open comb vs safety bar

Discussion in 'Safety Razors' started by Hercule, Aug 16, 2021.

  1. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    Can't speak for anybody else but I've been too lazy to dig out the clippers and so removed entire full beards with just an open comb razor and whatever soap or cream was on hand, including Sheffield's brushless, and never had it fatally clog up like any safety bar would on the 1st pass.
     
    brit, Tedolph and IAmTheJody like this.
  2. jmudrick

    jmudrick Type A Man

    Apparently the old brushless creams were more prone to clogging than current soap formulations. I don't see the problem currently either. The patents and marketing speak for themselves though as to the issue in the 30s. I mean you probably don't name a redesign of a succesful razor the Clog-pruf unless clogging is a problem.

    Clearly was an issue for Gillette as well.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2021
    Enrico, PLANofMAN, brit and 1 other person like this.
  3. brit

    brit in a box

    very cool.love the trangular slot techs..:)
     
    Enrico likes this.
  4. jay_gatz

    jay_gatz Well-Known Member

    Me too!
     
    brit likes this.
  5. huck1680

    huck1680 Great Northern CanUkrainian

    I always preferred the OC. However, having said that there are a number of SBs out there that are fantastic shaves. The Henson AL medium comes to mind
     
  6. Engblom

    Engblom Well-Known Member

    I am a bit late to chime in. For a long time I was an open comb fan. My very first open comb was Merkur 15C and I simply was blown away by how completely clog proof it is. You could shave a month long beard and have absolutely no clogging at all, but still it would be a very mild shave. Sadly this is not true for all open combs. Merkur 15C got extra narrow teeth in the comb making it difficult to clog the area between a tooth and the blade, while many other open combs got wide enough teeth to clog.

    Aggressiveness is all about geometry (mostly blade exposure but also blade gap to some degree). Thus a solid bar razor and an open comb razor with the same geometry would be the same mild/aggressive. Thus the only advantage open combs got is how they do not clog (if the teeth are narrow enough). I have come to like almost no blade exposure at all but a huge gap. It gives a mild and smooth razor.

    So, why am I not using open combs anymore? The reason is that I fell in love with slants and so far I have not seen any open comb slant with really narrow teeth, a huge gap while having almost no blade exposure and having the blade really well clamped. This combination does not exist as far as I know.
     
    IAmTheJody likes this.

Share This Page