Took the Futur apart to clean it. I wipe down and dry any razor post shaving for the Futur it gets a buff with the towel so it sits nice and shiny on the stand with a brush. Blades get a rinse and blotted dry. Maaaan, the amount of crap that hides away in this thing. Anyway it is done now, threads greased with Bisley gun grease which was nearest to hand in the office and internals all nice and shiny again. From now on it'll have a strip down after each week of use. If this razor has a weak point I'd say it'll be the spring which is mild steel and is in the part where water collects. That has also a light coat on now which will help resist the water. Have to say the simplicity of a 3 piece has even more appeal now but at least I know what needs to be done and when. Anyone else who has one and has never opened it up I recommend that you do and give it a good seeing to.
Brother Ken, Do what you feel you must do, of course, but as a Merkur Futur user who has hard water, I would suggest a weekly disassembly and cleaning the interior is overkill. Even if the razor is used daily, once a month maintenance is more than enough. Personally I would clean the interior say quarterly (once a season?). I do clean the opened head and easily accessible exterior weekly when I change blades, with soapy water and a soft old toothbrush. Takes way less than one minute. The instructions that come with the Future say little to nothing about serious maintenance, compared to the Vision 2000 which is a high and frequent maintenance tool
You may be right. I'll have a look after 2 weeks and see how things are, I also live in hard water land (Surrey). I'm a bit of a saddo when it comes to cleaning things so might need to wind my neck in a little. I am glad I gave the spring a little care though.
@KenH I'm right there with you! I may take the cleaning of my razors a bit too far at times, but I garner a great deal of pleasure from the cleaning process and I ensure I have a perfectly working piece. Interesting to hear that there's a mild steel spring in the internals. Of all places, I'd assume the inner-workings would want to be kept free of rust. Cost cutting on Merkur's end?
Now you've got me wondering about the internals of my Futur clone, a Ming Shi 2000S. I'm assuming the lower priced copy uses lesser grade materials to reach it's price point. I recall @Vlasta posted photos of the disassembly process, but I've not found it to provide a link. Does it take more than a tight grip and twist?
There are a couple YouTube videos. I actually swapped the QShave bottom plate into my vintage Futur to replace the pitted plate there. Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk