Edwin Jagger DE89 Razor

Not so long ago I decided to try the DE89 after several recommendations by fellow traditional shavers who love this razor. To cut (no pun intended) a long story short I’m glad I did.

The Edwin Jagger DE89 is a very attractive razor with its near perfect mirror like plating finish. I have the all chrome plain handle but they do a lined version as well. You would think the all chrome handle would become slippery but it doesn’t. Around the top of the handle there is engraved “Edwin Jagger” in subtle understated lettering. The handle trappers into an attractive neck, which screws onto the two pieces head. As with a Merkur 34C HD I reviewed the guide bars are slightly grooved.

This is a three piece razor meaning that the handle, base plate, and top plate are all separate. I my opinion this is both positive and negative. Being a three piece means it is easy to strip down for cleaning in all the little hard to get at areas and packs nice and neatly into a bag or box for travel. The down side is it can be a little fiddly compared to a TTO (twist/turn to open) or a two piece (like the Merkur 34C HD) to put back together or insert a blade. To insert a blade in the DE89 you place it over the underside of the top plate where you have a long threaded centre pin and two shorter holding pins. You then place the base plate over this and the handle screws onto the threaded centre pin holding it all together. Once assembled the components fit together like you would expect a German razor to. The blade is held level and central with equal amounts of blade visible on each side.

The shave was very good and smooth. I normally do a three pass shave; with the grain, across the grain, and against the grain. With my normal method this razor gives beautiful results and a BSS finish (this is dependent also on the blade used and cream/soap). Even when I use it for a quite shave if I’m running late in the morning (with the grain and against the grain) the finish is very good. The razor is not aggressive and there is next to no clogging even with the thicker creams I have used.

Overall this is an amazing DE razor offering much more than I expected for the price. I would fully recommend this to any beginner to traditional shaving and also to the more experienced of us. There are very few, if any negative points to this razor and it is now part of my regular rotation.

Appearance Ease of use The shave Overall

4½/5 4/5 5/5 13½/15