Hi there everyone!
New guy to these forums (although I have certainly popped on in over the years) and thought I would finally post here (I guess I am making up for that time with a huge post...sorry about that).
Well today I spent an exorbitant amount of time online with my bro in trying to decide what to do with a replacement razor for myself.
I am not new to DE safety razors, so time for a little history that might make you chuckle a bit... I hope you have a good read
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I made the switch probably back in about 2004.
See, from the very beginning, I had struggled with my VERY course beard. I tried everything I knew about- Electric shavers were like torture devices- forever yanking out the hairs. I actually put up with that for quite few years before deciding to move to wet shaving - however that was limited to common supermarket flog which I had no end of struggles with.
This was about the time that things like multi-bladed Gillette Mach 3's were new and fast becoming all the rage and the push to more and more blades had started to become the common formfactor in all the big supermarket brands.
This was not good for a guy with a beard like mine. Clogs for me happened all too quickly. I could seldom do much of a short stroke down my face at all, before the cartridge would get so jammed up that no end of rinsing would help. Really the only viable way I found was to use a sewing pin, that I would wiggle to unjam the heads in effort to try to get through a single shave. It was so time consuming and annoying to say the least.
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This was all I knew of for shaving options, if you had asked me then. We had no dedicated shaving shops like we do now in Australia (however, even now the brands push cartridge style or electric in those stores - more often you do not see anything else). The only type of razor I vaguely knew of other than those I mentioned, was with the image I associated in my head with the 'Old West' and the barber's straight razor (Really, it goes to show how quickly big brands can create a mass-market for their preferred product in a single generation).
Anyhow in disgust and in hopelessness, I remember going online to eBay and by accident coming across Howie Woda's old eBay store. I was so surprised to see the Double-Edged razor. I had never seen one like that before. I had no idea about them at all and if it were not for Howie's his kind advice back then, I never would have moved to a DE safety razor (Though he must have thought me mad when I asked him about them lol). To be honest I thought they were some unknown seldom used archaic razor- more of an archaeological rarity or something from an antique store!
So my first razor was a Parker 90 R and I found it a breath of fresh air. I loved using the Parker 90 R and then my Dad came along one day and nicked it from me! Lol.
That was around 2011.
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For my replacement DE I decided, I wanted something more up-market and with perhaps a feature I thought would be even better for my beard coarseness - and adjustable style DE.
Seemed like such a good idea at the time- having seen an ad for it when making my first Googles for the replacement. Having the ability to adjust the blade so there was more aperture gap at the beginning when I had lots of growth to remove (Forget 5 ' o clock shadow - I am a midday shadow kind of guy!) and then narrower as I wanted the second or third pass on finishing sounded neat.
That was a really big mistake in the end... because for my Second razor I chose a Merkur Vision(though I am not sure if it was the first or second version). I ended up buying it though right before it was discontinued so I assume it was the 2000 variant.
That razor gave me nothing but headaches. No wonder they discontinued it! It would forever seize up, no matter how much I cleaned it, and there was no way to disassemble it fully to get to where the problem lay (well, there was..read on).
I stuck with that monstrosity of a razor, but it did over the intervening time, invariably get pushed aside more often then not.
So very often. the mechanism would seize again (and again and again...and again, again, again again ...ok like 95% of the time). I would be forced to either pull out the old electric shaver (shudders) or grab a single blade disposable Bic shaver, which in about 2013 I decided was a good idea to keep a pack in reserve for when the Merkur would be uncooperative and unexpectedly seize- and I didn't have the hour it normally took to get it working half-heartedly again.
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Jump forward to last week.
In a final act of sheer frustration (which says a lot, I am a very calm Vulcan like guy lol) I finally had my last straw with the Merkur Vision and grabbed pliers and goodness knows what else, in effort to get the mechanism working again- It had finally seized up so badly that regular maintenance or anything else I could think of didn't work, so I basically forcibly disassembled it.
I knew going it that it would never shave again, but I wanted to see why the F*** (excuse me) this thing was so unreliable. Found out why and if anyone is interested I can post pics. The mechanism -to quote my engineer designer bro- is 'the stupidest bit of design he has seen in years'. I can't say I disagree.
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Anyhow now I find myself stuck at what to decide to buy as a replacement and needing some advice.
I am not wanting to look at Merkur again (understandably) after the horrid experience with the razor and the woeful customer service I had (which was even worse given in Australia they have zero real presence).
I don't trust myself with a straight razor at all. I was toying with the idea of a slant blade DE, but, but from what I've been reading, may or may not be the best for my style beard hair. I would almost always knick myself very easily with a new blade on the Merkur Vision, not something I ever did with the Parker 90 R or the Bic disposables. This was regardless of how much prep I did to my beard beforehand, or time taken to use the Vision, or what setting it was on, though invariably it seemed to do it more at an average or wider setting (though I also wonder if it was damned from the start, the blade alignment to me always looked kind of off kilter too- not as bad as http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/17020-Merkur-Vision-Quality-Issues )
Looking around there has certainly been a renaissance in the sheer mass and variety of DE razors and far more on the market selling new ones, but it also is a case of 'too many options and too many views.'
That's where I really could do with some advice. I know the people here are Uber shave aficionados and might be able to at least help me narrow things down.
For guys with a very coarse beard with delicate skin, what do you find works well for you?
I am hesitant to overspend on a razor after the let down in the lack of value I saw in the Merkur Vision, and I would prefer to be looking at something in the $30 - $75 AUD range of the market. But all advice is welcome.
I am tempted to go back to Parker branded razors, but am open to other ideas- Just not Merkur. The IKon X3 has caught my eye given it seems to be almost as good as the more expensive ItalianBarber Wunderbar but yeah never used a slant so I have zero experience there.
I am even toying with bro perfecting a 3d printed one or trying one we saw today ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7qRIZnegRY ). We actually tried a quick and dirty prototype this afternoon after being inspired by GeofatBoy's review, but realized that will take a bit of time to get right and is more a long term thing. Prototype -A we made, was so safe a 5 year old could use it ROFL).
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
Gillette Slim adjustable
Gillette Fat Boy
Gillette Red Tip
RR Wunderbar
Feather blades. You have been at it awhile, no need to be scared of cutting yourself. Don't use pressure and you'll be fine. If I was you I would look at that Wunderbar or some sort of medium aggressive slant.
Great minds and all that Rave. 
