I love the look of my Gillette Black Beauty and was also happy with the shaves it gave me. However, I had to try the Merkur Progress and after several weeks of testing have decided I like it better. A couple of things I'd improve were the looks and grip. The looks because I love the contrast of my BB. The grip because although the Progress has never slipped from my hand during shaving, I do have to be careful how I hold it (the ole finger curl under the adjustment knob works for me). It just doesn't feel as secure as my knurled handle razors. So what to do?
Plasti-Dip to the rescue! I just got finished coating the handle and knob and killed two birds with one stone: the grip is much more secure now and I love the black/chrome combination reminiscent of my Black Beauty. Can't wait to try it in the morning.
For those interested, this is how I coated it:
-I disassembled the Progress and dipped the adjustment knob assembly being very careful to stop at the chrome/plastic boundary. It took multiple coats to cover the edges of the knob.
-I put a piece of dowel that fit the inside of the handle then suspended it from the razor head with strings so I could dip the handle up to the point where the neck starts.
-The key with PlastiDip is to move slowly to get full even coverage. I allowed 30 minutes between coats and applied 4 coats yesterday. I then let it dry overnight and applied one more coat this morning.
-This evening, I used an Exacto knife to very carefully cut through the rubber sheathing at the handle/dowel interface and pulled the dowel out.
-I carefully trimmed off any ragged edges at the bottom of the handle. To re-seal the area after cutting it, I used a toothpick to put small dabs of PlastiDip around the edges of the cut area and let it flow to fill any gaps. After about 40 minutes, I carefully dipped the exposed end in just a couple of millimeters to ensure a thin but smooth seal. When I did that, the PlastiDip coated the inside of the handle of course, but I expected that and had cotton swabs on hand to swab the coating off the inside of the handle.
-I painted the setting markings with black gloss enamel paint (we'll see how long that lasts...)
-I was going to cut a small section of the sheathing away to expose the setting dot on the handle, but decided after coating the handle not to mess with the integrity of the sheath. I therefore used a silver permanent marker to "mark the spot". Again, we'll see how long that lasts.
The thin coating on the bottom of the handle makes it a little snug getting back down near the "+" marker where it goes naturally (see the before picture). Note that I have a newer Progress with a non-adjustable handle that apparently doesn't have the variable zero setting problem of old. Every time I've disassembled and reassembled the razor either totally or just to change a blade it always returns to the same zero point near the "+" marker. Now, the setting knob easily tightens down to just slightly above the "1" with no pressure to speak of (see after picture on counter). I then can quite easily snug it down to the zero position. In normal use, I never go below the "1" anyway, so this is no problem at all. If you try this and decided it was a problem, you could just skip the extra coating step on the bottom of the handle.
Here's a before and a couple of after shots. I like it. I like it a lot!
Plasti-Dip to the rescue! I just got finished coating the handle and knob and killed two birds with one stone: the grip is much more secure now and I love the black/chrome combination reminiscent of my Black Beauty. Can't wait to try it in the morning.
For those interested, this is how I coated it:
-I disassembled the Progress and dipped the adjustment knob assembly being very careful to stop at the chrome/plastic boundary. It took multiple coats to cover the edges of the knob.
-I put a piece of dowel that fit the inside of the handle then suspended it from the razor head with strings so I could dip the handle up to the point where the neck starts.
-The key with PlastiDip is to move slowly to get full even coverage. I allowed 30 minutes between coats and applied 4 coats yesterday. I then let it dry overnight and applied one more coat this morning.
-This evening, I used an Exacto knife to very carefully cut through the rubber sheathing at the handle/dowel interface and pulled the dowel out.
-I carefully trimmed off any ragged edges at the bottom of the handle. To re-seal the area after cutting it, I used a toothpick to put small dabs of PlastiDip around the edges of the cut area and let it flow to fill any gaps. After about 40 minutes, I carefully dipped the exposed end in just a couple of millimeters to ensure a thin but smooth seal. When I did that, the PlastiDip coated the inside of the handle of course, but I expected that and had cotton swabs on hand to swab the coating off the inside of the handle.
-I painted the setting markings with black gloss enamel paint (we'll see how long that lasts...)
-I was going to cut a small section of the sheathing away to expose the setting dot on the handle, but decided after coating the handle not to mess with the integrity of the sheath. I therefore used a silver permanent marker to "mark the spot". Again, we'll see how long that lasts.
The thin coating on the bottom of the handle makes it a little snug getting back down near the "+" marker where it goes naturally (see the before picture). Note that I have a newer Progress with a non-adjustable handle that apparently doesn't have the variable zero setting problem of old. Every time I've disassembled and reassembled the razor either totally or just to change a blade it always returns to the same zero point near the "+" marker. Now, the setting knob easily tightens down to just slightly above the "1" with no pressure to speak of (see after picture on counter). I then can quite easily snug it down to the zero position. In normal use, I never go below the "1" anyway, so this is no problem at all. If you try this and decided it was a problem, you could just skip the extra coating step on the bottom of the handle.
Here's a before and a couple of after shots. I like it. I like it a lot!
