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Mid-life... I mean, shaving crisis? :S

welcome! my second razor was a Merkur Futur, a little heavier than the Gillette Slim i was used to. i started at setting #1 to get used to it, worked up to #4 and went back to #3, which seems best for my face and beard. take your time and enjoy!

there's always a plan B.
 
Unbelievably this is another one of those occasions where I've ignored my instincts at my own peril. My feeling that the blade wasn't secure was on the money, but more disturbingly, the razor has a couple of design faults which lead to the poor shave. Ironically, if I'd chosen even the most basic three piece razor for my first, instead of an expensive adjustable item, this problem would have been avoided.

Firstly, the concern was that the clip-on cap wasn't securing the blade and therefore not lowering the edge far enough into the body. Just now I pre-bent a new blade to fit the contour of the blade seat and cap, and viola, blade sits lower in the body with less wriggle.

Secondly, the adjustment mechanism provides for the seat to raise and lower in a slot which is operated by a screw. Unfortunately the seat doesn't fit well into the slot and has quite a bit of play, which allows the seat to move out of parallel with the body. As you can imagine, having one end of the blade more aggressive than the other makes for an unpredictable shave. To fix this I filed off the notch stop which prevents over-tightening of the mechanism and fixed the blade seat hard into the body, lowering the edge position further still into the body.

End result is that the blade is absolutely parallel with the cap and body and wriggles around less. Of course, a test shave reveals that it is now far less aggressive than previously and has allowed me to have my first proper shave with it. Three passes; with, across and against. Not exactly BBS, but no nicks and far less irritation to boot.

Conclusion: The Wahl adjustable razor may be a cheaper knock-off of the Mekur Futur, or they may be the same unit, but whatever the case the design is flawed to the determent of the user. I think I'll go look for a less aggressive three-piece instead.
 
Just ordered a Feather AS-D2. Being a benign three piece I expect that shimming will allow the adjustment I want.

Has anyone else wondered why milled SS razors aren't more affordable? If I look at the vast array of beautifully machined and fabulously complex eLiquid vapourisers on the market, it's hard to grasp why a razor like the Feather isn't available for $30... There are more shaver's in the world than reformed smokers!? *Shrugs*
 
I found another fault with the Wahl Ajustable and I had the opportunity today to have a closer look at a proper Merkur Futur; the only difference I can see is the releif in the underside of the base, the Futur looks like a 'v2' casting where the Wahl is the original... or something like it. Just enough change to not be identical? Otherwise they are identical from the top cap to the blade seat, spring and handle.

The Futur has the same play in the adjustment mechanism and the same awful tolerances all around. As it happens, while I was looking at both of these, I also noticed that several brands of blade don't seat properly in the top cap. No matter how you attempted to align it, one of the clip studs prevented clean seating on both razors. Because the top cap doesn't seat against the blade, the blade doesn't seat against the base either. Any wonder I had so much trouble.

Having adjusted a blade to fit properly I think tomorrow will be the first *real* shave with which I can assess it properly.

Avoid unless you're prepared to re-engineer it to work correctly. :(

EDIT: I just found this too. He's clearly having the same issue with the blade not seating in the cap, causing it to flex under pressure. Not an isolated fault!
 
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Welcome to the B&B forums, from a fellow IT engineer who also likes uses hand planes. It probably won't take long for you to start seeing significant progress in your shaving. The biggest "ah ha" moments for me was when I understood what a slick protective lather was and what no, or as little as possible, pressure means.
- Chris

Start with a good lather roughly the consistency of yoghurt. Then take your time, letting the razor head's weight rest against your skin. Don't press down. Be patient, you need to unlearn the habits of cartridge shaving in order to learn good habits of DE shaving. Patience is the key. You'll get there! :)
 
@TheKman while I cannot speak to this weird Wahl knock off you're using, I have used the Futur extensively and had none of the issues you reference.

Apart from that, reading through your posts, I don't see anything about your pre shave prep or your beard mapping. Can you go into what your beard prep is and if you are doing any beard mapping.

Additionally, I would encourage you to question everything you do...even if you think that you have it completely right. I can guarantee that a year from now, your lather, shave angle, prep, beard map, pressure, etc. will all be very different from what you think is correct right now.
 
I'm not certain it's a knock off, it may be an old iteration or something. Perhaps the Futur I compared with was also an older model, not sure, but it had the same fault with four different blades out of six we tried including Derby, Astra and Feather. Pre-production castings?

As for prep, here goes:
After a hot shower I use a small towel in 55 degree water to soak my bears for two minutes while I prepare lather. Following the soak I wash with QV wash and rinse, leaving face wet.
Lather is made using GFT coconut cream and water in a warmed souffle dish. First couple of lathers were too thick and made the razor hard to clean, so I've been adding a little more water until that stopped.
I don't use a pre shave oil or soap, just straight on with the lather, working it in from ears to chin on both sides.
Beard grain is quite straight, mostly down from the cheeks and hairline, then sweeping back from the chin and jaw line. Couple of wierd spots at the Adam's apple which need polishing.
First pass is very light WTG. Seconds pass, re-lather, also light from ear to nose and from jaw to chest. Third, re-lather, extremely light ATG. Today for the first time I was able to polish around the chin, jaw line and Adam's apple. No nicks.
Rinse and apply astringent, followed by moisturiser. Clean up.

Now that the razor is working reasonably well it's clear I can get a better result than a cartridge with practice.
 
Small change I would make is not heating the water for the towel that you use to soak with (I'm assuming that it is 55 Celsius you are using?). I've never found the super hot towel to benefit the shave in any way and it increased the likelihood of irritation.

With regards to lather, if you are rubbing your final lather between two fingers with a bit of pressure, is it continuously slick? Or does it dry away quickly or only slick for a second or two? I always hesitate to describe lather to people simply because it changes from soap to soap (or cream) and depending upon the methods used to build it. What doesn't change is the point where it is properly hydrated and slick (if it is a good soap/cream).
 
I'll try without the hot towel and see, thanks.

Regarding lather, I think it performs a little differently in the hand than on the face. While it does seem slick between fingers I have noticed it drying on my face after 2 minutes following a pass. Normal? Simply wiping a wet hand over is enough to slick it again though, and this is how I polish. I'm taking a good 15 minutes to shave at the moment.
 
I'm not certain it's a knock off, it may be an old iteration or something. Perhaps the Futur I compared with was also an older model, not sure, but it had the same fault with four different blades out of six we tried including Derby, Astra and Feather. Pre-production castings?

As for prep, here goes:
After a hot shower I use a small towel in 55 degree water to soak my bears for two minutes while I prepare lather. Following the soak I wash with QV wash and rinse, leaving face wet.
Lather is made using GFT coconut cream and water in a warmed souffle dish. First couple of lathers were too thick and made the razor hard to clean, so I've been adding a little more water until that stopped.
I don't use a pre shave oil or soap, just straight on with the lather, working it in from ears to chin on both sides.
Beard grain is quite straight, mostly down from the cheeks and hairline, then sweeping back from the chin and jaw line. Couple of wierd spots at the Adam's apple which need polishing.
First pass is very light WTG. Seconds pass, re-lather, also light from ear to nose and from jaw to chest. Third, re-lather, extremely light ATG. Today for the first time I was able to polish around the chin, jaw line and Adam's apple. No nicks.
Rinse and apply astringent, followed by moisturiser. Clean up.

Now that the razor is working reasonably well it's clear I can get a better result than a cartridge with practice.
Glad is working out for you now.
 
Actually I gave up on it. This afternoon I tried to re-engineered the top cap and adjustment plate to get it perfect, but to no avail. It's now been archived to the 'lessons learners' vault and replaced with a Feather.
 
I'll try without the hot towel and see, thanks.

Regarding lather, I think it performs a little differently in the hand than on the face. While it does seem slick between fingers I have noticed it drying on my face after 2 minutes following a pass. Normal? Simply wiping a wet hand over is enough to slick it again though, and this is how I polish. I'm taking a good 15 minutes to shave at the moment.

It's kind of tough to tell without a picture, but if it is drying out, I'm going to guess it is overhydrated and not enough cream is being used. It could be not enough water, but I've found with creams that if it is slick, but dries on the face, then there isn't enough product being used.
 
Unsure. I was erring on the side of less water, but I'm finding a little more is drying out less. On the other hand, as I build confidence I'm also getting faster which is obfuscating the result.

The main problem I had when I started this thread was a bung razor, all else was insignificant in comparison. Even after tweaking this razor I only just got the gap down to 1mm which is still far too aggressive for me, or any beginner I suspect.

EDIT: Looking at this thread now I think one of my posts is missing; I discovered that the Futur I was comparing to was also a clone, and after comparing to a genuine Futur I found several differences, notably a complete absence of the faults I had experienced. Evidently the Wahl Traditional Barbers Adjustable Razor *is* a poor knock-off of the original. I've been using a Feather AS-D2 for the last several days with much better results.
 
Unsure. I was erring on the side of less water, but I'm finding a little more is drying out less. On the other hand, as I build confidence I'm also getting faster which is obfuscating the result.

The main problem I had when I started this thread was a bung razor, all else was insignificant in comparison. Even after tweaking this razor I only just got the gap down to 1mm which is still far too aggressive for me, or any beginner I suspect.

EDIT: Looking at this thread now I think one of my posts is missing; I discovered that the Futur I was comparing to was also a clone, and after comparing to a genuine Futur I found several differences, notably a complete absence of the faults I had experienced. Evidently the Wahl Traditional Barbers Adjustable Razor *is* a poor knock-off of the original. I've been using a Feather AS-D2 for the last several days with much better results.

Sounds like more water is the key. Also, glad to hear the future issue was cleared up as well. I was at a loss trying to figure how you could be having the issues you were.

Are you finding the AS-D2 to be too mild?
 
Maybe, but more experiments are required. With the feather blade I had to make four passes to get a clean shave. One shim (.013mm, ~5 thou) and a Wilkinson Sword Classic is faster with less irritation, I suspect because I needed fewer passes. I have a suite of about 12 different blades to try, so it will be some time before I have any conclusions about the Feather, beyond the fact that it's awesome out of the box, obviously. :)
 
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