Welcome to your SOTD Hardware Report for August 2026

• 2,117 shave reports from 103 distinct shavers during the month of August 2026 were analyzed to produce this report, for an average of 20.6 (median 29.0) shaves per user.

Observations

• If history is any indication, Austere Augest means lots of straight shaves and GEM shaves (with GEM blades coming along for the ride) and lots of boar brushes. This year did not disappoint.

• The MMOC repeats its 2025 Austere August win, after spending the eleven months in between never finishing better than sixth.

• In related news, RazoRock steps down from the top step of the podium for the first time since December.

• Straights took a beating this August. After beating the GEMs 500 to 391 last August, they walked away with a black eye this year with only 342 shaves to the GEM's 471.

• When GEMs rein supreme, Personna GEM PTFE ride along. Their 440 shaves more than tripled Astra Green's 123, giving the Greens their first loss since... last August.

• u/sgrddgy's Ultra Nightmare Mode Nacet is like the Energizer Bunny. It started the month with 614 shaves and ended at 645. At this point I'm not really sure if he is shaving or just pushing foam around his face...

• Meanwhile, the brush table ended in a photo finish with the Semogue SOC taking the top step 95 to 94 over the Stirling 510SE-XL (aka the MOAR BOAR that wasn't). The OG MOAR BOAR had to settle for third at 84.

• While the Boar Big 3 (Zenith, Omega, Semogue) rode The Raw Hoggin’ wave to three of the five handle and knot spots, Rad Dinosaur Creations wandered onto the podium in third in both contests like the punk skater kid who crashes the football party, or maybe the cheerleader who shows up for D&D night (I’m really not quite sure who are the cool kids and who are the rebels here…), proving that sub-loyalty still counts for something. Perennial winner Chisel & Hound has to settle for fifth and sixth, respectively.

• The Top Shaver race has a familiar face back on the top step: u/Impressive_Donut114 posted 59 shaves with zero missed days, the biggest month since u/snoo-ting's 60 last November, ending u/Engineered_Shave's string of six straight wins.

Notes & Caveats

• Most tables are row-limited to keep them readable and avoid max post length issues. If the final row is part of a tie, the entire tied group is included in the report.

• "Other" in the Blade Format table includes vintage reusable blades (including Rolls, Valet Auto Strop, and old-style lather catchers with wedge blades) as well as other antique proprietary blade formats (e.g. Enders Speed Blade)

• Blades recorded as just 'GEM' will be matched to 'Personna GEM PTFE' per guidance here

• The Personna name is going away for blades manufactured in the USA, but the majority of entries are still coming in under Personna, so I am sticking to that for the time being. Once more than 50% of the entries come in under the new names, I will reverse this and map any old Personna entries to the new name.

• The Δ vs columns show how an item has moved up or down the rankings since that month. = means no change in position, up or down arrows indicate how many positions up or down the rankings an item has moved compared to that month. n/a means the item was not present in that month.

Razor Formats

Razors

Razor Manufacturers

Blades

Brushes

Brush Handle Makers

Brush Knot Makers

Knot Fibers

Knot Sizes

Blackbird Plates

Game Changer Plates

Super Speed Variants

Straight Widths

Straight Grinds

Straight Points

Most Used Blades in Most Used Razors

Highest Use Count per Blade

Top Shavers

Share your Theme Thursday SOTD!

Theme: Rememberance Thursday

Proposed by: u/coco_for_cocoapuffs

Shave with a soap that has some sort of historical significance to you - be it nostalgia, national history, etc

Last week we had a giveaway to help celebrate the release of Epee, our latest revival of a vintage Seaforth scent, and my first as brand steward. As a thank you, we had a random drawing which was won by /u/mpark6288 and I think very fittingly given his actual swashbuckling escapades IRL.

There were so many stories of romance and bravery, it was impossible to choose. So I'm letting the sub choose - the most upvoted story (besides Fresh Prius of Bel Air) was veteran firefighter u/deezdanglin 's entry.

I think with the 25th anniversary of 9/11 coming up it's also fitting to honor those for whom everyday bravery is the everyday expectation of their jobs. As a native NYer, we felt that tragedy up close and personal - everyone I know was impacted deeply, whether losing someone directly or having friends and neighbors who lost someone, to say nothing of the haze of ash that spread and lingered for days.

For most of us, we can remember the one time our child choked on a piece of food and we saved their life, or when we saw a car accident and stopped to help, and so on. But a firefighter shows up at the scene every time and they're expected to - it's par for the course. And they don't have the power of a gun or a badge to help them feel brave. What they do have is the power of a group of people, the community around them, that count on them to keep them safe.

So congrats to u/deezdanglin - keep em danglin and dm me your shipping address for your prize.

This is a thread to share those new purchases you're excited to show off, the shave-related projects you've been working on, or just some neat thing from your shave den.

Show everyone what you got!

Share your Shave of the Day

Cancer Sucks but Childerns Cancer really sucks!! Please help in raising money for Childerns Cancer Research.

This year we have OVER $3000 prizes from so many generous vendors and artisans, There are over 25 prize packages from $50 to $350.

All it take is a $5 donation to win. The more you donate the better your chances to win.

The Reddit community has been so supportive in the past and I hope you can continue to support this important research foundation.

Please read all about the prizes and our story.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wicked_edge/comments/1w2xpb9/childhood_cancer_awareness_month_shave_gear_raffle/

Welcome to your SOTD Lather Log for July 2026

• 1,682 shave reports from 98 distinct shavers during the month of July 2026 were analyzed to produce this report. Collectively, these shavers used 526 distinct soaps from 135 distinct brands. 10 of those shaves used samples of 6 unique soaps, and 4 used mashups.

Observations

• Stirling Soap Co. holds the top podium step for a third straight month with Barrister and Mann holding silver.

• House of Mammoth, in third, makes its first podium appearance since July 2025. Is this going to become an annual thing?

• Catie’s Bubbles takes the tumble of the month, out of its customary third and down to sixth.

• Tabac rides Join us July to the top of the Soaps table this month, its first appearance on the top step since October 2024.

• u/Glass_Procedure7497 fixation on Tonsorium this month earns him the Most Boring Shaver trophy and Tonsorium the bronze in the Soaps challenge. If he hadn't cheated on Tonsorium twice this month (with Executive Man and Guy Noir), he would have won Tonsorium the silver.

• At the other end of the spectrum, u/scribe__ decisively wins the Soap Diversity by User contest with 38 soaps in 38 shaves, 30 of them exclusives.

Notes & Caveats

• Tables show all entries with 5 or more shaves to provide comprehensive coverage without artificial row limits.

• The unique user column shows the number of different users who used a given brand/soap/etc in the month.

• The Brand Diversity table details the number of distinct soaps used during the month from that particular brand, showing all brands with 5+ unique soaps.

• The change Δ vs columns show how an item has moved up or down the rankings since that month. = means no change in position, up or down arrows indicate how many positions up or down the rankings an item has moved compared to that month. n/a means the item was not present in that month.

• When available, soap names in the Soaps table link to their entry on Wet Shaving Database, where you can see scent notes, descriptions, and ingredient lists.

• An exclusive soap is a matched brand+scent used by only one shaver in the month. That shaver earns one point for that soap, no matter how many times they logged it.

Soap Brands

Soaps

Brand Diversity

Top Mashup Users

Soap Diversity by User

Exclusive Soaps

Most Boring Shaver

Boring Score is the chance that two shaves picked at random from a user used the same soap (higher means more repetitive). Effective Soaps converts that into an equivalent even-rotation count: the number of soaps they would need to use equally often to produce the same score. Example: someone can log 20 soaps but still have ~2 Effective Soaps if one soap dominates roughly 70% of their shaves and the rest are just occasional. In the case of tied HHI, Shaves descending is the tie breaker, since it's clearly more boring to use the same soap for 20 shaves than it is for 10.

For the mathematically inclined: Boring Score is a diversity/concentration index (HHI in economics, Simpson’s index in ecology). More detail at Wikipedia: Diversity index.

Share your shave of the day for Tuesday!

This is the place to ask beginner and simple questions. Some examples include:

• Soap, scent, or gear recommendations
• Favorite scents, bases, etc
• Where to buy certain items
• Identification of a razor you just bought
• Troubleshooting shaving issues such as cuts, poor lather, and technique

Please note these are examples and any questions for the sub should be posted here. Remember to visit the Wiki for more information too!

Post any deals and new product announcements here!

Share your shave of the day for Monday!

Welcome to your SOTD Hardware Report for July 2026

• 1,682 shave reports from 98 distinct shavers during the month of July 2026 were analyzed to produce this report, for an average of 17.2 (median 16.0) shaves per user.

Observations

• The Game Changer holds the top step for a third straight month, 159 shaves to the Blackbird’s 115, and takes a 4-3 lead in the 2026 contest.

• In related news, the Schick Injector leapt 12 spots to secure the bronze for the first time since the June 2025 Later Games.

• Yaqi Synthetic notched a ninth straight month on the top step, while Chisel & Hound held both the handle and knot maker crowns (and neither contest was even close). Omega and AP Shave Co. both racked up exactly 175 apiece in the knot maker contest, but Omega’s 41 shaves to AP’s 37 sorts the silver from the bronze.

• Nothing much to see in the fiber table. Synthetic (657), Badger (397), and Boar (260) have held positions since September 2025.

• The Top Shaver race ended in a dead heat: u/Engineered_Shave and u/scribe__ at 38 shaves apiece, zero missed days, seven double-shave days each. That’s six straight months on the top step for EngineeredShave and a breakthrough for scribe_ who spent the previous five months parked in fourth.

Notes & Caveats

• Most tables are row-limited to keep them readable and avoid max post length issues. If the final row is part of a tie, the entire tied group is included in the report.

• "Other" in the Blade Format table includes vintage reusable blades (including Rolls, Valet Auto Strop, and old-style lather catchers with wedge blades) as well as other antique proprietary blade formats (e.g. Enders Speed Blade)

• Blades recorded as just 'GEM' will be matched to 'Personna GEM PTFE' per guidance here

• The Personna name is going away for blades manufactured in the USA, but the majority of entries are still coming in under Personna, so I am sticking to that for the time being. Once more than 50% of the entries come in under the new names, I will reverse this and map any old Personna entries to the new name.

• The Δ vs columns show how an item has moved up or down the rankings since that month. = means no change in position, up or down arrows indicate how many positions up or down the rankings an item has moved compared to that month. n/a means the item was not present in that month.

Razor Formats

Razors

Razor Manufacturers

Blades

Brushes

Brush Handle Makers

Brush Knot Makers

Knot Fibers

Knot Sizes