So I've been working with my heavy gold Tech lately and I'm having a hard time finding the sweet spot with the angle. Anyone with experience with Techs have some advice? Pictures maybe?
Unfortunately it's your face, not ours. The angles on everyone's face is different so we can't say the 48.5 or 37.2 is the optimum angle for the razor. Start with the head of the razor flat against the face, handle parallel to the floor. Slowly start your stroke and as you do, lower the far end of the handle toward the floor. You should begin to feel and hear the whiskers starting to be cut when you hit the right angle.
+1, but let me add that a Gillette Tech is a fairly mild razor About equal to Gillette Slim Adj. @1-2
Steve mentioned the best way I found, sound. Turn your fan and any music off. Listen to the "whiskers". It will guide you to the correct angle.
I shave exclusively with Techs. I find the steepest angle makes for the closest shave, if you can feel the smooth top of the head on your pass-your angle may be too steep. If the angle is too shallow, you will be scraping your face which leads to IRRITATION! YMMY. Try to maintain the angle on all of the contours. After a few shaves, it will become automatic.
I agree with this completely except I think you have shallow and steep reversed from the normal convention. A shallower angle means the handle is farther from your face and the blade angle is less (around 30 degrees). The tech likes a shallow angle. A steep angle (say 60 degree blade angle) with a Tech makes the safety bar ride on your face and pulls the blade away from your face so it's tough to use a Tech with a steep angle unless you use pressure which is not something you want to do. As long as you keep the pressure off, the narrow cutting window of the Tech is one of the things that makes it a very foolproof razor to use. Rather than scrape and cause irritation, it'll simply pull the blade away. So my guess is you probably need to get the handle a little closer to perpendicular to your face. Once you get the angle right, you'll get great irritation free shaves from a Tech. They're probably my favorite vintage razor. I think shaving with a steep angle is a legit technique too but really needs an aggressive razor (the opposite of a Tech) to work. Plus your technique needs to be really good to avoid using any pressure at all.
I can get BBS with my Heavy Techs every time I use them. What works best for me is a steeper angle. But on my ATG angle I use a more general angle. Also making sure that I am true on all 3 passes with, across and against the grain. Meaning changing my angles where needed. Hope this helps
Let me undo what I said about the aggressiveness of a Tech, Been a number of years since I've shaved with a few that I have. After getting out some of my old techs last week I found they are more equal to my EJ DE89 and about a 4 on an Adjustable. The angle of the Tech is bit different than a Weber PH or a Gillette Fatboy or Slim @7. I found myself needing to add a slight bit of pressure, probably because I'm used to the weight of a Weber and Adjustables. But with a 3 pass ATG I got a BBS .
It seems to me the Pre-War Heavy is a bit more Aggresive than the others. It even shaves better than the English Tech to me. To me, between the EJ89 and 34C. Closer to a 34C, just without the weight. On the same lines as the 42C.
I agree more or less with this. I've got a few Fat Techs with handles I weighted to be heavy and your assessment is pretty close, if not spot on.
To me the bottom line is like some have said above, you have to listen for your blade when it cuts the whiskers. If you are not hearing it then you need to adjust. I hold mine between a 30 - 45 degree angle with success.
