The threading on my old Merkur bakelite (guessing 1930s) has worn out in the handle. Picked up a 39C thinking I would get the same thing.
I find it horrible in comparison. Not a smooth shave and very mild, yet irritating. Using a Polsilver blade. I actually fished out my old bakelite from the bathoom trash as the head is still good and thinking of finding another old merkur razor and swapping out the handle. If anyone has tips, would appreciate.
So I took to measuring the angle, and got this:
Very weak. My old one has a angle of 11.4 while this modern model has an angle of just 3 degrees? Wow. Not cool. Not at all.
For those that don't understand slant, which seems to commonplace, here is a basic graphic I did to explain what it does:
Other people explain it differently, but the way I think of it is like a snow plow. The blade is the same length (as they're standard) but if you put your plow at an angle, you attacking less area (hair) and thus with more blade. Same here. So more angle gets more "slant" effect.
Also, looking on top, I noticed this is particularly bad design from Merkur for the new one.
vs
On my old one, the blade sticks out uniformly and is equidistant from the edge of the comb guides. Not so with the new one. I don't think their designers accounted for the slant's geometry. On either side, the blade sticks out more at one end than on the other (opposite sides, opposite ends). Imagine if it did that with your normal razor? Same result: ouch! What I think caused my irritation.
Tested it many times changing the blad, this is the razor's natural tendency. Now, I can force it to be uniform distance, but that is not the natural drop in result I got with my old one.
Not here to bash a razor many people like. To be fair, the quality on this feels solid, like a mini-barbell when the bakelite was feather-light (my pref) and the chroming seems heavy. The price is fair for all that. but I feel the design messed up what was so nice in the original and many people must be missing out on an extinct classic.
Sigh. Anyone have suggestions? Either to fix the old one (thread is on the top of the handle - is that interchangeable with other Merkur's of the era) or for a new slant?
I find it horrible in comparison. Not a smooth shave and very mild, yet irritating. Using a Polsilver blade. I actually fished out my old bakelite from the bathoom trash as the head is still good and thinking of finding another old merkur razor and swapping out the handle. If anyone has tips, would appreciate.
So I took to measuring the angle, and got this:
Very weak. My old one has a angle of 11.4 while this modern model has an angle of just 3 degrees? Wow. Not cool. Not at all.
For those that don't understand slant, which seems to commonplace, here is a basic graphic I did to explain what it does:
Other people explain it differently, but the way I think of it is like a snow plow. The blade is the same length (as they're standard) but if you put your plow at an angle, you attacking less area (hair) and thus with more blade. Same here. So more angle gets more "slant" effect.
Also, looking on top, I noticed this is particularly bad design from Merkur for the new one.
vs
On my old one, the blade sticks out uniformly and is equidistant from the edge of the comb guides. Not so with the new one. I don't think their designers accounted for the slant's geometry. On either side, the blade sticks out more at one end than on the other (opposite sides, opposite ends). Imagine if it did that with your normal razor? Same result: ouch! What I think caused my irritation.
Tested it many times changing the blad, this is the razor's natural tendency. Now, I can force it to be uniform distance, but that is not the natural drop in result I got with my old one.
Not here to bash a razor many people like. To be fair, the quality on this feels solid, like a mini-barbell when the bakelite was feather-light (my pref) and the chroming seems heavy. The price is fair for all that. but I feel the design messed up what was so nice in the original and many people must be missing out on an extinct classic.
Sigh. Anyone have suggestions? Either to fix the old one (thread is on the top of the handle - is that interchangeable with other Merkur's of the era) or for a new slant?
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