Karve Shaving Co. Stainless Steel Open Comb Base Plate

50-50 %

I am giving this review a 5 stars just because I assembled it the way I wanted my safety razor to look like inspite of recommendations from WCS sales rep. I am giving this review for both items which I purchased at the same time: Karve Stainless Steel Open Comb base plate and the Stainless Steel Top Cap. I will copy and paste this review when I will review the top cap next. First of all, the value for the money: do I recommend it? It depends on the buyer. The stainless steel base plate cost around $40 and the Top Cap around $50! For both, it’s almost $100 just for the razor head! If you have money to splurge and really want it, then go for it. The brass versions of both is a lot cheaper by almost 50%. A Stainless steel razor head versus a cheaper Zamak one does both job well, I leave that decision up to you. I was also surprised to find out that both stainless steel top cap and bottom plate is lighter than a Zamak razor head or a Brass one. As to performance, I bought a Level B Open Comb version ( a mild version) and paired it with a Dorco (mild) blade and my ever favorite hefty WCS Classic Stainless 174S handle.It performed flawlessly with my favorite shaving soap. The open comb version was described as a “mildly aggressive” head compared to its close comb counterpart but I did not find it to be. It was still “mild”by my standards. I am afraid to use Feather blades on this one yet until I could summon up courage to do so. Do I recommend it? I wrote down “yes” just because for me, I like something different: stainless better than Zamak razor heads but economy wise, it’s a big “NO” that is why the title of my review is “50-50%”.If I am building my own razor kit, I would recommend the Karve Brass Top Cap and Bottom plate to give my build a “vintage”look and it’s cheaper by 50%. Performance wise, they are at par with each other although the Karve Brass setup is heavier by 1 gram! The decision is really up to the buyer on this one.