Get a Schone from A.....n; if defective you can return. I have 3 and got my bro 2 and all are fine!!!It’s a legitimate issue with QC that may or may not affect you.
I have three Fatip razors. One of the caps (from my Gentile) is a nightmare to align... it has an unreasonable amount of wiggle-room against both the blade and the Gentile bottom plate, and the pins are actually not straight in alignment.
As I tighten it, the blade, the cap and the bottom plate almost always shift against each other, meaning the blade is not straight against the safety bar. I actually need to fight against the razor to get it anywhere near aligned. Move the blade against the safety bar and the cap moves. Move the cap and the blade shifts.
So I don’t use that top-cap. It’s been thrown in the bottom of the drawer. The other two (from my Piccolo and Grande) work fine with either style of base plate, aligning like any other three-piece.
However, the Piccolo top-cap had serious blemishes out of the box. Its nickel plating is patchy.
And the Gentile’s handle had sharp bits jutting out of the plating that would need to be abraded off. Since I had the same style handle from the Grande, I just use that and threw the Gentile’s handle in the drawer with the top-cap.
Between the three razors, I have one top-cap that is both unblemished and straight, and one handle of each type that is usable.
Unless I was just unlucky enough to get two imperfect units out of three bought, the QC concerns seem legitimate.
If anything, the echo chamber here tends to skew towards never accepting legitimate criticism of Fatip’s QC.
I’d still recommend the Grande or Piccolo as a great bargain. But I’d also happily pay an extra $10 per razor to have someone actually take a glance at them before they ship out. At their price, returns aren’t worth the hassle, so a bad unit just becomes parts.
*Fatip Slant*
- Thread starter Levue
- Start date
Get a Schone from A.....n; if defective you can return. I have 3 and got my bro 2 and all are fine!!!
All of the FaTip, Schöne and Joris razors are both beautiful and elegant. The Joris razors, however, really draw your eyes to them.
Hard not to drool.
I think I'm being quoted out of context here. If you have a FaTip with crooked posts, or a warped cap, that is clearly a defect.
The specific complaint was having to load the blade using a special technique, so that it self-aligns. This is common to most vintage style 3-piece razors. It is not a defect. Which is why I said:
I've had two Fatip's over the years and both were rubbish. One was very difficult to align the blade and one was impossible. I gave one away and threw one in the bin. I have years of experience manually aligning blades in DE razors but my Fatip's were just crap. These guys will just keep churning them out as long as people keep buying them and saying bad workmanship is a non issue.
- Thread starter
- #65
I have three and never experienced any alignment issue.
You don't need to align the blade manually
, just put the top cap on a flat surface, put the blade in, put the baseplate on top and start screwing the handle and it's done 
You don't need to align the blade manually
, just put the top cap on a flat surface, put the blade in, put the baseplate on top and start screwing the handle and it's done
I have three and never experienced any alignment issue.
You don't need to align the blade manually
+1, this is how I load all my 3-piece razors (except those that have the alignment pins on the base).
I currently have 11 FaTip manufactured (8 FaTip, 2 Joris, 1 Schöne). Loading the blade as described by @Atlantic59 @Levue and others works on all 11 of my FaTips.
YMMV
Plenty people have bought bad ones. The issue has been discussed for years and obviously ignored by the manufacturer.
My point is that given how common defects are with Fatip’s razors, users who have issues loading blades (despite not having issues with other razors) should be given the benefit of the doubt that maybe they just have a bad unit, rather than being instantly dismissed as being somehow incompetent, unable to work out how to load a three-piece razor, or part of some internet “echo chamber” conspiracy.
When I first got my dodgy Fatip Gentile, I posted on these forums about the difficulty of loading the blade. I was instantly told I was doing it wrong, and after insisting something was amiss, was met with a few snide remarks questioning my competence.
It wasn’t until I ordered the Piccolo and noticed the top-cap had significantly better (although not perfect) alignment pins that I realised that the Gentile top-cap was defective.
When I ordered a Grande, to complete the set, it was different again, with significantly better plating and even less wiggle-room on the posts. It was as good as any other three-piece.
Fatip’s products could generously be called “artisan”, so rather than dismissing user reports of issues, it’s worth considering their unit could have slightly different geometry to yours.
With a good unit, loading the blade is as simple as with any three-piece. But it’s quite an assumption to assume that any individual user has a good unit in their hands. With a bad unit, loading the blade straight is indeed difficult, and with some units it’s impossible.
This issue is worth being aware of, as its easily fixed... just order another unit, and mix-and-match parts. They’re cheap enough that this is a no-brainer.
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Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
I think any QC issues should result in a replacement or refund.
I returned my first Schöne and got a second one. All five of my current Fatip and Fatip-made razors are entirely satisfactory. Well, actually more than satisfactory. They're very good DE razors according to what I like and need in the DE platform. Plus I think them very attractive.
I'm not a fan of the Piccolo because I don't like its too thin handle but that's just me.
One thing worth mentioning is these are Italian razors, made by Italians. Think of Italian cars, made by Italians. Not knocking Italians but we're not talking Germans or Americans or Japanese.
Just my two pesos.
Happy shaves,
Jim
I returned my first Schöne and got a second one. All five of my current Fatip and Fatip-made razors are entirely satisfactory. Well, actually more than satisfactory. They're very good DE razors according to what I like and need in the DE platform. Plus I think them very attractive.
I'm not a fan of the Piccolo because I don't like its too thin handle but that's just me.
One thing worth mentioning is these are Italian razors, made by Italians. Think of Italian cars, made by Italians. Not knocking Italians but we're not talking Germans or Americans or Japanese.
Just my two pesos.
Happy shaves,
Jim
Had these been expensive razors, I would have returned two of the three I’ve bought.
But they’re cheap razors, international returns are a hassle, and time isn’t free, so I just built up a collection to get a set of “good” parts, putting the bad ones in a drawer.
As an Italian, I can attest to this.
We call it "character".
By the by.....I sold the Porsche and kept the Alfa.
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Character is underrated.
You really are determined to misrepresent what I said. The "echo chamber" is not a conspiracy. It is an internet phenomenon that occurs when people repeat what they have heard, without personal experience. This can result in a huge chorus of people making inaccurate claims as if they were established facts.
There have been plenty of people on this forum who feel they should not have to fiddle with the blade alignment -- a razor that allows the blade to be misailigned is considered defective.
It is not a value judgement or a put-down to ask somebody to try loading a blade with another technique they may not be familiar with, whether that be a FaTip, Gillette Old Type, etc. The goal is to help the person solve a problem. If the technique works for them, problem solved.
I’m not attacking you at all, I just needed to choose a post to reply to (that took the line that the blade-loading issues are overstated) and happened to choose yours at random. My reply was meant to be general, not an attack on your post.
The problems people have with loading blades are not always down to user error. Fatip’s QC issues can make it very hard sometimes. I just wanted that perspective to be noted so users facing issues know. That’s been done now.
The goal is to help people improve their shaving results, or help them out with a problem. It's not to put them down, or say FaTips are perfect.
When a bunch of people post saying things like:
what should we tell them? The FaTip is a great razor, sold brass, shaves wonderfully, around $20, but people don't want to try it because they hear this constant drumbeat of second-hand misinformation.
I see "alignment issues" not as defects but as characteristics of the Fatips, maybe even a "feature". Asymmetric razors were a thing in the 1930s and are still around today (iKon, Wolfman), and the extra fiddle room in the Fatips let's me set up the razor with a mild side and an aggressive side.
Some people see alignment issues, I see more control. Does anyone buy a manual transmission car (knowing it's a manual transmission) and complain the car doesn't shift automatically?
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
I'm a Fatip fan for sure, but I'd say they have alignment issues /s.
Alignment issues that are, once you climb an inch high learning curve, solved over and over. Each time an alignment issue surfaces, once the learning curve has been climbed, alignment takes about three seconds and is largely automatic. Most of the time no manual user alignment is necessary or remotely indicated.
It doesn't have to look perfectly aligned. It only has to shave perfectly which Fatip razors do in spades.
In other words, there really isn't a Fatip alignment issue at all.
Happy shaves,
Jim
Alignment issues that are, once you climb an inch high learning curve, solved over and over. Each time an alignment issue surfaces, once the learning curve has been climbed, alignment takes about three seconds and is largely automatic. Most of the time no manual user alignment is necessary or remotely indicated.
It doesn't have to look perfectly aligned. It only has to shave perfectly which Fatip razors do in spades.
In other words, there really isn't a Fatip alignment issue at all.
Happy shaves,
Jim
I fail to comprehend why even the most die hard fans of these razors can't just admit quality is hit and miss and has been for years.
The problem is people act as if having to align the blade, or having some tolerance in the blade posts, is a defect, when this is normal for a vintage style 3-piece razor.
If the top cap was warped, or the blade posts were off-center, that would be an actual defect. In that case, the razor should be returned for another one.
I can only speak to the one chrome Fatip Grande I bought. So, a sample size of one. There are a few tiny flaws in the surface finish but the blade alignment is fine. The quality is good for a $20 all-brass razor, what do you expect? $20 is dirt-cheap. Its performance is excellent for the money.
