It's been a few years since I've been on here, and I have a question regarding the Progress and blade alignment and exposure with Feather blades. I just got back into wet shaving again, and I purchased a new Progress recently, and 30 Feathers ( black label). I'm running into alignment problems with the Progress, and i was getting to the point of sending it back, after fidgeting with it to get it lined up at least somewhat even, and trying just about anything. After shaving tonight, for the hell of it I played around and tried loading some different blades ( an Astra, Gillette blue, and a Nacet), and they are all lining up perfect. I'm noticing alot of excess clearance on the Feathers where the pins go through. I never had a problem with my old Feathers in any razor, and never had a problem with my old Progress which I sold years ago. I'm also using these new Feathers in my Aristocrat tto and my Fatboy with no issues, so it seems to be the pin holes. I was just wondering if anyone would have any feedback on this. Thanks.
Merkur Progress Feather blade problem
- Thread starter gitira6
- Start date
Have old and new mold Progress, occasionallly use a Feather in them, have not noticed any particular alignment issues in that combination. FWIW the ‘new mold’ top cap mark and triangle are smaller in the new mold and easier to miss lining up. Also I alway load and tighten down the Progress by resting it upside down and gently pressing one of the blade tabs toward the opposite side before twisting the yellow knob to tighten the cap. Good luck.
- Thread starter
- #3
Joncr, yeah, from the looks of it , this razor is the new mold type. I could live with a little skew, but it's a little excessive with the Feathers for some reason. I'll just use a Nacet.
Any pix?
Fayiz D.
Fayiz D.
- Thread starter
- #5
Adjustingolife, I'll try to upload some pics today
I'm not entirely clear on what exactly your problem is, aside from some lack of precision between the alignment posts and the two alignment holes on your blades. But I've always felt that this sort of thing was, at least theoretically, possible, given the reality of mass production of razor blades.
I encountered a problem with loading Bolzano blades into a Shone/Fatip: the blade just would not seat all the way down, even with some pushing from my finger, which made me nervous. This was ironic, given that both Bolzano and Fatip are Italian brands, though Bolzano is made in Germany and Shone was a German label. Other brand blades worked fine.
It was also odd, given that Fatip builds a fair amount of wiggle room into its alignment. So something went wrong with the Bolzano manufacturing, and those blades ain't cheap.
I have also seen some astonishingly narrow alignment pins on new amateur-hour-designed Chinese razors, producing very sloppy blade alignment, and which also had covered tabs.
You can't have it both ways: Either you use alignment pins and leave the tabs uncovered, or if you want covered tabs, use any of the newer alignment patterns that are more precise. If you strive for a tight fit with alignment posts, you will inevitably have problems getting blades to fit properly because the blades produced by the millions cannot always be perfect. Surely, this must have been a bigger problem in the old days, which is a reason the Old Types had about as much wiggle room as a Fatip.
That a higher end razor like the Merkur Progress doesn't use a more modern alignment system is curious.
However, I've said it before: I like wiggle room. I like to be able to tweak the exposure of the blade. And if you load the blade properly -- putting the cap on a level surface, and dropping the blade in, and then dropping the base plate onto the blade -- the blade will align properly at least 90 percent of the time -- provided the blade was manufactured with precision. Aside from a defective blade, I suspect most people who get irate about the "sloppy" alignment of the razor do not assemble the blade and razor in the correct fashion.
Is there ANY razor with alignment pins that has perfect blade alignment 100 percent of the time? Unlikely. But if it does, sooner or later you will find a blade that can't fit.
I encountered a problem with loading Bolzano blades into a Shone/Fatip: the blade just would not seat all the way down, even with some pushing from my finger, which made me nervous. This was ironic, given that both Bolzano and Fatip are Italian brands, though Bolzano is made in Germany and Shone was a German label. Other brand blades worked fine.
It was also odd, given that Fatip builds a fair amount of wiggle room into its alignment. So something went wrong with the Bolzano manufacturing, and those blades ain't cheap.
I have also seen some astonishingly narrow alignment pins on new amateur-hour-designed Chinese razors, producing very sloppy blade alignment, and which also had covered tabs.
You can't have it both ways: Either you use alignment pins and leave the tabs uncovered, or if you want covered tabs, use any of the newer alignment patterns that are more precise. If you strive for a tight fit with alignment posts, you will inevitably have problems getting blades to fit properly because the blades produced by the millions cannot always be perfect. Surely, this must have been a bigger problem in the old days, which is a reason the Old Types had about as much wiggle room as a Fatip.
That a higher end razor like the Merkur Progress doesn't use a more modern alignment system is curious.
However, I've said it before: I like wiggle room. I like to be able to tweak the exposure of the blade. And if you load the blade properly -- putting the cap on a level surface, and dropping the blade in, and then dropping the base plate onto the blade -- the blade will align properly at least 90 percent of the time -- provided the blade was manufactured with precision. Aside from a defective blade, I suspect most people who get irate about the "sloppy" alignment of the razor do not assemble the blade and razor in the correct fashion.
Is there ANY razor with alignment pins that has perfect blade alignment 100 percent of the time? Unlikely. But if it does, sooner or later you will find a blade that can't fit.
- Thread starter
- #7
You like wiggle room. I dont mind some too. I'm aware of how to load a blade. Even tried to rotate the cap 180 degrees ( dash not lined up with the triangle, as I searched previous posts and this worked for alignment, for some). Time to dig out the micrometer, it's somewhere in this house.
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