About thirty years ago, I remember hearing a segment on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered about the demise of the Soviet Union’s only motorcycle manufacturer. This program aired so long ago that I could not, today, be certain about the facts that NPR’s correspondent was giving, but I can say that the gist of the story was that the motorcycle was poorly made by a pack of commies who demonstrated no pride in their workmanship. The speaker also mentioned that quality issues were common in all sorts of manufacturing then, and he also pointed to the maladies of its automobile industry. This is hardly what I would expect to hear on the now PC, socialist propaganda medium. In those days many Russian cars were based upon one old Italian Fiat design or another. I can’t recall ever hearing of any Russian cars having been shipped to any other country for sale, but I DO remember visiting the Russian Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair where my little brother and I stood in fear of this awesomely large Commie soldier who was standing guard over the entrance. Ah, those were the days. I was curious about this razor based on the comments someone made in passing about its existence somewhere on this forum, so I sought it out on ebay, finally finding its listing after some consternation. Forum rules insist that I cannot provide you with a link to its listing even though the seller doesn’t have any more for sale right now, but if you copy the title of this thread all the way up to the colon, then paste it in an ebay search box, you will find pictures of it (sorry, I have no means of photographing my razor). This is said to be a knockoff of the Gillette Slim Adjustable, and, indeed, it has the look. Weighing in at just 58 grams (that’s just a little over 2 ounces for you American capitalists) it is lighter than my 71 gram Gillette. The Russian razor is, though, nearly 15 millimeters longer, which makes for a comfortable handling experience. This is almost where the positives end, though. Yes, it looks nice, and it gives the appearance of being made well enough, but my hopes for this razor got their first challenge as I tried to insert a brand new Voskhod blade into it: it didn’t seem to fit properly. Pulling the blade back out of the assembly, I examined both the razor and the blade for some anomaly; I couldn’t find any, so I tried again and again it would not drop into the razor properly. I then rotated and inverted the blade and finally there was some success. I like a mild shave, so, like the Slim Adjustable, I set the razor to its #2 setting to start. This yielded almost no hair cutting at all, so I changed the setting to #4 with still no appreciable reduction to my beard. I started to think that maybe it was that dull/blunt Voskhod blade that was at fault, so I opened up the razor then turned the blade over, closed it and tried again. Nope, still not much of a shave, so, against my better judgment, I decided I would risk raising to #5, and that did it… but not quite. Yes, I cut some beard, but I also scraped my right cheek to the point of a pretty fast flow of blood. Then it was on to the neck with lots more razor burn and some more bleeding. “This ***** ain’t gittin’ it,” I said to myself, then set about to returning the setting to #4. That stopped the scraping but it assured me that I had to confront the cutting issue again. It took a full six passes with this Russkie razor to get a decent shave, so for the short review, “Nyet” is all you need to know. Maybe I have been a little unfair with this “New Old Stock” no-name razor, though; I have already discovered that the Voskhod is a pretty dull blade. Since I didn’t try any other blade, maybe it would do a better job with a known over sharp blade. At least I have, as Razorburn123 called it, a piece of history.
A pastor told the story of mission trips to Moldova and ex-Soviet bloc countries. He says it either used to be, or still is in some places, that if you wanted a flashlight, you'd go to the store where there'd be a bin of flashlight bodies. Maybe, if you were lucky, there'd also be a bin of matching reflectors, a bin of battery caps, a box of lenses, bulbs, etc. And if you were REALLY lucky, working batteries would also be in stock. His point was, sometimes the parts of even the same item were manufactured far apart, on different schedules, with different demands, etc. So by Soviet standards, it sounds like your razor is a relatively quality item!
I think it's cool to have a piece of Soviet history, I'd definitely try using another blade, a worst case scenario is you have a very cool display piece.
I find it interesting that they can't even color in the lines for the numbers. I was tempted a while back to give this a try, but I decided to keep my dollars.
I considered that razor on the bay but decided against it even though I'm actively seeking a Soviet razor for my collection. I just had a feeling that given their engineering prowess (cough cough) from that era that it would be ummmm, interesting. Great review and it convinced me to stick with a 3 piece or maybe the plastic knock off of the Schick.
This is a Russian Model called "IDEAL" which was designed to be much less aggressive than its predecessor, the "KONSUL," which is far more aggressive than the FatBoy or the Slim. http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/the-rise-of-the-russian-bear.24462/ You can easily tell the two apart by the base plate. The gap measurements against the FatBoy and Slim are also available on the thread above.
