I bought a Fatip a little while ago and have been experimenting with it ever since. It is a nice enough razor but it’s a little persnickety as to shaving angle and the fit & finish is just adequate. I’ve been digging through my junk box and building franken-razors with the only part of the Fatip I’m impressed with, that being the deck. The deck’s finish is far better than both the cap and the handle. This morning, I dug out my old Merkur 33c travel rig I used about 10 years ago. I switched out the deck and set about “giving it a go” with this morning’s shave. The balance turned out very good with only the slightest head heavy weighting. My hand said “I know this weight.” I shaved my neck first; with absolutely no angle issues common for the Fatip and my hand said “I know this feel.” After the neck, I started on the left side of my face and got about 2 strokes done when my brain finely said “you’re using the Darwin aren’t you?” It wasn’t but I could and I did. I got out the Darwin and did a stroke by stroke comparison for the rest of the shave. A Fatip deck screwed into a Merkur 33c lid and handle is the closest thing to the shave performance of the Darwin Deluxe I have ever come across. So if you’ve wondered what a Darwin shaves like and you have the Fatip/Merkur parts, have at it.
I was thinking the same thing, but wasn't ballsy enough to say it. Deep waters, my friend, deep waters.
That Darwin...why would anyone want to shave with a table leg for a handle? Seriously though, that's a sweet looking Enders you got in your Franken-box. Too bad no modern blade can fit it.
I can't help but notice that your junk box contains almost as many razors as my whole razor collection.
After about 12 yrs of collecting, I've got a lot. Back in the day (before razor collecting got "cool") EBay wins were usually anybody who actually bid. On the road, I bid away and came home to small mountians of boxes (granted about half those boxes had old German cameras in them). As often as not, I would bid/win a razor just to get a better look at it.
After reading the OP, I just had to try something similar. I've been using my fatip quite a bit but felt it needed a little "something ". So I took my newly purchased freedom hill handle, and let it play with a merkur 1904 cap and a fatip piccolo comb/deck. Immediately I noticed less blade exposure than the fatip, and increased weight/balance. First shave was a serious success, ill stick to this for a while. On a sidenote, I used a muhle r41 for almost a month straight - then the fatip took over. The force is very strong in this new frankenrazor, I just purchased the gold fatip to replace my piccolo, that will likely never be re-assembled.
