Weck Surgical Prep Razor

When I first returned to wet shaving a couple of years ago, I dusted off my Weck Hair Shaper from college (about 40 years ago) and started using it as a straight razor. I soon found out that Weck made an open comb safety razor version which was a Surgical Prep razor and they also marketed it for women and called it the Milady. It took me a while, but I was able to get a Surgical Prep and Milady and this was one of the best razors I shaved with.

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Shortly after I got my "Holy Grail" razor, I found out that there was a later version of it that was purely a Surgical Prep razor. It took me a while longer, but I finally got one off of ebay. It came in the mail today and I shaved with it tonight because it was Weck Wednesday in my rotation.

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No surprises as the head was almost identical and the only thing different was the grip. I decided to use one of the vintage Weckprep blades that came with the razor and it was efficient but not as smooth as the Personna hair shaper blades. Still gave a fantastic shave. Better than a Gem and Feather AC. Yeah, I know I just pissed off 99% of the LOSERS in this thread, but you got to try it before you break out the pitch forks.

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

Very cool. Nice score.

Great seeing this !...first time for me.

Very interesting. It's the first time that I've ever seen either of those razors.

xxvaleria said:

Very interesting. It's the first time that I've ever seen either of those razors.

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Wow, coming from you that says a lot as I have always seen you as someone that owned or tried every type of SE razors ever made.

To my knowledge these were the two models that held the full size Weck/Personna blades. There was at least one that was designed like the first picture and it held a Weck Junior blade which had a length the same as a Gem, but the spine and width was the same as a Weck. I came across one of those on ebay recently and immediately researched the blade size thinking I might be able to fit a Gem in it, but no luck.

Feather-man said:

Any theories as to how this would be possible? And why this forum hasn't yet changed its name to Badger & Weck?

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The Weck originally started out as a replaceable straight razor blade muck like the Feather AC. They were built to be very right. Feather did this by making the blade thicker got stiffness that way and sharpened it to straight razor sharpness. The Weck got it's rigidity mostly from the spine, although the older Weck blades were carbon steel very similar to the older Gem blades and got added rigidity that way. The Gem blades started out as safety razor blades and they were very rigid, but because of the width of the blade, the head also had to be wide. All three systems gave great shaves because of the sharp and rigid blades. The Weck Surgical Prep razor had an open comb and a narrower and thinner head than the Gem and newer Feather AC type safety razors giving it some advantages over both. the major disadvantage is the length of the head which is more like shaving with a straight razor, but length is easier to compensate with than width when shaving.

A Weck has been on my radar, but you're the most enthusiastic Weck user I've encountered. Now I'm intrigued.

Feather-man said:

A Weck has been on my radar, but you're the most enthusiastic Weck user I've encountered. Now I'm intrigued.

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Look over at the Straight Razor forum and search Weck or Sextoblade. Tons of folks over there more fanatical about the Weck than I am (if you can believe that). Don't find much mention over here because there were only two models using the Weck/Personna blades and they are VERY hard to come by. All the rest of the Wecks were straight razor types and some shavettes used the Weck blades like the Dovo with the green insert or the Hess 1010.

I have a small collection of Weck razors. I have the Sextoblade (army issue) one large like the one you have, and two small. Wish I could find blades for the small ones, tried to make one with disastrous results. I might still have a scar on my cheek .
I "think" they also made a DE razor, don't quote me I have not been collecting razors ever since my RAD died down a year ago.

Okay, so there WERE two versions of the Weck Juniors, one for each version of the big Surgical Preps. Yes, the Weck Juniors are impossible to find and you just cannot convert a Gem because the spine and blade is too wide. Only thing I could think of is cutting the Weck blade, but I'm thinking that's what you did and did not get good results. I couldn't even find a listing for it under the Ted Pella site.

Never heard of them making a DE razor, but recently came across a Weck straight razor with a real blade and not a disposable one. Would have bid on that, but this one came up and so had to let it go.

Yea, I cut the larger blade. I think I could make it work, but it would be too time consuming and maybe impossible to do.
Here is a completed auction for a Weck DE razor. Made by Mercur?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-W...Safety-Razor-New-Blades-Germany-/271542924175

Inari7 said:

Yea, I cut the larger blade. I think I could make it work, but it would be too time consuming and maybe impossible to do.
Here is a completed auction for a Weck DE razor. Made by Mercur?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-W...Safety-Razor-New-Blades-Germany-/271542924175

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After responding to your post, I searched for a Weck DE and came up with the same thing that you did. It was a rebranded Merkur and not something of their own design or manufacture. Just as well because the made great razors using their blade format.

gvw755 said:

After responding to your post, I searched for a Weck DE and came up with the same thing that you did. It was a rebranded Merkur and not something of their own design or manufacture. Just as well because the made great razors using their blade format.

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I think the Weck surgical prep razors are a pretty cool niche of razors to collect. They are pretty rare, and interesting aside to the Safety Razor. I never knew they were marketed to women, that's pretty interesting as I collected the small women's DE razors. I love collecting the weird razor stuff stuff. Here are my little ladies in their display case.

Great thread! The Weck Open Comb razors certainly give an amazing shave, in fact one of the best safety razor shaves of all and on a par with the Cobra Classic.
It's great to see the Weck systems getting the appreciation they deserve!

mjclark said:

Great thread! The Weck Open Comb razors certainly give an amazing shave, in fact one of the best safety razor shaves of all and on a par with the Cobra Classic.
It's great to see the Weck systems getting the appreciation they deserve!

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mjclark,

Good to hear from you. Haven't come across you in a while and was wondering when you were going to pop over and make a comment about my latest acquisition. I now have both versions of the Weck Surgical Prep safety razor. Inari7 was kind enough to show his collection which included the Weck Jr version, which I have come across, but never got because there are no blades for them.

I wonder if the smaller ones will take the napier blades?

Love my Weck Surgical razor.

bakerbarber said:

I wonder if the smaller ones will take the napier blades?

Love my Weck Surgical razor.

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Are Napier blades still being made?
If so what are the dimensions?
I measured my Weck jr.'s lets see if they will fit.

I don't know the dimensions but they are available in beauty supply shops and online.

How far back does the Personna / Weck connection go?