I got a new razor in the mail today, the RazoRock GOAT. GOAT is meant to stand for "Greatest Of All Time", and it's a copy of the Merkur 34 series. The ad copy says it's a copy of the "German 34" which is an old design with an expired patent. I was wondering how closely it would match the 34C, and it's almost exact!

There are differences, of course. It's a 3-piece razor, so you can use whichever handle you like (as long as it has standard M5 threads). The razor is wider in order to cover the blade tabs (which it does completely). The 34C has a small amount of blade tab exposed.

I did a 1 pass shave with the GOAT just to see how it felt, and my initial impression is that it's very very close to the 34C. I love mild yet efficient razors like the 34C, so I'm excited to have a durable, stainless steel version.

I know I didn't get it from all angles, but it's pretty much an exact copy where it counts.

The picture below might make it look like they're slightly different size, but since

Not long ago I won a beautiful brush handle from Peter at Wolf Whiskers in a charity raffle. It came with a great synthetic knot, but it was lofted too short for me. I decided to remove it so I can put something else in.

I emailed Peter and he confirmed that all of his brushes are assembled with epoxy. I didn't want to risk steaming the handle, but the Discord chat convinced me to try a 5 minute steam, which I did... 5 minutes isn't long, and it didn't work.

Not wanting to further risk a total failure (the handle is in 2 pieces, plus it has a coin in the bottom), I went back to plan A - mechanical destruction.

Picture 1: I used a box cutter with a fresh blade to slice most of the hair off

Picture 2: I used a combination of a small cutoff wheel and a grinder bit on a Dremel tool and started slowly chipping away at things.

![](https://sub.wetshaving.social/pictrs/image/6de179c2-1da7-4aa8-9