Blackland Osprey
In mid-March 2023 Blackland announced that they were going to build their first adjustable razor.
There were a series of videos that "kept us updated" on the progress and which I believe also served as a marketing campaign. Eventually orders opened on 22nd September 2023 with shipping for early October. As stated, they started shipping at the end of the first week in October with the first ones arriving a few days later.
Initial reviews were great but then the issues started to come up. The engraving was too light and adjusting it on the go was an issue. Some people said that the "smoothness vs effeciency" at the high settings wasn't there while others said that on the low settings it was unusable for them.
My initial thoughts:
It's certainly a great looking razor, with some fresh idea's
The weight reducing cuts on the underside of the baseplate look really kewl.
I'm not one of those that think that the engraving isn't deep enough as my eyes wouldn't see it anyway and I generally adjust by feel while I'm shaving. I doubt that I will have an issue with the "loosen - adjust - tighten" adjustment method as my Locking Handle works pretty much the same way.
At 90mm the handle is too long for my personal preferences.
Its a "machine" finish. Thats not something that I wouldn't expect on a $350 razor. A non-US company wouldn't get away with it.
I'm not really sure what they were thinking when they designed the handle - why would you drill out weight just to add it back with a plug!
How does it shave?
I find it to be a Mild to early Medium shaver. At around 5 to 6 a BBS is possible but you do have to do some work to get there. I would definitely love to see what over overclocking would do for it but I'm not taking mine apart to find out.
The Unboxing and what is in the box