AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
This popped through my letterbox earlier today.
A beautifully polished Razorine shavette.
I'd been expecting its arrival, and had put off my shave till it landed. I gave it a cursory look over, complete with smile and nod, and decide to load it up with a fresh Astra SP.
And that's when the fun started...
(Note: all bar the first picture in this thread, were takes after the test shave, so there might be traces of soap etc)
The first obstacle was that the slot in the blade, is narrower than the bars on the cap that it's supposed to sit over.
As such, the blade wouldn't seat. I had to press it down to force the guide bars through, which meant that before I assembled it, the blade was under tension. This is turn made the blade act like a spring washer, trying to spring the cap and base apart as I tried to assemble it, and secure it with the nut.
Next, I noticed the alignment of the blade to the close comb/safety bar of the razor was all wrong. I slackened the nut back off, and discovered just how much play there was in the alignment. I'm not sure how well these pics capture it, but it allowed the blades to be skewed both ways.
From this....
To this...
I managed to get things aligned, and the screw tightened up (not easy, as tightening the screw, makes the cap shift in that direction, and you have to try and push it back round, without pressing on the blade!) and ready to shave with.
Once I'd finangled it together, the shave wasn't bad. Obviously this was my first shave with anything in this format, so lack of familiarity played a large part. How to hold it so the handles or my knuckles weren't in the way, is really no more challenging than using a straight or single edged shavette. I also had to try and find the angle, which was steeper than I expected it to be.
(Sorry - awful photo, but it was a real swine to get it framed and focussed)
My fingers kept defaulting to a much shallower angle, as is needed with a straight and my Dovo shavette. The first couple of passes therefore weren't that close, but that was an operator issue, rather than an equipment one. Third pass was better, and I manage to get BBS above the jawline with no leakage of claret, nor irritation. The neck was trickier, and that will take practice.
However, that's assuming I stick with it. Dimensionally, it is not what it needs to be. I dug out my pair of manual vernier calipers (not the most accurate measuring system with my eyesight, but I did my best) to see how problematic the dimensions were.
I got the blade slot at 2.10mm, and the thickness of the guide bars as 2.17mm. The width of the slots the guide bars locate into on the base/handle was a whopping 2.60mm. No wonder there was so much play.
Conceptually, I like it. Aside from the above issues, it is a little slippy in hand, and I'd need to take a needle file to add some texture for better grip, but the alignment still worries me. It's not just the fact that it is a bit of faffing around to set it up, but also the chance that the cap might twist a bit during the shave, unbalancing the exposure again.
If there's anything I've missed that folks would like to know, please shout up. Also, I'd be very interested to hear from @Gianni75 as to whether these assembly issues are typical, or if I just received a rogue one.
A beautifully polished Razorine shavette.
I'd been expecting its arrival, and had put off my shave till it landed. I gave it a cursory look over, complete with smile and nod, and decide to load it up with a fresh Astra SP.
And that's when the fun started...
(Note: all bar the first picture in this thread, were takes after the test shave, so there might be traces of soap etc)
The first obstacle was that the slot in the blade, is narrower than the bars on the cap that it's supposed to sit over.
As such, the blade wouldn't seat. I had to press it down to force the guide bars through, which meant that before I assembled it, the blade was under tension. This is turn made the blade act like a spring washer, trying to spring the cap and base apart as I tried to assemble it, and secure it with the nut.
Next, I noticed the alignment of the blade to the close comb/safety bar of the razor was all wrong. I slackened the nut back off, and discovered just how much play there was in the alignment. I'm not sure how well these pics capture it, but it allowed the blades to be skewed both ways.
From this....
To this...
I managed to get things aligned, and the screw tightened up (not easy, as tightening the screw, makes the cap shift in that direction, and you have to try and push it back round, without pressing on the blade!) and ready to shave with.
Once I'd finangled it together, the shave wasn't bad. Obviously this was my first shave with anything in this format, so lack of familiarity played a large part. How to hold it so the handles or my knuckles weren't in the way, is really no more challenging than using a straight or single edged shavette. I also had to try and find the angle, which was steeper than I expected it to be.
(Sorry - awful photo, but it was a real swine to get it framed and focussed)
My fingers kept defaulting to a much shallower angle, as is needed with a straight and my Dovo shavette. The first couple of passes therefore weren't that close, but that was an operator issue, rather than an equipment one. Third pass was better, and I manage to get BBS above the jawline with no leakage of claret, nor irritation. The neck was trickier, and that will take practice.
However, that's assuming I stick with it. Dimensionally, it is not what it needs to be. I dug out my pair of manual vernier calipers (not the most accurate measuring system with my eyesight, but I did my best) to see how problematic the dimensions were.
I got the blade slot at 2.10mm, and the thickness of the guide bars as 2.17mm. The width of the slots the guide bars locate into on the base/handle was a whopping 2.60mm. No wonder there was so much play.
Conceptually, I like it. Aside from the above issues, it is a little slippy in hand, and I'd need to take a needle file to add some texture for better grip, but the alignment still worries me. It's not just the fact that it is a bit of faffing around to set it up, but also the chance that the cap might twist a bit during the shave, unbalancing the exposure again.
If there's anything I've missed that folks would like to know, please shout up. Also, I'd be very interested to hear from @Gianni75 as to whether these assembly issues are typical, or if I just received a rogue one.
