Had a Futur and a Qshave side by side and thought I would give a rundown of all the differences I found. In the photos the matte finish is the qshave.
1) The Merkur has the better finish. The clones are very good but the common areas for blemishes are the underside of the top cap and the circular area of the base plate.
2) The Merkur is slightly heavier. Could be from thicker plating or materials (the handle threads on the futur are bare, while the Qshave is coated/zamac?)
3) obviously no solingen logo on the clone
4) To the eye, the blades gaps appear the same at each position. Maybe someone with calipers can verify?
5) The feature adjacent to the center block on the bridge that helps anchor the retaining bars has a slightly different shape.
6) The center block and pins on the bridge of the Merkur are slightly larger which ensures the blade is snug. The Qshave has a tiny bit of play but hasn't caused any alignment issues for me. This is the only material difference I found.
7) The top caps' shape (center of underside) are different. I don't believe this does anything to the geometry as the blade only comes into contact with the lateral surfaces.
After googling some images I think the clones could be based on an earlier iteration of the futur? The image below shows a Merkur with a bridge and top cap (points 5/7) that match the qshave. Wonder if anyone can comment on this.
1) The Merkur has the better finish. The clones are very good but the common areas for blemishes are the underside of the top cap and the circular area of the base plate.
2) The Merkur is slightly heavier. Could be from thicker plating or materials (the handle threads on the futur are bare, while the Qshave is coated/zamac?)
3) obviously no solingen logo on the clone
4) To the eye, the blades gaps appear the same at each position. Maybe someone with calipers can verify?
5) The feature adjacent to the center block on the bridge that helps anchor the retaining bars has a slightly different shape.
6) The center block and pins on the bridge of the Merkur are slightly larger which ensures the blade is snug. The Qshave has a tiny bit of play but hasn't caused any alignment issues for me. This is the only material difference I found.
7) The top caps' shape (center of underside) are different. I don't believe this does anything to the geometry as the blade only comes into contact with the lateral surfaces.
After googling some images I think the clones could be based on an earlier iteration of the futur? The image below shows a Merkur with a bridge and top cap (points 5/7) that match the qshave. Wonder if anyone can comment on this.
