Razorock Wunderbar Slant

Anyone have this yet and if so, what's the verdict? Can't wait to order it when it is available again on Italian Barber! Was going to get the ATT S1 because I have the ATT S2 and love it but instead for some variety and if it's as good as it sounds, I'll wait on this.

The peanut gallery has been unusually quiet about this razor.

I have one here, but I haven't had much time on it, as I've been giving a different razor a good solid run. My limited impression is good. Build quality and tolerances are a big leap. Like a few other folks, I had a bit of difficulty locating the angle on this one, and I'll have to experiment with some different blades. It just wasn't as smooth for me as the Stealth Slant v4, but I'm sure it will be nice once I dial it in. Some of my favorite blades are heavily glued (Feather in particular), so it's another little step to clean those up before using (per suggestion), but not a big deal. I'm going to use it for a couple weeks straight come Monday, so I'll report back ha.


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Here are my thoughts so far:

The Wonderbar head I received is very well made and free from visible defects on all surfaces of consequence. The only obvious tooling marks are on the sides of the topcap and baseplate - likely marks left from vise jaw clamping to hold the parts during the machining process - but these marks are polished and not at all deep. 

The handle is a nice size and hefty weight, it matches and balances with the head very well. The knurling could definitely be more grippy, but I wouldn't call it slick. It works but could be significantly better. But then, my preference is for very aggressive knurling, so others may like it just the way it is. I'm also not a fan of the long, smooth section, but again, it's just my preference to have more of the handle knurled, rather than less.

One last thing regarding the handle, The diameter at the base is 15.43 mm on mine, so I don't think it's going to fit into most of the base type stands out there. Also, with the head size and shape, it won't fit securely on one of my hanging stands which has a short throated hanger. No problem on my other hanging stand though, which happens to be a quad stand I purchased from Italian Barber a few months ago. At any, the option for a dedicated base stand would be great, perhaps farmed out to a different machinist as to not slow down the flow of production on the razors? Stands are relatively simple to bang out. 

"So how does the Wunderbar shave dude??? Get to it already!"

Well, my first couple shaves with the Wunderbar resulted in a lot of cuts, nicks and irritation. This is not something I normally experience when shaving, and I am not new to slants - my main razor  being an ATT S2 and I've had a few shaves with a Stealth Slant as well. 

The first shaves with the Wunderbar I used my usual LPL soaps and GSB blades, so I knew my results were not due to the razor blades or soaps, although after the first shave the blade seemed to have one end bent up a bit on one side - no idea how that happened, but I replaced the blade for the next shave and haven't had that issue again. Probably just the odd manufacturing defect. Regardless, a new, carefully inspected blade didn't improve shave number 2 for me.

For shave 3 I switched to an Astra SP, which is normally slightly less smooth and sharp for me than the GSB, but still one of the most comfortable blades I've tried. I worked really hard during this third shave trying to pay attention to what the razor needed with regards to pressure, angle, etc.   This shave went much better, my first comfortable and bloodless Wunderbar shave. The blade change may have helped a bit, but the big revelation I had was that in addition to zero pressure and proper "angle" as we normally discuss it (where we adjust towards the top cap or safety bar), the Wunderbar seems to have less tolerance for deviating from the correct alignment of the slant relative to he direction of cut. What I mean is, if you were to start making a stroke in a straight line, then you moved the handle to one side or the other of that line (rather than closer to your face or further from your face), while still moving the head on the original path, you'd be either increasing the amount of guillotine angle relative to the path of travel, or decreasing it, depending on which direction you moved the handle. I noticed that anytime I allowed even a little of this off-line handle deviation, the shave started to get uncomfortable and The razor no longer felt safe. This was particularly true shaving around curves and hollows, any area not mostly flat really. 

So the bottom line on that so far, for me, was that as long as I didn't get off that proper slant angle, and I maintained zero pressure and a reasonable not too steep, not too shallow head angle, the Wunderbar seemed well behaved, smooth and only moderately aggressive feeling. OTH, stray from the sweet spot at your own peril. 

Based on my current limited experience, I'd say the Wunderbar is a very well made razor, capable of excellent, comfortable shaves for those willing get tuned into the sweet spot and focus enough to stay there. It's no Stealth Slant - you can't bang out a fast shave, half asleep, with the Wunderbar, or at least I can't. And Joe has stated that this is a totally different razor than the Stealth, so people shouldn't be surprised. 

OK, that's a lot of words, more than I had originally intended, hope I didn't bore you all. For those who hung in to the end, thanks for reading and I hope you found something helpful or at least interesting in all of that. 

Have a great 4th everyone, for those who are stateside.

Thanks for the write-up mr Forged.

(07-03-2016, 12:37 PM)efsk Wrote: Thanks for the write-up mr Forged.

You're welcome, happy to contribute.

Sooooooo, I love my ATT S2 and I was about to pull the trigger on an S1 until I heard about this slant. I talked to Joe several times at Razorock and he said there are over 1000 people on the notification list and they are only releasing 100 per month so I guess I will go ahead and get the S1 and then when my email comes up, I might get this one. On another note, I did just get an email from Colonial razors requesting my Paypal email address when they are ready to ship their new single edge.


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That's interesting. So, if one were to sign up today, it would be a 10+ month wait?

I'm kind of surprised by that, especially given that it is a single model at a lower price point. I wonder if they'll be able to accelerate the number they release per month over time.


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I believe the sign up is just a notification list, so ordering is still a first-come basis.

I had a bit of a time finding the angle the first time I used the Wunderbar, but today was spot on. I think I was originally trying to use it the same as the Stealth. I'll get a couple more shaves in and report back, but I'm happy with it today.


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I also got another good shave in with the Wunderbar. Still not as close as I'd like in a 2 pass shave, but I'm working on it. 

Wax definitely adheres and builds up quickly on the top cap and baseplate, more so than other razors I've used. Not a problem, just requires some additional attention when changing blades if you use blades with wax spots.

I am curious to see how this stacks up against the new iKon x3. I've heard great things about that one, even more so than the Wunderbar.

Really interesting indeed.

I've been using mine for a couple weeks now.  It's made so well, it's almost a work of art.  The shave itself is moderately aggressive, but nothing to worry about.  I've been getting consistent BBS shaves with it using Feathers, Voskhods, and Rapiras.  I would recommend buying one if you have the funds.  My only warning would be it will bite you if your technique is off. 

I've seen one go on eBay for $250 and there's another that will probably go near that.  It's crazy the markup people will pay to get a used one now instead of a new one later.

(07-06-2016, 01:50 PM)cvoss11 Wrote: I've been using mine for a couple weeks now.  It's made so well, it's almost a work of art.  The shave itself is moderately aggressive, but nothing to worry about.  I've been getting consistent BBS shaves with it using Feathers, Voskhods, and Rapiras.  I would recommend buying one if you have the funds.  My only warning would be it will bite you if your technique is off. 

I've seen one go on eBay for $250 and there's another that will probably go near that.  It's crazy the markup people will pay to get a used one now instead of a new one later.

I know right? Some prices there are insane.

Thanks for the review, it sounds really promising.