So I followed an old DE1 thread a while back until I lost interest around the end of the year. Over the weekend, I saw a new post in it and went to read it, and the new post was nothing interesting. However the posts before that (starting some time after I stopped following the thread) was interesting. @deoxy4 was mentioning how he put a 5mm ID Silicone O Ring between the baseplate and the handle and found out that he essentially created a poor man's adjustable razor. Being a cheap man willing to sacrifice his face in the name of science, I went down to my local hardware store and looked around and was directed to three different departments before finding 5mm Rubber O Rings in the plumbing section. They cost a little more than 30 cents each and so I bought two and took them home to test out.
I immediately put the O Ring on my DE1 and found that from the point where the head was tightened to be secure to the point where it was fully tightened, I got about 5 quarter turns on the handle. I lathered up and left it on the setting where things were just secure and did a WTG pass. It was definitely more aggressive than the normal DE1 shave and mowed down my whiskers pretty efficiently. Comparing it to my Parker Variant, I would say it was about a 3-4 setting. Being motivated, I lathered up again and did two quarter turns and did an ATG pass. This time it was definitely milder and about a 2.5 on my Variant. So for my touch up, I decided to tighten it all the way and now if felt like the normal DE1 shave which was about a 1.5 setting on the Variant.
I was so excited that when I took the razor apart to rinse off, I forgot to take off the O Ring and it went down the drain. Oh well, there goes 30 cents. Good thing I had a second one. The next night I decided that since there were no open comb adjustable razors, I would try doing the same with my RR Old Type. Again, just like the night before, the setting just barely holding the head in place produced a shave similar to my R41. The big difference was that giving the razor two quarter turns and making it completely tight did not produce any noticeable difference. Maybe it was because the Old Type is a clone of the Gillette Old, which was a pretty aggressive razor to begin with.
So finally, tonight I followed the same reasoning as last night and pulled out my RR German 37 since I only heard rumors of an adjustable slant but never saw one up close. This time around because it was a slant, I started with 1 1/2 quarter turns in. The WTG pass was definitely very rough and so I stopped after shaving half of my face and did another quarter turn and finished off my WTG pass. This time the shave was similar to my PAA bakelite - very efficient but not very comfortable. For my ATG pass, I did another quarter turn and it felt much more comfortable and very efficient. For my touch up, I turned it completely tight and it felt like my regular 37c clone.
So my conclusions are that this process does actually allow your razor to have some adjustability as in adjustable razors. For a milder razor, the lowest setting will make it significantly more aggressive. One thing to realize in all of this is that whatever razor you are using, it will not be able to make it any milder than what your original head was, and in the case of the Old Type, the in between adjustments did not vary as much as it did with the DE1. In the case of the slant, the best results seem to be between almost fully tightened and fully tightened and this is probably because the blade need to be torqued to some useful level to be effective.
Seeing some hope in continuing this experiment, I ordered a bunch of Silicone O Rings off of Ebay for about $8 and am waiting for them to arrive. I don't see this as a replacement for a Parker Variant or a Gillette Toggle, but it might be a fun thing to do while waiting for the release of the next "IT" razor.
I immediately put the O Ring on my DE1 and found that from the point where the head was tightened to be secure to the point where it was fully tightened, I got about 5 quarter turns on the handle. I lathered up and left it on the setting where things were just secure and did a WTG pass. It was definitely more aggressive than the normal DE1 shave and mowed down my whiskers pretty efficiently. Comparing it to my Parker Variant, I would say it was about a 3-4 setting. Being motivated, I lathered up again and did two quarter turns and did an ATG pass. This time it was definitely milder and about a 2.5 on my Variant. So for my touch up, I decided to tighten it all the way and now if felt like the normal DE1 shave which was about a 1.5 setting on the Variant.
I was so excited that when I took the razor apart to rinse off, I forgot to take off the O Ring and it went down the drain. Oh well, there goes 30 cents. Good thing I had a second one. The next night I decided that since there were no open comb adjustable razors, I would try doing the same with my RR Old Type. Again, just like the night before, the setting just barely holding the head in place produced a shave similar to my R41. The big difference was that giving the razor two quarter turns and making it completely tight did not produce any noticeable difference. Maybe it was because the Old Type is a clone of the Gillette Old, which was a pretty aggressive razor to begin with.
So finally, tonight I followed the same reasoning as last night and pulled out my RR German 37 since I only heard rumors of an adjustable slant but never saw one up close. This time around because it was a slant, I started with 1 1/2 quarter turns in. The WTG pass was definitely very rough and so I stopped after shaving half of my face and did another quarter turn and finished off my WTG pass. This time the shave was similar to my PAA bakelite - very efficient but not very comfortable. For my ATG pass, I did another quarter turn and it felt much more comfortable and very efficient. For my touch up, I turned it completely tight and it felt like my regular 37c clone.
So my conclusions are that this process does actually allow your razor to have some adjustability as in adjustable razors. For a milder razor, the lowest setting will make it significantly more aggressive. One thing to realize in all of this is that whatever razor you are using, it will not be able to make it any milder than what your original head was, and in the case of the Old Type, the in between adjustments did not vary as much as it did with the DE1. In the case of the slant, the best results seem to be between almost fully tightened and fully tightened and this is probably because the blade need to be torqued to some useful level to be effective.
Seeing some hope in continuing this experiment, I ordered a bunch of Silicone O Rings off of Ebay for about $8 and am waiting for them to arrive. I don't see this as a replacement for a Parker Variant or a Gillette Toggle, but it might be a fun thing to do while waiting for the release of the next "IT" razor.
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