Weck Hair Shaper: What a Difference 3/4" Makes

[rudyt]

Yesterday, I received my Weck Hair Shaper with the sexy cobalt blue scales, the little brother of the Sextoblade. It is about 3/4" shorter, and the spine is much thinner. It uses the same blades, so basically the lost 3/4" is between the hinge pin and the near side of the blade.

This razor did come with the guard attachment (the Sextoblade also comes with a guard, but I never got one). First thing is that the teeth are bent the wrong way; good for hair shaping, but useless for shaving because the blade can't touch your face. I Googled some pics and the teeth on a razor need to bend away from the blade, not over it. A quick tweak with some pliers and I was good to go.

The shave was eye opening. I felt way more comfortable, and had no issues with XTG and ATG - something I still can't do with the Sextoblade. Is it the shorter razor that made such a difference, or is it the guard? I think it's both. The razor felt way more maneuverable, while the longer Sextoblade still feels unwieldy to me. It is a royal pain to keep flipping the guard over every time I switch hands and side of the face, but it's easy enough.

I'll probably keep at it with the Hair Shaper and the guard for a few shaves, trying my best to do all three passes. Then I'll go guardless for awhile before finally circling back to the Sextoblade.

Today's shave made me really happy. After two weeks of very slow progress with the Sextoblade, today was a giant step forward.

 

[rudyt]

Second shave with the Weck Hair Shaper. First pass, no guard, went perfectly considering I was rushing today (late for work). I tried XTG with no guard and it went OK with my right hand ear to nose on my left, but it wasn't working on the right, so I put the guard back on and did that side. I did ATG with the guard, but was getting frustrated so I removed it and finished off.

No nicks, no cuts, no weepers, but here I am two hours later and I still feel some irritation that the Cooling Balm did not cool.

 

[mrto]

Glad to hear you're making progress and the hair shaper dimensions are more comfortable for you.I've been using the regular size Weck daily to good effect and have been pondering trying a Filarmonica shavette that I have that is designed to take half of a regular DE blade for a change.

I'll let you know how I get on with it,I imagine it will be a very different experience...........

 

[rudyt]

Glad to hear you're making progress and the hair shaper dimensions are more comfortable for you.

Sorry, I may have inadvertently given the wrong impression. The shorter hair shaper is not more comfortable - it actually feels too cramped because I can only get one finger comfortably on the shank, and the shank is not tall enough.

For my newbie skills as they are today, it is, however, easier to control.

I've avoided DE blade shavettes because they're even shaper than the hair shaper blades. I have to try some Fromms, which I heart are duller and smoother than Personas.

That said, I have a full-DE blade Strong Leopard on the way ;-)

 

[mrto]

Is the Strong Leopard you're getting a Shavette or regular DE razor?

 

[rudyt]

Is the Strong Leopard you're getting a Shavette or regular DE razor?

It's the full DE blade shavette. Look at Post #40 in this thread

 

[mrto]

Thanks,it looks comparatively quite solidly built, I may get one myself!

 

[mrto]

I just finished my first shave with a shavette,the Filarmonica and wow what a revelation!

It was the smoothest most pleasant experience,far more so than the Weck with either Personna or Weck blades or my vintage straights!

The sharpness of the half DE blade is where the smoothness comes from rather than the relative tugginess of the Weck blades,which as a result require a bit more pressure and which in turn can result more easily in nicks and weepers.

A three pass shave with the shavette in all directions resulted in the closest most comfortable and bloodless 'straight' razor shave for me to date and questions the use of anything else in the same style!

The size of the half DE blade is better suited to my face and neck shape and contours than the traditional straight blade length,and made valleys and recesses far easier to access.

All in all I'm very pleasantly surprised and suspect the scaremongering one reads about shavettes is from people who have never tried one!

The motivation for me to use vintage and antique straights is their beauty,history and build quality something a simple shavette can never equal.

I need to use a very sharp straight as a final comparison of all that I've tried to find what suits me best,but the DE type shavette will be hard to beat,I think!

 

[mrto]

By the way,I forgot to mention, the blade I used was a half of a local supermarket no name brand that I would describe in terms of sharpness as medium when compared to other sharper DE blades such as Feather etc........

 

[rudyt]

I went back to the little blue hair shaper today, first time since it sliced my cheek. First pass was guardless. No issues; I'm getting real accustomed to straight shaving WTG. Two XTG passes on my cheeks (ear to nose and nose to ear) were effortless, and I didn't use the guard. The smaller razor is very controllable. I couldn't do XTG on the neck, so the guard went on and I went ATG plus 45 degrees instead on the sides of the neck, and straight up in the middle. Down to up ATG on the cheeks as well. Happy to report no cuts or irritation again.

I'm going to bend the guard a bit. The "gap" basically constrains the angles you can shave at. The wide gap I set it at allows you a steeper angle than is recommended. Everyone says the spine should be about one spine width away from the face, so I'm going to reduce the gap to force that angle.

 

[mrto]

Great! it's sounding like you are making progress and gradually developing the necessary feel and familiarity for shaving with a straight.

I've moved away from the Weck now as my hones and strop arrived allowing me to put my vintage SR's to use.As much as I like using my vintage straights,(I'm able to get them sharp enough on my barber's hones for a good enough shave)the shaves are not quite as buttery smooth or quite as close as with the Filarmonica DE shavette!

To me the modern DE shavette makes the Weck pretty much obsolete and does make me question the rationale of using a vintage straight when the shavette delivers the superior shave!

It's early days for me and maybe in time I'll be able to get my vintage straights that bit sharper and improve the feel of the shave more.

I will be interested to hear your experience and thoughts after your Strong Leopard shavette arrives and you've used it for the first time.

My DE Shavette has for me added an additional and unexpected perspective to straight edge shaving..........

 

[rudyt]

I will be interested to hear your experience and thoughts after your Strong Leopard shavette arrives and you've used it for the first time.

Even though I was not planning on shaving with the Strong Leopard 74-A, until I "master" the Wecks, after reading your post I couldn't resist giving it a quick test drive.

I just did WTG on my cheeks and first impressions are mixed. First off, it's a lot sharper than the Wecks, which is expected since a DE blade is sharper than an SE. That makes it more bitey and on my first shave, less smooth. The much shorter blade makes it very manoeuvrable compared to the long bladed Weck, and it feels much more substantial in the hand. I think I like the wider head. While the Weck is like a 4/8 frameback straight, the Strong Leopard has the profile of a 7/8 hollow ground.

I finished the shave with the Weck Hair Shaper and for the first time, managed a true ATG pass, albeit with the guard. 4 days of blood-free shaving - woohoo!

 

[mrto]

I guess the experience of a shave with any given razor is subjective from one person to the next.I just used the Filarmonica again and the resulting shave reinforced my initial perceptions of it.Compared to my Weck and vintage straights the shave by comparison seems gentle and effortless!

The style of the Filarmonica allows it to feel very much like a regular straight in the hand and against the face,though it is,of course,lighter.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31cmKQEg9+L.jpg

I am so impressed with the Filarmonica that I'm going to buy a half dozen or so other different styles of shavette for comparison purposes,fortunately they are dirt cheap on ebay!I'll buy the Shear Mattaki,too rather than a clone of it as the finish of it looks better to me and therefore maybe its construction.

Tomorrow I'll go back to one of my vintage straights again and then the Weck to build up an ongoing clearer picture in my mind of the differing shaves from them all.

Congratulations on four days of blood free shaving,by the way....long may it continue!

 

[mrto]

I spent some time on my newly acquired barber's hones and cheapo strop last night and managed to put a pretty keen edge on my Chinese cheap as chips ZY430 straight razor.This morning I had a great shave with it,the extra sharpness improving the overall feel of the shave.Still for me not as smooth as the shavette,but pretty good nonetheless!

A little sharper still with the straights and they will be ideal I hope!

Every day a new experience and all this trial and error,I think has me slowly stumbling towards the light! lol

 

[rudyt]

I guess the experience of a shave with any given razor is subjective from one person to the next.I just used the Filarmonica again and the resulting shave reinforced my initial perceptions of it.

There's a very knowledgeable guy on Reddit who insists that half-DE blade shavettes are the spawn of the Devil, and that it is impossible to get a great shave from them. He says the people who claim to get great shaves from them are the equivalent to using a monkey wrench to hammer nails. You can get pretty good at it, but it'll never do as good a job as a hammer.

 

[TheVez2]

Got a pic of your hair shaper? I'm curious about the blue scales.

I love the Sextoblade and the HS. Both work great, and I don't use a guard for either. I find the HS a tad more awkward due to the reduced length, but once you get used to it, it's fine. I like to use that for travel.

 

[rudyt]

Got a pic of your hair shaper? I'm curious about the blue scales

Here's the eBay link for the razor I bought that shows the translucent blue scales.

A also find the Hair Shaper is a bit cramped compared to my Sextoblade, but it's a tad more manoueverable.

 

[mrto]

There's a very knowledgeable guy on Reddit who insists that half-DE blade shavettes are the spawn of the Devil, and that it is impossible to get a great shave from them. He says the people who claim to get great shaves from them are the equivalent to using a monkey wrench to hammer nails. You can get pretty good at it, but it'll never do as good a job as a hammer.

That guy on Reddit is not as knowledgeable as he thinks,then and I wonder what to him is the ideal hammer!lol

I'm sure with practice you'll be getting great shaves from your Strong Leopard.Check this guy out using a Parker SR1,

He demonstrates just how easy and smooth a shavette shave can be......