I just had my first ambassador shave. The craftsmanship and finish of the razor is beautiful; a mix of artistry, balance, and precision machining. Aesthetics aside, this is the first shave I have ever had that was as close as my straights, and exceeds my other DE’s by a large margin. Nice work gentlemen!

I bought this razor because I wanted an aggressive (efficient) shaver similar to R41 but made out of premium quality materials. I knew from the start this would be high quality but I didn’t expect it to be so efficient. It matches my r41 in that sense on the highest setting and yet feels a lot smoother at the same time. The adjustability is a great bonus for me as you can get a completely different type of aggression within seconds if you like going ATG and such. For me one quick pass on setting 6 is enough most of the time and it’s exactly what I wanted from this razor.

So, a little backstory - I pre-ordered a Rex Ambassador some time ago. When the razor was released I ordered a second one. I had a number of issues with these first two. Primarily the fit and finish of the razors was not up to my (admittedly) very high standards for a razor in that price class. The first razor had numerous dings and machining marks and the second razor, while it had less of the marks, did have a top cap that lost it's screw barrel inside the handle of the razor when I first put it together. The caps are not machined out of one pieces of stainless, they are a cap and screw barrel combined of two separate pieces and this one lost it's barrel. I ended up sending a rather unhappy email to Razor Emporium about the issues that I had been having after I got the second razor and had the cap come apart. No sooner did I send the email (okay, maybe 10 minutes later) I got a direct call from Matt Pisarcik. For those of you who don't know, Matt is the owner of Razor Emporium. He also make some rather cool videos with Douglas Smythe, but I digress. Anyway, Matt and I spoke on the phone for probably 25 minutes about the Rex, razor collecting, and razors in general. He said that he would personally look into my issues and send me out a replacement razor. He also said that they were going to use a slightly different cap going forward that would be a little more squarish on the underside. +1 for Matt personally taking the initiative to call a customer and offering to personally take care of my issue. Razor Emporium had also just started offering to apply a new brushed finish to the razors that would take care of the machining marks and that if you sent in one you had pre-ordered so I took advantage of that. Fast forward about a week and I received back my first Rex with the new brushed finish applied. Fantastic, things were looking up. Fast forward again to today and I got the replacement Rex with the new style top cap. It had been delayed about a week or two because of when the caps were being delivered to Razor Emporium. No big deal, really. This new rex looks great, everything with the fit and finish is really good. Nicely done all around. Kuddos to Matt and Razor Emporium. So, onto the performance review - In the meantime while I was waiting for my second Rex to be taken care of I have been using my first Rex in my rotation. I have, oh, probably 8 to 10 razors that I use in my regular rotation and several more that I use occasionally. Out of all of those razors, none have actually performed as well as the Rex. The adjustments of the Rex are from 1 to 6 with anything and everything in between due to how it is a smooth single adjustment, not clicks or steps. I suppose 'micro adjustment' would be the most accurate way to put it I guess. I use it on "3" so it is more of a normal/medium aggressive setting. All of my shaves have been very smooth and I haven't nicked myself or gotten even a single weeper. I can't actually say that about any other razor I own, even those known historically as very smooth shavers - namely the red tip and the aristocrat 16. The knurling on the rex is very good. Very grippy. The only way it's moving around between my fingers is if I move it. Really top notch. Also, the hollow handle and two piece design is very nostalgic and reminiscent of vintage razors, as is the adjustment collar and head design (thank Gibbs for that design). To sum up, my experience with the Rex started off not so good. In the time since, Razor Emporium and Matt specifically went above and beyond to take care of my issues. They turned my from a detractor into a promoter. On top of all of that, the razor shaves and performs superbly. I honestly can't think if a razor at the moment that I look forward to using more.

As others have written, the adjustment ring moves too easily and doesn't want to stay where I set it. More critical is blade attachment mechanism. I expected more of a clamshell opening like my 60yo Gillette Executive adjustable rather than the even more ancient Gillette non-adjustable razors. Bottom line: the key features of the late 50s/early 60s Gillette adjustable razor weren't duplicated to my satisfaction!