Matador Safety Razors

[Nick the Knife]

Gents,

Bored so browsing a couple of smaller shops and stumbled on this brand of safety razors I'd never heard of before...Matador. (apologies in advance if others have heard of them)

Pretty impressive looking profiles on them and very nice chunky looking handles etc. The finish quality looks similar to Merkur type stuff (well below EJ's etc) but the prices are pretty amazing. Apparently Indian made, VERY hefty weights on some of their razors - which will appeal to many.

My pick? The El Gordo Negro at $USD23.

I've no idea what the postage costs from the US would be or if there's other retailer with them but would think they might be a very good buy for folks chasing a nice razor at a VERY entry level price.

Cheers, Nick

 

[Nick the Knife]

Eye candy and for $USD20! Gawd serious Ron Jeremy-esque girth on that handle.

Gotta agree with the review - love the circular knurling, very Aristocratish.

 

[JugV2]

Some of those look great and I think I would love to try them. I like a heavy razor.

I was looking through their stuff and they have some blades there that seem very expensive - Kai $0.60 per blade. Plus shipping.

Has anyone used Kai blades before? They seem like they might be a homegrown blade not known on the international scene.

 

[Mark1966]

I've used the Kai blades - allegedly Feather sharp but smooth - the Holy Grail of blades. I thought MEH, they were OK but expensive.

Now I buy vintage for even more!

 

[Mong.]

Kai blades are made in Japan. Reputation for being sharp and smooth, but there's probably a reason that people flock to Feather over them despite both being expensive.

Thanks for the heads up, Nick. Chunky handles is great to see. I wonder about two things. The first is balance. With huge handles like that, surely they'd have to be bottom heavy. The second is thread size. Are they interchangeable with other razor heads?

 

[Nick the Knife]

Are they interchangeable with other razor heads?

I'd say they would be as theres quite a bit of chat over YKW about swapping the heads off for various other razors (seems the QC is a tad spotty and blade alignment isn't always a given when using them). Oh and I agree about the balance issue, I thought that immediately myself - especially on a couple of their VERY big handles. But you'd HOPE they'd have used and it'd be pretty obvious if way off.

Kai are a very big manufacturing conglomerate in Japan. If you're into your knives you'd have heard of Shun, which is their flagship knife brand (though overpriced IMHO).

There's a few interesting articles around about Indian manufactured razors - Parker has been on the scene for quite a while and QC issues did seem to be a major problem (though apparently they did a lot of work on this) - now there are these and several other brands getting made out of India. Seems a few stores are using this specific maker and rebranding as their own 'house' razor, like this Canuck mob.

Won't turn folks off who are wanting to buy high end gear BUT if you could get one Merkur or 2-3 of these thats compelling value for the latter IMHO.

 

[borked]

KAI iirc are available at Daiso stores.
At least one of their blades are and I've asked about DE blades such as Feather...

 

[filobiblic]

The Matador razors remind me of the Fatip razors (like this Fatip Grande going on eBay).