Let's talk about razor handles for a minute. Nearly all of them look the same. They might be made of different metals, or hollow, but pretty much all of them are just a 3" long pieces of straight metal. Why is that? Is it because it's the ideal shape, or because it's the cheapest thing to make? I have no idea. I made one this morning and for better or for worse, it's not straight.
Why make a handle in the first place? Well, I was recently encouraged by @thombrogan to try a lightweight (<20 grams) handle with my Lupo .72. All of mine are solid stainless steel or brass and nowhere near 20 grams. My first thought was to drill the center out of a pine dowel, and epoxy a 5mm nut to the top, but I didn't have a dowel, or a nut, and didn't feel like driving to the hardware store. Rather than abandon the project altogether I grabbed a bit of this off my workbench:
Instamorph is really handy stuff. It's a thermoplastic that turns translucent and pliable at 150F, can be formed like clay into whatever shape you can imagine, and then it slowly hardens at room temperature. It's unbelievably strong when it hardens. It can be used over and over. I've used it for dozens of projects. Since it remains pliable for a while at low temperatures, it's also a really fun material for kids too.
It took about 2 minutes to form the handle. That's an awful long stretch not to do anything dumb, so I decided to add a bend to it like an umbrella handle. My thought was that straight handles make it too easy to apply pressure. Most razors have the neutral shave angle with the razor handle at a 45 degree angle to your face. That's exactly the wrong angle to be applying pressure, because it's easy to apply 50% of the force towards the face, and 50% down towards the ground. The first rule of DE shaving is don't use pressure. Why would handles make it so easy to do it wrong?
The virtue of the umbrella hook is that the ergonomics of it favors to pulling rather than pushing. Pulling at a 45 degree angle tends to pull the razor away from the face and down. Now that's a good force vector for shaving with no pressure.
While the handle was still soft an pliable, I poked the assembled head of my Lupo .72 into it leaving a nice little hole for the threads. I set it aside to cool for 5 minutes, and when it was hardened I threaded the Lupo head onto it. Nice an secure. It looks something like this:
Perfect. It actually gave me a damn good shave. I'm someone who favors mild razors like the RR Mamba .53 and the GC .68 SB, so I have a natural tendency to apply pressure. The Lupo .72 has enough blade exposure that this is completely counterproductive. The umbrella handle worked like a charm. It was as close to a zero pressure shave as I've had in a long time. I'm not sure whether it was because it was lightweight, or because my cockamamie umbrella eronomics idea inexplicably worked. Either way, it's keeper.
Why make a handle in the first place? Well, I was recently encouraged by @thombrogan to try a lightweight (<20 grams) handle with my Lupo .72. All of mine are solid stainless steel or brass and nowhere near 20 grams. My first thought was to drill the center out of a pine dowel, and epoxy a 5mm nut to the top, but I didn't have a dowel, or a nut, and didn't feel like driving to the hardware store. Rather than abandon the project altogether I grabbed a bit of this off my workbench:
Instamorph is really handy stuff. It's a thermoplastic that turns translucent and pliable at 150F, can be formed like clay into whatever shape you can imagine, and then it slowly hardens at room temperature. It's unbelievably strong when it hardens. It can be used over and over. I've used it for dozens of projects. Since it remains pliable for a while at low temperatures, it's also a really fun material for kids too.
It took about 2 minutes to form the handle. That's an awful long stretch not to do anything dumb, so I decided to add a bend to it like an umbrella handle. My thought was that straight handles make it too easy to apply pressure. Most razors have the neutral shave angle with the razor handle at a 45 degree angle to your face. That's exactly the wrong angle to be applying pressure, because it's easy to apply 50% of the force towards the face, and 50% down towards the ground. The first rule of DE shaving is don't use pressure. Why would handles make it so easy to do it wrong?
The virtue of the umbrella hook is that the ergonomics of it favors to pulling rather than pushing. Pulling at a 45 degree angle tends to pull the razor away from the face and down. Now that's a good force vector for shaving with no pressure.
While the handle was still soft an pliable, I poked the assembled head of my Lupo .72 into it leaving a nice little hole for the threads. I set it aside to cool for 5 minutes, and when it was hardened I threaded the Lupo head onto it. Nice an secure. It looks something like this:
Perfect. It actually gave me a damn good shave. I'm someone who favors mild razors like the RR Mamba .53 and the GC .68 SB, so I have a natural tendency to apply pressure. The Lupo .72 has enough blade exposure that this is completely counterproductive. The umbrella handle worked like a charm. It was as close to a zero pressure shave as I've had in a long time. I'm not sure whether it was because it was lightweight, or because my cockamamie umbrella eronomics idea inexplicably worked. Either way, it's keeper.
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