NEW HEAVY WEIGHTS VS Vintage light weights

[Bustersskincare]

Hello to all forum guest. I am a Newbie to this sight but not to wet shaving. I have found a consistants differance in the old classic vintage safety razors vs the newer ones. The main differance is WEIGHT! I use both and rotate in between.

So my question is what seems to work better for you, the older vintage which weighs a average of 2 oz or the Newer Razors that weigh in at an average of 3.5 oz.

Thats almost double the weight. Yes there are always exceptions to the stats given above. I prefer the Heavier models my self.

[mark_mw]

Admit it or not, weight is an important factor to making DE razors work!!!!
Couple that with fearsome exposure range, and thus is the FUTUR:thumbup1:

Simply put, The most EFFECTIVE DE razor made

That's it.

[cooncatbob]

Admit it or not, weight is an important factor to making DE razors work!!!!
Couple that with fearsome exposure range, and thus is the FUTUR:thumbup1:

Simply put, The most EFFECTIVE DE razor made

That's it.

The Futur is one honking hunk of zinc.

[mark_mw]

The Futur is one honking hunk of zinc.

and weenie razors will never hurt you -

but the MIGHTY FUTUR WILL SHAVE YOU:ohmy::thumbup:

protected by a shield of satin or gleaming chrome, or gold:001_tt1:

[cooncatbob]

and weenie razors will never hurt you -

but the MIGHTY FUTUR WILL SHAVE YOU:ohmy::thumbup:

protected by a shield of satin or gleaming chrome, or gold:001_tt1:

But when that shield get breached it will crumble into dust.
Which is why they're millions of vintage Gillettes out there but relatively few really old Merkurs.

[mark_mw]

why aren't all the old sink faucets "crumbling to dust" when a section of the plating flakes off? Some wear in that area (darkened metal), but the faucet remains!

Remember, too, that tens of MILLIONS of Gillette razors have been made over the last 100+ years, and what we have today is just a small fraction! Many, many have wound up in the trash due to quality/wear problems....Merkurs just haven't been made in numbers like that, and a good part probably stayed in Germany and Europe (their base)....

[cooncatbob]

why aren't all the old sink faucets "crumbling to dust" when a section of the plating flakes off? Some wear in that area (darkened metal), but the faucet remains!

Remember, too, that tens of MILLIONS of Gillette razors have been made over the last 100+ years, and what we have today is just a small fraction! Many, many have wound up in the trash due to quality/wear problems....Merkurs just haven't been made in numbers like that, and a good part probably stayed in Germany and Europe (their base)....

The good faucets are made of plated brass, the ones made of plated zinc do corrode.
If Merkur wanted to make a true heavy weight they could have use brass or bronze and it would weigh about 50% more, oh but it would have cost more.
Google Zamak, Merkur uses it because it's cheap and easy to cast, melts at around 800 degrees compared with 1500 for brass or bronze.
You can melt the head off a Merkur using a kitchen burner, the plating will peel back and it melts just like solder.

[mark_mw]

The good faucets are made of plated brass, the ones made of plated zinc do corrode.
If Merkur wanted to make a true heavy weight they could have use brass or bronze and it would weigh about 50% more, oh but it would have cost more.
Google Zamak, Merkur uses it because it's cheap and easy to cast, melts at around 800 degrees compared with 1500 for brass or bronze.
You can melt the head off a Merkur using a kitchen burner, the plating will peel back and it melts just like solder.

Until the lather from my Williams or MWF hits 800 degrees, I'm not going to worry:lol:

[DerFly]

Hmm, pot metal has a much less flattering but so much more descriptive name. It starts with "sh".
:biggrin1:

[mharris127]

Hmm, pot metal has a much less flattering but so much more descriptive name. It starts with "sh".
:biggrin1:

I have to agree, when the item is supposed to hold weight or not give under pressure pot metal is not desirable. My father worked at a camshaft foundry and when the mix of metals was messed up a couple of times hundreds of engines in new cars of all brands seized up within a couple thousand miles. One batch being screwed up cost the company tens of millions of dollars when the car company demanded that the foundry reimburse them for the defective camshafts and the damages from them! Let's just say the people responsible were fired very quickly (my father was not one of the people directly responsible, he worked in the machining department in a supervisory position)!

[woodfluter]

Veering away from the subject of pot metal and other zinciferous alloys, and back toward the OP's question....

This is actually an interesting subject and I have wondered how people with longer (and broader) shaving experience would answer it, on average, versus those newer to classic shaving gear and techniques.

My shaving routine sums up to maybe 1/3 with the grain, gravity-assisted strokes, the remainder being at orientations where the weight of the razor could not be of any positive cutting benefit and added weight perhaps viewed as a hindrance. Also, my heaviest razor with Feather blade will hang up on a day's stubble when gripped at the distal end. So weight of razor alone is never enough to cut anything.

That said, there's something about balance and the added stability (inertia) provided by greater mass in general. But where's the optimum?

When I initially returned to DE shaving after many years in the cartridge wilderness, I sort of preferred longer handles and more weight. Now I can pretty much use anything in my little collection and get a good shave, but I've gravitated toward the conventional handle length and 1.8-2.5 oz. Much more mass than that feels pointless and clunky. Those on the lighter end of the range feel nimble, on the heavier end feel substantial.

Just my personal quirks. But then again, there were millions of shavers using the old gear over generations, so maybe some evolutionary pressure? Perhaps Germans preferred heavier razors for some reason...don't know what their vintage ones were like.

Any other thoughts or observations?

- Bill