Leaf Twig Razor

Leaf Twig Razor

From what I’ve been reading you either love or hate this razor.  Me?  I love it once I talked to some other owners and figured some things out.  If you get tired of my ramblings you can jump down to the Conclusion section below for a faster ending.  Those of you who do not like to read there is pictures down there also.  

 
Tried contacting Leaf to find out about blade gap, exposure, etc. but all they would tell me is they have a 30 day money back guarantee regardless of why I was returning the razor.  Tried doing some research online but you already know how that works with YMMV (your mileage may vary) so that was no help.  I did find some individuals who owned the razor and their consensus was the razor feels very mild but is also very efficient.  So I caught the razor on sale with $10 USD off retail, got lucky to find a discount code that also gave me 15% off that, so final price to me including free shipping and added sales tax ($2.93) was $36.93 USD.  Retail the razor would cost $59.00 + $5.09 sales tax + free shipping = $64.09 USD at the time of this writing.  I’m thinking I can’t possibly get hurt on this deal so bought it.
 
When the razor arrived I immediately had to look at it so pieces of packing went flying everywhere till I got inside.  Right off the bat I had to figure out how to even hold this crazy handle.  Okay, bottom to begin with.  Nope, bottom has to turn to open the razor so shifted it in my hands to hold it by the top knurling so I can turn the bottom knurling which is also the knob to open the razor.  Note: knurling is not continuous as we are used to with most razors.  Of course the bottom knob turned the opposite way I was expecting so I’m thinking darn this is turning into a lot of work.  Finally I turned it the right way and yep the top raised up and turned 90 degrees just like in the advertisements.  Crazy!  Saw the magnet to hold the blade in place, little raised notches to hold the blade in correct position, and thought YES I’m ready to shave!  As I was retracting the top I noticed it seem to wiggle a lot.  The “fit” of the top cap is very loose when extended but found when at the final stage to actually clamp the blade down it does go into the correct position and alignment.
 
Getting ready to shave with this new fangled skeleton looking razor and remembered I had to break a blade in half or use one of the five half blades shipped with the razor.  Naw, I want to use my own blades I’m familiar with so grabbed one and remembered how they did it in the advertisement.  Carefully bent the blade in half and SNAP it did break.  Laid one half of the blade to the side still in the wrapper and wondered how long only a half a blade will last since I normally use both sides on my DE razors.  Unwrapped the second half of the blade and saw the bent ends where the blade broke and thought do I have to flatten these first?  Looked closer at the razor and realized it had two tabs sticking up on the top cap in that general direction to cover these bent tabs while shaving so I’m cool!  Carefully put the blade in the provided notches at the base, magnet holding it firmly in place, and watched as the top of the razor turned and came down to clamp the half blade in place.  Exposure was even, bent razor tabs where covered, and seemed secure so of course what did I do, loosened the top cap again to check on the play I observed earlier and confirmed it did twist into the correct position to securely clamp the blade down.  Got this cat by the tail now so mixed up my shaving lather and got ready.
 
Started slow to begin with not knowing what might happen.  Blade angle was easy to find and after a couple of passes I could hear the beard being mowed down WTG but no blade feel.  Rubbed my cheek and found it smooth where I shaved.  Continued shaving and of course flipped the razor a few times to use the other side.  Dummy, I thought!  Did have to rinse the razor more often when I realized I was dripping used lather off of it.  Finished the first pass and was very comfortable.  Continued the shave with a XTG pass.  Felt of the old face and thought wow all I have to do now is a little touch up on a few trouble spots and I’m done.  Final rinsed my face and thought well the ol’ alum block will tell the real tale.  It did, no irritation but did have one tiny weeper that the alum block took care of.  BBS!  Might add here that I watched a few YouTubers who somehow nicked themselves a few times.  I did nick myself a few more times on other shaves but figured out it was due to poor technique.  If you don’t keep the top cap flat against the skin the corners of the blade can get you.  No problems now.
 
Finished cleaning up and put both halves on the magnet glued to my mirror.  Also discovered when opened you can rinse all parts of the razor very easily and left it cracked open a bit to completely dry.
 
Conclusion:  Used the razor several more times and discovered that because it is so efficient I cannot buff more than twice with the razor as eventually it will cause some irritation.  I held the razor on the top portion of the bottom knurling so I could apply ever so slight pressure due to the razor’s light weight.  Even though I technically only used 1/2 of a DE blade I was able to easily get 3 shaves with each half without any discomfort.  Final results for me is I really like this razor.  Easy to use, mild yet very efficient, and since I can get 6 total shaves out of one DE blade my blades will last twice as long with this razor.
 
Final note is I do have the PAA Meta-4 and Henson AL13 Mild razors which are both mild and very efficient also.  However, this Leaf Twig actually beats both of them for mildness and efficiency in my opinion.  There is a Leaf Thorn razor which looks the same as this one but has 0.2 mm (0.0078 in) more blade gap.  I don’t have any experience with the Thorn razor and really don’t need it for myself as the Twig shaves me well enough.  Good buy for me!