No guard DE?

[Rick2035]

The way I got myself to stop catching my jawline with a straight was to shave away from the mirror, just returning to check work ... without the eyes, the connection between fingers (so, angle), blade and skin becomes so much more ... well, connected.

I do exactly as you describe with my DE under the nose. I noticed when I looked in the mirror and relied on sight only to judge where the blade was, I tended to nick; however, now that I look away and shave by "feel" only, the nicks have become a thing of the past.

 

[mjclark]

USPS came through on Christmas Eve. The SS Mirror DEvette is here. I'm not planning to shave today, but tomorrow I will go for a nice, relaxing Christmas shave.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321595971397?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

The razor stand, which is very useful for a razor without a guard bar, is incredibly heavy. The leather pouch appears to be made out of real leather. There are no markings on the razor at all other than the "BB" symbol. IOW, nowhere does it say where the razor and stand are made.

If I had to guess, I would say that the razor head is cut from very thick steel (maybe 2 sheets of steel forged together?), bent, polished, and plated with something (nickel?). However, my guesses about manufacturing are not worth very much. The holes in the "baseplate" are much bigger than the studs in the top cap, so there is a fair amount of play as you screw the two together.
The handle must be hollow because it is positively massive, but it only weighs 72 grams (which is still quite heavy). The whole razor weighs about 93 grams. For the sake of comparison, the Weber solid SS handle in the 3rd pic weighs about 68 grams.
Here are three pics. I used an old Gillette Blue blade to provide better contrast. The head does not fit straight on the handle, as you can see in the 2nd pic, because the cap curvature is not perfect. I might ask the seller for a replacement. The final pic shows razor next to my Weber bulldog handle.

View attachment 533501View attachment 533502View attachment 533503

Excited to hear how this goes! What's the blade extension like beyond the cap?
And what a handle!
And the holder is well thought out.

From my three experiments, the smaller the extension the smoother and more comfortable the shave but they all gave a great end result.

I've just ordered a Rimei from dealextreme, cos that should make the perfect devette - cheap, easy to snap the guard off and moderate blade extension.

 

[Cash_Stronomer]

Awesome, it's in! Looks neat!

 

[DrAwkward]

Excited to hear how this goes! What's the blade extension like beyond the cap?
And what a handle!

The blade extension is very large. This picture does not really do it justice, but you can see it clearly in my first picture in this post:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/437496-No-guard-DE?p=6977950#post6977950
I measured the top cap and compared it to the top cap from an R41-2011. The Mirror DEvette is a tiny bit narrower!
So, it is basically an R41-11 with no guard at all!

As for the handle, I've seen smaller billy clubs. Fortunately, the threads are standard, so I can use any handle I want.

 

[Guru17]

Nice Doc. Now I am waiting for the shave report.

 

[Yaser]

seems I'm a bit late to the party, my grandfather's DE had its guard ripped off, and based on what he has said, I have reason to believe he only uses it for his... nether region... which gives me a tingle "down there" and chills down my spine just thinking about. His razor of choice is a generic metal razor that's most likely older than me with quite a bit of blade exposure. maybe I should try a DE no-safety razor myself

 

[mjclark]

The blade extension is very large...
I measured the top cap and compared it to the top cap from an R41-2011. The Mirror DEvette is a tiny bit narrower!
So, it is basically an R41-11 with no guard at all!

Well the 2013 R41 worked excellently this way but I'm sure the smaller blade extension helped.
What blade will you use?
Can't wait to hear your result

 

[VedderLG]

That handle is crazy! Is that a razor or a scythe?!? [emoji15]

 

[engblom]

I wonder what happened to DrAwkward. He was going to shave this razor today and no report yet...

 

[DaltonGang]

I guess we will hear from him when they release him from the emergency room.

 

[DrAwkward]

I got a bit distracted by, well, Christmas.
Frankly, I bought this razor as a joke. That and the razor stand looks cool. Figured it would make a fun blood-bath / passaround.
However, this razor is not a joke at all. Everything MJ said is absolutely dead-on.
The shave was very slow and fairly challenging, but the results were amazing. Again, everything MJ said is absolutely dead-on.
Under no circumstances am I sending this thing on a passaround. At least not for a while.
I'm so excited about it that I'm trying to make more DEvettes. I already broke the guards off a cheap Weishi. Next, I plan to saw the guards off a Tech.
Anyway, not to be a broken record, but anyone can do what MJ suggested and make one of these monstrosities. If you do, pay attention to the angle and take it very slowly. I think you will be impressed with the results from the DE-vette!
Gotta go, time for Christmas dinner!

 

[mjclark]

The shave was very slow and fairly challenging, but the results were amazing...
I'm so excited about it that I'm trying to make more DEvettes. I already broke the guards off a cheap Weishi. Next, I plan to saw the guards off a Tech... pay attention to the angle and take it very slowly. I think you will be impressed with the results from the DE-vette!

Fantastic! So good to hear that this has worked as well for you as it has for me.

I got great results with a very steep near 90deg angle as well as very shallow angle.

It really feels like we've got some kind of new shaving breakthrough here.

 

[Cash_Stronomer]

Ooooooooooh, I've a Weishi that would normally see no use! Hmmmmmmm...

 

[mjclark]

I'm inspired to try that cheap Indian 7OC razor now too!

 

[wquiles]

Really nice thread. Those of you that have tried the no guard shave now know how it feels like when I shave with my home-made guardless razor:

To me it feels very close to a straight shaver blade, but with the better ergonomics of a DE razor.

 

[mjclark]

To me it feels very close to a straight shaver blade, but with the better ergonomics of a DE razor.

Brilliant! Is that the razor where you have secured the injector blade with magnets?

And guardless shaving certainly gives amazing results.
The Rolls has been mentioned already in this thread, and my shave with one this morning reminded me how excellent they are.
Again it has the manouverability of a safety razor combined with the great comfort of a str8.

I'm wondering about a guardless SE with a GEM blade but don't currently have enough spare parts to get on the case with that one.

But the great thing about the devette is that it's so easy to make one from a cheap mild razor- and think of all those blade choices!

 

[DrAwkward]

Second day in a row using a DEvette. The face feel is completely unlike a regular DE. The closest thing in my experience is a straight razor. I assume a real shavette feels similar, but I have never used one.
Today I used a post-war NDC Tech that was lying around in a box of spare parts. I cut the guards off and then used a grinder to smooth it out. The result is that the cap and the baseplate are nearly identical in width. I assumed that this would provide the maximum level of stability for a guardless-DE. Not entirely this assumption was proved valid.

The Mirror DEvette performed marginally better than the Tech, although both of them were quite similar. The completely square corners on the Tech's top cap would occasionally dig in a bit. I may have to round those off with the grinder.

Even the tiniest amount of pressure is a big no-no with a DEvette. Angle seems to be less of an issue, although I'm not sure why. No one would ever use the steep angle technique with a straight, would they? I tried a steep angle for a few swipes, but mostly stuck with a shallow angle. MJ said a steep angle would work, and it did, but it was pretty terrifying. That said, with two DEvette shaves under my belt, so far I have inflicted on myself no cuts, no nicks, and no weepers.

Today, I used the razor stand. It is very hard to remember every time you put the razor down to set it on the short side. Of course, failing to do so will presumably damage the blade edge. Old habits die hard.

Dive in, guys, you will not regret it. Join the DEvette revolution!

 

[nuclearblast]

Dive in, guys, you will not regret it. Join the DEvette revolution!

I trust you Doc, so I'll give it a try. I've got a bakelite razor that will be perfect, one of the guards is already half broken (I dropped it ) so I'll just snap off the rest of the guard and try this thing.

But, how is this different from a shavette? Better ergonomics as mentioned above?

 

[mjclark]

But, how is this different from a shavette? Better ergonomics as mentioned above?

Exactly - it's much more manouverable around the jawline, for ATG etc.

And I'm not sure why or how steep angle works with this either.
It doesn't work with str8s (!) so maybe it's to do with how the cap curves the blade.

In any case, it's a winner but, as has been mentioned, it does require absolutely no pressure - shavette and R41 users should have no problem

 

[nuclearblast]

Exactly - it's much more manouverable around the jawline, for ATG etc.

And I'm not sure why or how steep angle works with this either.
It doesn't work with str8s (!) so maybe it's to do with how the cap curves the blade.

In any case, it's a winner but, as has been mentioned, it does require absolutely no pressure - shavette and R41 users should have no problem

Tomorrow I'll try it then. I've been reading this thread, and y'all still alive so I guess it can't be that bad.

Honestly, I don't think it can outperform a shavette (except for the maneuverability part) or even the 2013 R41 with the Spitfire cap (you can't improve on perfection, can you? ), but I have to try it anyway.