I guess I don't know what a straight bar is then. When I open the head, there are a couple of posts that the blade slides over.
They are both adjustable so you can set them milder than the 34c or more aggressive than the 34c. Each one has nine different settings.
The straight bar (or safety bar) is the piece of metal that rides on your skin. Looking at the blade with the razor closed the bar is underneath the blade edge and the cap is above the blade edge.
My open comb Sheraton on the bottom (very mild, in my opinion) and my straight bar Aristocrat on the top. Both twist to open. You may hear the term "closed comb" instead of straight bar.
Man, that was an education. What was the thinking behind the open comb versus the straight bar? Which predates the other? I'm guessing the open comb has seniority?
For the most part, the open comb predates the bar guard type razors. Open combs will always be a better choice for longer stubble. The bar guard tends to have a better skin stretching effect. In practice, they shave exactly the same. When Gillette switched to stamped instead of machined baseplates, the bar guard was cheaper and faster to manufacture, and had the added benefit of being more resistant to damage when dropped. Edit: there are also hybrid type razors. These have what is called a "closed comb." The Eclipse Red Ring and R-41 are examples of this type of razor guard. Edit 2: here's an early bar guard design used on a 'transitional razor.' these were the first safety razor designs. This one happens to be a later model, but you get the idea. It's a safety straight razor. The blades were designed to be honed and stropped, but were replaceable when the blade eventually wore out. The earliest designs were just straight razors with a guard. Naturally, humans being what we are, we've improved on the design in the last hundred and fifty years. Here's the modern take on the above razor. It also takes blades that don't have built in guards.
