Item Description
So, I started shaving with a double edge about a year and a half ago now (I'm a long time lurker here at B&B) and for the first 6 months I got my technique down using the Merkur 34C HD. It's a great blade but the entire time I was thinking that I could get a more aggressive shave. After looking around and antiquing multiple times I never found a fat boy (still looking for one at a decent price), so I looked into the adjustable razors on the market. This left me between the Progress, Futur, and Vision.
I really liked the weight of the 34C and I thought that something heavier might be fun to try, but the Vision is prohibitively expensive. After searching and searching for 3 or so months I found a Vision on Craigslist with a case and some blades for under $50. I thought that this couldn't be the same vision that westcoastshaving.com has because it was so much cheaper than the MSRP. It was.
My Vision doesn't have the problem with the blades being out of alignment so that was a huge plus for me. Cleaning the vision was a little hard at first but I got used to it after learning how to from geofatboy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nydOxEvoJmk)
On to the shave, as some people have mentioned before it is very percussive. I'd say its about 120% the noise of the HD. I can't imagine this drastically changes the way that you are going to shave, but YMMV. I found that the Vision on the lowest setting was about as aggressive as the HD, so I started there to get a handle on the weight difference. Over time I have worked myself up to the "O" position on the blade. I have never used a feather but I can imagine that would give a very smooth shave (I use bic, derby, shark, and personna blues depending on how I feel).
Cleaning the beast is a real time consuming process, but I generally clean the inside and blade between every shave and fully clean once a week when I change my blade.
Other people have talked about how the handle at the bottom gets gummed up over time. I notice that this does happen if you forget to clean that piece for a few weeks, but I can't say that it's hard to fix. I found that using a musical instrument snake to clean the nylon threading is very effective (these can be had at http://www.amazon.com/Venture-1022-Brass-Mouthpiece-Brush/dp/B002Q0WU3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403905065&sr=8-1&keywords=mouthpiece brush for under two bucks).
There has also been some concern about the plating and how it stays on over time, I have not noticed this with regular cleaning. When I got mine there was a slight residual build up on the inner rod. The toothbrush and soap would not remove this piece but after I heated up the rod and applied LIGHT pressure to the rod with steel wool the residual came off instantly.
Feel free to leave any questions you have about how I do upkeep on the razor.
Another great place to learn about it is the How it's Made video on the Vision (I can't believe I hadn't seen it here before) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRdJ89Pvhp4
I really liked the weight of the 34C and I thought that something heavier might be fun to try, but the Vision is prohibitively expensive. After searching and searching for 3 or so months I found a Vision on Craigslist with a case and some blades for under $50. I thought that this couldn't be the same vision that westcoastshaving.com has because it was so much cheaper than the MSRP. It was.
My Vision doesn't have the problem with the blades being out of alignment so that was a huge plus for me. Cleaning the vision was a little hard at first but I got used to it after learning how to from geofatboy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nydOxEvoJmk)
On to the shave, as some people have mentioned before it is very percussive. I'd say its about 120% the noise of the HD. I can't imagine this drastically changes the way that you are going to shave, but YMMV. I found that the Vision on the lowest setting was about as aggressive as the HD, so I started there to get a handle on the weight difference. Over time I have worked myself up to the "O" position on the blade. I have never used a feather but I can imagine that would give a very smooth shave (I use bic, derby, shark, and personna blues depending on how I feel).
Cleaning the beast is a real time consuming process, but I generally clean the inside and blade between every shave and fully clean once a week when I change my blade.
Other people have talked about how the handle at the bottom gets gummed up over time. I notice that this does happen if you forget to clean that piece for a few weeks, but I can't say that it's hard to fix. I found that using a musical instrument snake to clean the nylon threading is very effective (these can be had at http://www.amazon.com/Venture-1022-Brass-Mouthpiece-Brush/dp/B002Q0WU3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403905065&sr=8-1&keywords=mouthpiece brush for under two bucks).
There has also been some concern about the plating and how it stays on over time, I have not noticed this with regular cleaning. When I got mine there was a slight residual build up on the inner rod. The toothbrush and soap would not remove this piece but after I heated up the rod and applied LIGHT pressure to the rod with steel wool the residual came off instantly.
Feel free to leave any questions you have about how I do upkeep on the razor.
Another great place to learn about it is the How it's Made video on the Vision (I can't believe I hadn't seen it here before) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRdJ89Pvhp4