’t particularly impressive was this: most of them used a form of ergonomic keyboard already. Either a Microsoft or Logitech, in the main. Thus, they had already understood that there was something better for them than the bog standard keyboards you see everywhere, which are awful. A small secondary group of the non-amazed simply can’t abide any kind of excess noise with their typing. Which is sad. And wrong. Also…sad.

Anyway, the interested outweighed the uninterested, and some people were actually over the moon to find out that they could get a keyboard that made that clicking sound, the sound of progress, and happiness, and the industrious noise that assured that all was right with the universe. Mostly.

The word of my deeds spread. You build a neat, sparkly keyboard for someone, they want to share it on Facebook. Others become stricken with jealousy. Pretty soon, it becomes a semi-steady thing, people hitting you up to build them something.

Pretty fun. At some point, I may have to tack on a service charge for my time, but right now, I’m just recouping cost for the parts. Let it never be said that I have an overabundance of business acumen. The only way that I can make a small fortune is to have started with a large fortune. Which is fine. I am clothed and sheltered. I have foot to eat. And keyboards that make a wonderful cacophony, should I wish them to. That will suffice.

And I am a keyboard outfitter, it seems. Look below for the pictures of the most recent ones I’ve built up.

Cheers, and Happy Typing.

Captain’s Choice “45th Parallel”

Ease of Lathering: Easy. I’d say that this soap is just slightly behind the very easiest of the soap formulations in this respect. Very predictable, not hard to load or particularly thirsty. Captain’s Choice gives is a quite soft formulation here, and it doesn’t fight you to get a good load of soap loaded.

Protection: Good. This is a voluminous soap. Not necessarily quite as slick or buttery as some soaps, it still provides a really good level of protection during the shave, and doesn’t feel particularly drying afterward. No complaints, but no great accolades are accrued here.

Residual Slickness: Pretty Good. It doesn’t distinguish itself particularly, but I didn’t have to alter my normal shave rhythm to account for any shortcomings.

Scent: The 49th Parallel makes its bones in this arena. If you like the smell of Cella, that sweet almond/cherry cordial fragrance, this one dials it up to full blast. While not super powerful in terms of scent strength, this one is completely realistic cherry/cream/almond that you can shave with. Is it candy, or is it shave soap? (Spoiler alert, it still tastes like soap.)

Production/Value: This is a mid-priced soap. In terms of performance, I’d say it’s somewhere in the ballpark, but nothing out of the ordinary. Performance-wise, a soap from, say, Razorock will give you equal or better performance for less money. It’s not a rip-off, but you have to come into this soap knowing you’re buying it for the fragrance, above all else. It isn’t going to play you false, or be a screaming disappointment, but it just doesn’t do anything special, other than the smell.

Notes: While I’ve done another review on a Captain’s Choice soap, this one has a completely different ingredient list. Completely. This formulation, to my eye, appears to be a less optimal and feature a less impressive list of ingredients. It doesn’t have argan oil, but has mineral oil in the formula. Snobs won’t dig this. The new soap is fine, but I think that, altogether, it’s a step down in soap base from their older formula, which I have in the “North” scent. I’m a little puzzled by this change, but it could be that the artisan that Captain’s Choice used previously is not available or changed their methodology. Again, this soap still works, but in a marketplace where artisans are finding better and better formulas, even a lateral move feels like a step backward and a missed opportunity. No buyer’s remorse here – I love having the scent in my repertoire, but I will say that my only reason to shave with this one over another soap would be the fragrance. Tempered enthusiasm here.

Cheers, and Happy Shaving!

Quick Takes: Soap Commander “Courage”

I’ve done a few reviews of the Soap Commander formulation, so I’ll cut right to it.

The Soap Commander soap base is a hard (as in solid) vegan formulation that benefits from either starting with a wet brush or doing a light bloom/soak of the puck before loading. I’d characterize the ease of use as moderate. There’s a slight learning curve in loading enough soap onto the brush and hitting the right amount of water, but it’s nothing big. You just have to be slightly more patient.

The quality of lather, once ready, is really good. Not wildly voluminous, but very slick and protective. The lather strikes me as dense, rather than fluffy. Rinses clean and provides a good, nutrative base for your shave.

With Soap Commander, I think their greatest strength is their scents. Without being wildly potent, they linger, and always retain their nuance, rather than cooking down to only the strongest note.

Courage, to me, is the least exciting of the scents I’ve tried. It’s a nice, clean smell that would easily slot into an everyday role. I think it verges on a barbershop scent. Nice, bright citrus with some woody and spicy notes. Manly enough, but not musky, dark, or heavy. It isn’t as strong as Passion or Fortitude.

For some, this is their exact thing. I find that Courage is a little subtle for me, and certainly doesn’t knock Fortitude off of my list of favorite SC scents. It took me several shaves to really start appreciating it, but it did grow on me. If the notes hit your comfort zone, though, it’s totally worth a try.

As with all Soap Commander soaps, the packaging is well-made and the graphic design is effective.

Cheers, and Happy Shaving!

Keyboard Musings: Changing My Tune about Blue Switches

Opening Salvo:

In the past, I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of Cherry MX Blue switches, as well as the clones of said switch. Not that I didn’t like them, but I just didn’t prefer them. Although they are the most popular of the MX style switches, and are well loved by peripherally-involved typists, the hard, weird core of keyboard arch-nerd-ery have sometimes been dismissive of them. “There are better switches!” goes the long and loud lament. “ALPS!” “Buckling Spring!” I get it. Non keyboard people, um, don’t. And that’s okay.

The Things That I Used To Do: 

For some time, my preference was for the brown switch. I still have a lot of good luck using the brown switch, and I believe that it does have its place. If you need a quieter ‘board, the brown will help you with that. I can always sit down and get a good result with the brown switch, without a lot of clumsiness or adaptation. I still use a DasKeyboard thusly equipped for my primary work keyboard. I’ve had it for 5 years, and though I’ve re-capped it, it’s otherwise stock and in just as fine a fettle as it ever was.

Yep. For a time, I was all about the Brown Switches. As I’ve tested more switch types, however, I’ve found that they are not the be-all-end-all. They’re a compromise, but they get the job done. Smooth enough. Quiet enough. Just enough actuation force that you won’t make an utter mess of things.

With the blue switches, I found that I didn’t have that same immediate sense of comfort. I liked them, but I would usually have to use them for a while to get used to their action. Not sure why. One thought about it is that I typically only used them when sitting in with someone else’s rig, and I just didn’t have enough mileage on them to get acclimated.

The Long and Crooked Road to Better: 

I tried putting o-rings on a blue-equipped keyboard, and that didn’t do anything good. Not at all. For me, the o-rings really hurt the typing feel with a Cherry MX type board. I’m sure someone likes them, but that person is not me, or anyone I’ve had try a ‘board so equipped.

After picking up some cheaper ‘boards featuring Outemu and Kailh switches, as well as stripping out the o-rings for my “real” Cherry switch keyboard, I found that I really began to warm up to the blue switch. The slight increase in weight from the brown switches seemed to help me be more accurate and have fewer accidental key presses. I acclimated to the sound, and it really grew on me.

Dress ‘Em Up: 

One thing, for me, became very clear. I liked all keyboards better with PBT caps on them, but with the blues, it made a big, big difference. Something about the sound and feel seemed to give the blue switches a big boost. Also worthy of mention would be the typewriter style keys, such as the ones made by Quisan. These, being built in a totally different manner, and having a lot of concentrated mass atop the keys, change their acoustics a lot. This takes a kind of “ping-y” keyboard sound and gives it a certain depth and fullness that even thick PBT conical caps do not confer. If you like that retro look, and can get used to the altered mechanics of a spherical key, they are also an option.

In terms of the variety of different blue switches, I like the Outemu best of all. I know, that’s weird. They’re the cut-rate brand. I just think that they have a neater sound, and the slightly heavier action seems to put them in the “just right” zone for me. The Kailh switches seem a bit smoother and a bit more subdued in terms of sound, but they are still really good. Strangely, my least favorite blue-equipped keyboard is my DasKeyboard with real Cherry switches and a beautiful set of bumblebee colored PBT caps. Ah, well. The amount of money spent doesn’t always equal the amount of enjoyment perceived.

Final Thoughts:

As a switch, apples to apples, I still think that the blue switch isn’t the equal of the Matias tactile pro (clicky). It doesn’t have that sense of absolute solidity of an IBM buckling spring. That said, if the blue switch is riding under some great PBT caps, that brings them up a notch or two. Not quite to the level of the Matias or the Unicomp, but those boards are louder, more expensive, and harder to customize. There are no cut rate models, short of finding an old one at a yard sale. You can order a blue switch keyboard from Amazon and have it in a couple days, for as little as thirty bucks or so. There are a million ways to customize them, as the market is flooded with stuff to work with for MX mount switches.

I know that I’ve talked some smack about the blue switch, and I’m here to say that I have changed my tune. They’re still too loud for some places you might deploy them, but they have a lot to commend them, and they’re a great value option for getting into mechanical keyboarding.

Cheers, and happy typing.

 

L.A. Shaving Soap Company “Woody Lavender”

Ease of Lathering: Very easy. This is one of the soap formulations that would be difficult to complain about in terms of ease-of-use. It loads onto the brush with no trouble at all, and doesn’t take any special preparation to get a solid lather. Not a surprise. This soap is well lauded, and with what we understand about formulations today, there’s no real need to have anything less than good performance.

Protection: Depending upon how you choose to lather this soap, you can have it somewhat thick, or very voluminous. While this might appear to be a rather facile and almost useless statement on my part, not all soaps lend themselves to this dichotomy. I’ve found that this soap doesn’t seem to need an enormous amount of water. If you do work some water into the lather, it will become voluminous. I mean, lather everywhere, like you’d get with a cream when you put too much into the lathering bowl. I find, though, that the best performance I had with it was with a little less water worked in. In this, a slightly thicker iteration, it protects wonderfully well. As in, I was emboldened to crank a Merkur Futur up to “6” while using this soap. For those who are not familiar with the Futur, setting 6 is the “imminent death” level of aggression. All went well, and so kudos to the soap maker.

Residual Slickness: I found that the slickness was just fine with this soap. When rinsing between passes, my wet hands slipped across my face with speed and ice-rink smoothness. As with any soap, if your face dries out, there will be no glide or slickness, but this one seemed to leave plenty of soapy goodness behind.

Scent: I like woody scents. I like lavender. This soap offers exactly what it says on the tin. Promotional literature indicates that it has lavender, ho wood, amyris, and West Indian Bay. Sure. Sounds good. I’m not a perfumer, so I don’t have a solid understanding of how all the interactions and synergies work. I can only tell you what it smells like to me. It smells woody, beneath a nice lavender. The scent strength isn’t potent, but it is present, and I am a fan. The scent doesn’t linger after the shave is over, so you needn’t worry that it will outstay its welcome.

Production/Value: In most cases, artisan soaps are a fairly good value. Because they produce so many shaves per ounce, even ones that are a bit more expensive tend to give you a lot of performance. In the case of LA Shaving Soap stuff, it is on the higher range of what I’d call “moderate priced” soap. Because I’ve seen a range of prices, I’m not going to quote you anything here. Suffice it to say that it’s somewhat more than a lot of the other artisans you’ll find. The performance and quality are good, though, and if you think that this scent, or another one in their catalog, sound like your cup of tea, the price shouldn’t be an impediment (Unless is is. I don’t know your financial situation.)

Notes: This is a vegan based soap. It can be said that, because I hadn’t really studied this soap before using it, I was in the dark and didn’t make any assumptions. I shaved several times before looking it up and finding that it was vegan. I’d been pleased with the performance, and had some inkling that it might be a tallow soap. That means that it was taking care of me pretty well. It also means that we can sometimes disabuse ourselves of our notions by simply using a product prior to looking too deeply into it. There are several ways to formulate soap, and several different paths to great success. This represents one of those paths.

I can’t say that the LA soap is an entire order of magnitude beyond any of the more value-priced offerings you can find. It does a great job, and smells nice. The same could be said of many others. Money for money, I’d take Razorock Essential Oil of Lavender. If money is not a prime concern, I would suggest you give it a try.

Cheers, and Happy Shaving!

My Favorite Non-Mechanical: Compaq KB-3923

 

I work in the IT industry. I have to take care of over 500 desktop computers at any given time, if not more. Everything about the equipment that large organizations use on a day to day is based upon hitting a price point. The cheapest one that’ll get the job done, most specifically. The mice and keyboards? Five dollar parts that are made to beat up and throw away. Not great. Not even all the way to good. Firmly mediocre.

Now and then, though, you’ll find a mass market product that somehow does just a little better, lasts a little longer. Maybe, just maybe, it’s good enough that is survives a few extra generations after the other stuff goes to the great trash heap of history. This here Compaq keyboard is one of those.

Here’s the story. 

One day, I needed a keyboard when I was fixing a PC in a computer lab setting. “We’ve got this one,” the lab attendant told me. “No one knows where it came from.”

I found in my paws a really beaten-up old PS/2 keyboard that didn’t appear to be something that the organization had ever used. Ever. I flipped it over, and yep, it wasn’t one of ours. It had somehow been brought over from the Transit Authority. Probably after having been sold at auction to some oddball who forgets keyboards around town. No one knows.

In any case, there are a few specific things that PS/2 keyboards do really well. One of those is to interrupt an auto-login command that’s hard coded into the registry of a PC. USBs can do it, too, but the timing is very exacting, and it doesn’t always work like you’d hope. Thus, even in the age that spurns these older connections, we keep a few around, just in case. Most PCs don’t have the right connection for them now, so their era is quickly fading, but hey, this story starts probably six years ago. Yes. This ‘board was old and tired and beaten to a pulp six freaking years ago. Shrug.

I plugged the keyboard in and did the thing I was there to do. Taking care of business, as they say. I thought to myself, “Ima keep this sumbitch,” or something to that effect. I needn’t have worried that anyone would try to steal the old thing away from me, as it appeared to have been in close proximity to bench grinder. Like, touching it. And it was dirty and gross. But I liked the way it typed, and I kept it.

All these years later, and all these hours I’ve spent thinking about the dynamics of typing, and what really works, and this remains the best rubber dome keyboard I’ve used. The old HP I thought was good, back in my age of innocence? This blows it out of the water. It can’t quite claim to be as good as a Topre keyboard, but those things are not, to my mind, in the same category at all. Not a standard rubber dome by the longest stretch.

Even after all these years (this thing probably dates from the 90’s), the Compaq still has light, even, and communicative typing feel, with some level of tactility and predictable return force. A perfectly useful typing tool. Probably a bit better than some of the less useful mechanical switch types (such as the Cherry Black, which is far better for gaming than typing).

Now, you may look at the picture and think I’m overstating the state of mankiness that the keyboard evinced when I picked it up. Know that, during a recent cleaning jag, I fully disinfected and scrubbed the old Compaq. It’s currently the best it can possibly look. The key caps actually came out really well, and outside of the actual physical damage, the case is all right.

Now, other than the quality typing feel, there’s nothing whatsoever to commend the Compaq. It isn’t built heavily. It doesn’t have any luxury features. It probably came with a workstation in its day. Not even a server. I’ve had plenty of experience with Compaq server keyboards of that era, and they’re a different model.

So, a score for the ordinary average guys of the keyboard world, the best of the Standard Joes.

 

Cheers, and Happy Typing!

 

The Elusive Joys of Using Things Up

For those who have been entrenched in wet shaving for a while, this one should be fairly familiar. The progression. The slow slide into the madness of gear acquisition disorder. The realization that you couldn’t stop buying shave equipment if you wanted to. The second realization that you have more stuff than you could use in a decade.

If you’re a shave hobbyist, there’s always a new tub of soap, always another aftershave or tonic or razor or blade. You reach into the back of the cupboard now and then, finding that you haven’t used a favorite product in months. Maybe even years. It’s something that could bring about shame, if we could feel such a thing, this deep into the psychosis.

From time to time, we will have a moment of clarity, or conscience, or simply look around our bathrooms and realize that we won’t be able to get in if we don’t start to dispense with some of our nonsense.

We begin to think of ways we can actually finish some of our older gear and, you know, make room for our new stuff. You know, the stuff we’re about to get. Through the mail. Any day now.

In the recent month or so, I’ve been happy to put paid to several products in my inventory, and I feel, well, accomplished somehow. The trick, I suppose, is to just keep going back to a product. Day in, day out, you have to keep the intractable urge to leap from one product to the next like a hyperactive ferret on crank. So, just the bottom edge of impossiblity.

Products I’ve used up of late:

A tub of Proraso Red. Yay! My first shave soap ever, and the last of the triple crown of Proraso tub soaps down. It languished in inventory for a long time, but not because of any drawback in its performance. It lathered well and protected, right to the end.

A 25-pack of Derby Premium blades: Good blades. Not wildly different than the normal Derbies, but a gentle, face friendly blade.

Lucky Tiger Tonic: I have to say, this stuff is the best non-alcohol splash I’ve ever used. Yes, even better than Thayer’s non-alcohol Witch Hazel. According to me. It’s going to be in the inventory again. No question.

Thayer’s Lavender Witch Hazel: Just finished that one yesterday. My favorite of the non-alcohol Thayers. I might get it again. Too soon to tell.

I’m getting pretty close to the end of a pump container of store-brand moisterizer, made to be similar to Aveeno. That’s an easy re-up, just as soon as it runs out.

So, a few products manfully used up. What now?

Well, I have a lot of samples to burn through, and so I’ll be working on them. Each of the small samples is good for about a week, while the larger, 1 ounce samples are good for quite a bit longer. Now, as I evaluate the different soaps, I’ll need to A/B test some of my stalwarts, just to remain grounded.

In my larger soap tubs, I’ll have to pick the next one to put on maximum burn. I believe that I might begin slamming through my Derby Extra blades, too. I have a few razors that work well with that blade. Razor Blades, to me, have become an element I don’t need to worry about any more. I have a few blades I really like. and I’ve kind of put that comparo to bed.

Razors? I’ve got one or two I still think about buying, but honestly, I’m getting such great shaves from my revamped Gillettes that I have no compelling reason to chase that ghost any further, either.

Soaps, though? Aftershaves? Shrug. Ain’t no stopping on those. The soap makers and fragrance pros in that field keep kicking ass, and I’ll keep slurping up the mail order awesome. Just sayin’. It’s shave madness, after all.

Cheers, and Happy Shaving!

Review: Quisan Retro Keycaps

 

Here and there, you’ll see a mechanical keyboard with the old style, typewriter keys on them. Most of the time, these fetch a tidy price, and are considered a bit of a niche item.

Having tried a lot of the frequently-available key types on my mechanicals, I had never tried out a set of these round, metal-bound keys before. Buying a keyboard already thusly-equipped was certainly an option, but I had other plans.

Here’s what I did:

I purchased two identical keyboards, Eagletec KG010N models. I kept one of them bone stock, while I stripped the other of its stock keys and installed the Quisan aftermarket models. One thing to note here: the Quisan keys are not the cheapest caps in the world. Even through Amazon, they fetched about $30 for the set. The keyboard they were going on only cost $37, so the economies are a little out of the ordinary there.

That said, i couldn’t find any keyboard equipped with oldy-woldy keys for the aggregate price, so I call it a win.

Packaging:

Quisan, in my experience, doesn’t really waste a lot of the capital you give them on the package. Perfectly serviceable, but they know you’ll discard the box about nine seconds after getting it.

One really nice inclusion with the package is a layout board, which is a thick piece of plastic with cross-shaped protrusions cooresponding with the layout of a full-sized keyboard. This not only made it easier to apply the keys as delivered, it can be a tool for laying out a custom format at a later date. Trust me, fishing the keys out of a bag and trying to find the “7” key in amongst crap tons of loose caps isn’t fun.

All the keys came in good condition, as did the box.

Installation:

These keys are circular or oblong, but conform to the position and size of the standard key layout for a Cherry MX ‘board. Quisan employed ABS plastic for these caps. The external surround may be metal, but I suspect that it is plastic with a chrome applique. The legends purport to be double-shot, but I have reservations. I think they’re more likely laser ablated, as I seen no evidence of a double shot mold on the back side of the keys.

Installing the keys is fairly straightforward, although the round edges sometimes require a bit more careful effort to get lined up. It should be noted that the stems on these keys are rectangular, rather than being round. This doesn’t seem to have any direct impact on performance or fit. It didn’t impede my progress, nor did I encounter any confounding situations during the installation. Provided that your keyboard has a standard layout and key size, they should work.

In Use:

The popular conical, square edged keys gained their market share for a reason. For one, they are reasonably easy to produce. For another, they have well-delineated edges that make it easy to get your fingers into the right spots while typing.

They’re not the only way to do it, though. There are spherical keys, as well as these, the pure round syle. When you first put your hands onto a keyboard sporting this retro style key set, you might feel a little bit out of your element.

Quick typing is still possible, however. You just have to take a few minutes to get your bearings. I found that things settled down and started to get comfortable after a few hundred words. These keys aren’t dead-flat. There is a perceptible dish on each one, so that your fingers can still find their way home after zipping around.

Are these keys quite as easy to type on as the standard? Maybe not. Not at first. Any high-style piece will have small concessions that need to be made. I didn’t find that I had a massive uptick in mistakes or lack of efficiency, though.

Being higher above the switches than the average key cap, this set will increase the total height of the ‘board. They’ll also make it a bit more succeptible to impacts from the outside of the ‘board. I would say that placing these on your “traveler” keyboard may come with some concerns. For home, no worries.

I found that these keys yielded a change in the sound of the typing inputs. They still sound like the clicky blues that they are, but it is a bit less clacky, and carried a bit less of the high frequency tizz you’ll sometimes hear, especially from the Otemu brand. Still, they’re a lot louder than the normal office setting would approve of.

Downsides?

Well, I suppose that I must hit the space bar fairly hard, because I can feel the raised rim of the bar on my thumb every time. It isn’t painful, but it’s a feeling that lets me know that I’m hitting a hard corner. If I typed for several hours at a time on it, I can foresee that I might start to feel like things were getting less fun. The race between backside and hands being the first thing to give out, though, might mean that it would never rise to the level of real annoyance.

Final Thoughts:

Let us not fool ourselves. Getting a set of caps like this isn’t primarily for their perfect ergonomics. It isn’t for absolute comfort, either. It’s for the looks.

I got the white-face keys, and they look really sweet on the black-anodized brushed aluminum on my keyboard. Is there an element of being on the verge of hipsterism? Oh, yeah. Most definitely.

The good news, though, is that these key caps work pretty darned well, and can fit on any normal ANSI layout keyboard without much difficulty. You can have your style and still get some work done.

Even if you don’t have a mechanical keyboard kicking around, you can still get into the game with a cheap one and these keys for something like $70 and a few minutes’ work. My kind of party.

Cheers, and happy typing.

Quick Take: Razorock Gold

Last Razorock soap for a while, I promise.

Performance: 

Again, we see good performance from the soap, with easy lathering, voluminous results, and clean rinsing. The upshot of all of this is that, if you like any of the RR croaps, chances are that you’ll like any of them.

Scent: 

The Gold scent, to my nose, strikes me as one of those moderate priced cologne scents that are popular with the young dudes. Not a bad scent. Rather forthright. Nothing too challenging, nothing too old-fashioned. It isn’t a scent I feel will become one of my daily picks, but it smells nice, and is certainly not the topic of any buyer’s remorse on my part. I’d call it leather, a little spice, a little musk. A warm scent.

Overall:

For a different shaver, perhaps a guy in his late 20s or early 30s, it might key into his scent preference better. For me, I tend to like citrus-based or spicy products a bit better, with the occasional foray into woodsy scents and fouger.

Anyway, the soap is good, and available for a reasonable price. It basically conforms to all the good things I’ve seen in all the other reviews of RR soaps. I’ve A/B tested RR soaps with tons of different brands and price ranges, and rarely found that they were thoroughly outclassed by another soap. Sometimes bettered in some areas, but not rendered obsolete or undesirable.

I’ve read that other people do not have this experience, and find that most of the RR soaps leave something to be desired for them. I’m sure that their points are valid, as everyone has a different skin composition and level of sensitivity to various chemical components. I have frequently handed a soap that I have great luck with to someone else, only to find them far less impressed. And that’s okay. There are so many products out there. The journey IS the destination, and some just have to look in different places.

Cheers, and Happy Shaving!