(Love that word: fettled!) A few reasons, ignorance mainly and some cynicism. We had just passed by an overpriced antique store, the proprietor, a retired but well groomed lady (I use the word advisedly) of 75+, was sporting more makeup than Dame Edna, and had a rather keen gleam to her eye, she looked rather posh to my liking. My wife had just bought an overpriced watercolour, and on the way out pointed me to what was an old fashioned razor. A closed blue carboard box labelled Rolls Razor Viscount. I had no idea what is was, shrugged and left. I would not have known what it was or what is was worth. Out of curiosity, when we got home I found some threads on restoring these and was rather glad I had not even entertained this! I would have been rather like me buying a vintage car that needed serious restoration: I am still on L-plates and certainly no mechanic. I might go back at some stage and see if it is still there, just for fun of course, it's next to a nice Dutch Shop which was the reason we went to that area in the first place.
o1 Jan 2023. Two razors, one blade. Growth: 48 hours Brush: Puro Tasso Boar Razors: (1) Muhle Rocca, (2) then back to my Muhle R89 after the 1st pass. Blade: Elios "swedish" steel Face Prep: Warm wash soap, 3 x hot soaks. Pre shave: Proraso blue with hot soak. Shaving Cream: Proraso blue from a tube. After lathering I left this on for a few minutes while tidying up other stuff, it started to dry, I removed it, added more water for a wetter mix. Post Shave: Warm water rinse, cold water rinse, Alum, Thayers's, Proraso blue. Passes: 1st pass: WTG mainly 2nd pass: XTG mainly. Touch ups: Chin, top lip, below angle of jaw Lt and Rt. Results: First pass felt some pulling, removed Elios from the Rocca and placed it into my R89. Better, but still not great. Not the same clean feel as the Astra SP. Nicks: One left chin, stopped on its own after cold water rinse Red spots: These are getting less on the neck, taking care to only go WTG in that area, with each pass. This helps. Alum burn: None Success: Happy camper. Satisfying shave. Still good after 8 hours. Lessons learnt: 1. Elios blade drags a bit, or is it the Elios or is it the Rocca, or both? I will keep these in reserve for a another day. 2nd or 3rd time I have used these, disappointing. 2. The chin needs lots of small multi-directional strokes. 3. Using 2 hands helps steady the tremor. 4. Proraso blue in a tube is not as slick or protective as the TOBS or the T&H. Question 8: Could the different "feel" be part of the different finishes of the caps, satin vs polished chrome?
Polished chrome feels sticky to me on the face, like the skin is being suctioned to it. Oddly enough, I don't get that from the odd 1930's razor that has a chrome finish, rather than a nickel finish. Satin finishes don't stick like polished chrome does. There's lots of people out there where don't get that feeling from polished chrome, or if they do, it doesn't bother them. It bugs the heck outta me on most new production chrome plated razors. Some people find satin finishes more "draggy." Depends on the person. I will actively avoid polished chrome plated razors these days because of my aversion.
Some say so. But I think it's more a matter of technique. If ... the angle is right the grip is properly set back the force is on traction (not pressure) the lather is decent ... I've never found any appreciable difference on the skin. Just an aesthetic detail.
@PLANofMAN fascinating. And to think I thought a razor was a razor was a razor. OK just looked it up: the R89 is chrome plated. No idea about nickel plated, though. I suppose vintage chrome is different, or are you saying the vintage razors are actually nickel plated? I guess one way to see which feels better would be to run the razors back to back with some lather but without the blades.... (I think I am getting too deep into this!) @ischiapp : Thank you. I see... (1) I understand about the angle, that's easy to understand (2) the grip being properly set back.....more to ponder over. Both the R89 and the Rocca both seem to have the fulcrum/pivot point set back just behind the tapered part of the handle. Are you saying this is not the best place to grip the handle? My initial thought this morning was that holding the handle further down, (further away from the baseplate/cap) would add more weight to the cutting edge, so I opted to hold them at the fulcrum point. Good or bad, not sure at this stage, more to experiment with. (3) the force is on the traction (not pressure). I will chew on that, I suspect that by traction you mean the direction of the cutting edge, I guess the weight of the razor does that, right? (4) that is part of my current learning curve and I get that, too. Many thanks for the very helpful comments, really appreciate that.
Something else to consider... If you're using a product for the first time and you don't think it'll work for you, set it aside and come back to it after a few months. I did that with single edge razors. Started off thinking they were too aggressive for me; caused razor burn. Came back to 'em some time later, after my technique had improved, and found them to be smooth, efficient, no trouble at all.
Actually, not. I've learned after many years, only with straight razor. The right angle is when the flat side of the primary bevel glides on the skin. https://www.classicshaving.com/blogs/shaving101-com/191-how-to-hold-a-safety-razor After decades of research, Gillette designed a new kind of handle (V1 on Mach3, V2 on Fusion). It's not just ergonomics, but a real engineering work to transform the hand action from pressure to traction. Therefore minimize the wrong direction of application of the force (vector), not perpendicular to the skin but parallel. This, with a simple T-handle, is feasible only with the grip set back. So you only take advantage of the weight of the razor. Better if with a well balanced razor (handle / head, weight 1:1) and long enough (min 85-90mm) to properly control the angle. The less the head curves the blade, the longer the handle needs (even 100mm), as in the Focus Tritok Flat. Just start with a little water. And add a little bit more times, up to the desired density.
i love nickel plate, specifically british gillette plating from the mid 1940's-late 50's.i've had an ej 89-chrome,merkur 34chrome,rr stainless mamba,silver plate early gillette,passed them all along.
I think craftsmen did a better job of polishing razors back in the day, which is where plating really matters. And yes, most razors pre-1970ish were nickel plated. The exception is the German zinc razors, which were chrome plated pretty early on. How much a razor sticks or drags is mostly due to the razor's design and the person's technique. When he's talking about traction, he is talking about pressure and motion being concentrated in the direction of razor travel, as it glides across your skin. You don't want the pressure being directed downwards toward the skin. The various grips shown on that classic shaving blog post will work, but are not ideal. It's kind of like teaching a toddler to hold oversized crayons. Those grips will give you control over pressure, at the cost of finesse. I use what used to be called a "three point pinch" grip. I'll try to track down the thread that talks about the different grips. Edit: The one big upside to those grips shown at classic shaving is that they are good for keeping people from using too much pressure. Holding the razor nearer the head, gives you more control over the razor, but at the cost of less sensitivity to pressure. Hope that makes sense.
Thanks to all for taking the time to reply and great feedback Thanks, Steve, I will put the Rocca away for a while, don't like the Elios blade: back in the box. @ischiapp nice link that, another one to bookmark and add to my list of "things to read" (lots of tempting goodies on that site, good thing we are a long way off here down under) I forgot to test my razors-without-blades in the lather this morning, will try that another time. The traction question: Nice description of the action needed. Am I correct that basically this is riding the cap, which is where I am trying to be most of the time. Could it be that the more the blade reveal the trickier that it is? Do the Henson razors hinder or help the learning curve here I wonder? Yep, that is where I was at this morning, near the back of the handle, seems to make more sense.
2 Jan 2023: A New Year: it's time to make some Progress. Growth: 1 day Razor: Merkur Progress, set on +1. Holding this near the bottom of the handle. Blade: Wilkinson Sword (1). Nice feel to this. Face Prep: 3 x hot water, Pre shave: Blue Proraso Cream: TOBS Mr Taylors shaving cream even got it nice and sloppy. Post Shave: Warm and Cold rinse, Thayer’s Aftershave: Blue Proraso Passes: Bit tentative with the new Razor. 1st pass: WTG, mainly. All good. 2nd pass: WTG mainly, some XTG and, ATG lower lip. Touch ups: Round chin, that’s it. Called it quits. Results: Really surprised, nice shave. Nicks: None Red spots: None Lessons learnt: 1. While on L-Plates: Place, slide, stop, remove, repeat. None of this whooshing/scooping I see on YouTube. 2. I like the Wilkinson Sword, nice and sharp and does not feel like it will bite. 3. Thayer's (and WTG only) are both helping to clear the red spots on the neck: very nice. 4. Great place to learn = TSD. Plan: to explore the Merkur Progress more this month.
There's nothing overly special about a Henson razor. The Henson AL just happened to come out at the right time, and was a mild razor. They advertised the heck out of it on Facebook and YouTube, got a lot of new shavers to adopt it, and that's all she wrote. Good marketing and an affordable price point (compared to other razors) still sells a lot of razors in this day and age. If the razor is well designed, 'riding the cap' will give you the proper shaving angle, already pre-baked into the design, as it were. Edit: Down under, huh? Check out a brand called 'Triumph & Disaster.' They are a Kiwi brand that started up a few years ago. I've never tried them, but the reviews are pretty good.
3 Jan 2023 Used the Merkur Progress again this morning, before heading off to work. 2nd day of Wilkinson Sword. Same setup as yesterday. Missed a few different areas, but getting better. 3 passes, some ATG. Very satisfied so far. I had it set on 1+, nice audio feedback. Next time I will try 2 or 2+ and see how I go. My Progress seems to zero at 5 and can't be re-zeroed as per some videos, maybe a new design? I then removed the insides of the handle to try and "re-zero" by re-assembly slightly differently, but no go, not a big deal anyway, just my OCD. So the 1+ setting is "My Merkur Progress 1+ setting" not the same as any other Progress. No sweat, I will leave it like that. (I did see there is some play between the white plastic knob and the stem, so will go easy on the torque!) However I noticed some water inside the handle after only 2 uses so I plan to remove the top cap and leave the handle pointing down to dry every day. I might take to lightly oiling the thread occasionally. An OCD question for the today if I may... Question 9: Daily razor disassembly or only when blade changing? Will daily disassembly of the razors lead to premature wear of the threads/mechanism (atm I have Muhle R89, Muhle Rocca and Merkur Progress). These seem to be cast iron threads with what feels like some fairly rough tolerances. Is this a concern when looking to purchase more expensive razors? Opinions?
No, as long as you are not cross threading or over-tightening. If the parts don't go together easily and smoothly, back it off and start over. DO. NOT. FORCE.
Opinions. Yeah. My dislike of cast zinc razors is well known, so take this with a grain of salt. The Progress, like many other German made razors, is primarily cast zinc alloy. It's not the greatest thing to make a razor out of. It's hard and durable, but also brittle. It can last a lifetime. It can also break the very first time you drop it on a hard surface. The threads are the weak point. Daily disassembly won't hurt the razor, but will remove any plating on the threads, which can be a corrosion hot spot. Keeping your razor dry when you aren't shaving is the best way to stay on top of that sort of thing. More expensive razors are either vintage (usually brass, but not always) or modern, which usually means machined from aluminum, brass, or most commonly, stainless steel. Thread wear is not generally a problem with these razors, and when it is, it's because it was used daily for a lifetime.
Nope. Only overtightening ruins them. I clean the razor after every use. My older ones have been holding up well for about a century.
Thanks for the insight guys, that puts my paranoia to rest Buttress, hydrolast, ¾ pitch, forms, lotsa new words, a whole new world, too fast for me, did he even have a blade in that thing? Ok, well it’s no biggie, if it lasts for years and years, I will be more than happy, easy enough to replace. I guess you get what you pay for, right? Buying vintage razors online is an unknown factor, we can't tell how many miles or how many shaves an old razor has on the clock so to speak. I suppose that's a good reason for a having more than one razor in rotation, (says he trying to suppress an emerging RAD.... must be fun though to try out the different razors.) I am impressed with how the team on the Daily threads manage to swap razors and flip between DE and SE with impunity. For now, I will just keep things clean and dry with a light oil to threads every now and then. Brass and aluminium are softer and more likely to wear, SS can be tougher, hence the price point I guess. Loving the feedback. 4th Jan 2023 Another day with the Progress, same set up as y'day. Day 3 with the Wilkinson sword, still no tugging. 1st pass on 2, 2nd pass still on 2, that's enough for me for now, then I did the 3rd pass with it dialled back down to 1 with more adventurous buffing and more ATG in some areas. Still no damage. Much cleaner than yesterday, a few minor areas I would still like cleaner. I must say 12 hours later, my face is smoother than its ever been. Will stick with these settings for a while, and work on technique for now. I am loving this razor more already.
