Rigidity matters not.
Forgive the residue, but here's the inside of the Wilkinson Sword Classic. Rigid. Hard clamped.
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It's the closed comb riding high that lifts the blade and causes tugging on 3+ day stubble. This would struggle just as much as the Jagger. The rigidity wouldn't make a scrap of difference.
Here's the inside of the slightly more aggressive Razorine. Same story.
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No, I don't polish my razors. There's a nice patina building on that now.
Here's the inside of the Merkur head (985 and 41C). That's as rigid as rigid gets!
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Again, it's the open comb that can dive into the beard a short way, biting off more than intended. Notice I said a short way. When clearing heavy stubble, I'd still probably short stroke it - not in the frenzied scrubbing way, but I'd probably still need more of a chopping action than a full length wipe.
Open as the comb may be, my stubble isn't conveniently spaced tooth width apart As such, it's still going to be riding up on stubble if I try to do a full length swipe. Then we're back to high comb, high blade, and tugging. I will NOT be applying high pressure to counteract that.
If I wanted to take longer strokes, I'd have to lose the comb altogether.
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Changing the angle of the razor so its not at the base of that hair would do it yep. The more rigid the design, the less give in the blade, the more tugging would be felt unless the blade was a very good match to your hair composition.
The Merkur, its hard to say how rigid they can be and that may even vary from razor to razor. Just looking at my Brit clone Old Type one would assume the same extremely rigid design, but it isnt...
Look at the profile of the inside of the cap. You can see between the cap and the blade to the white paper I used as a background between the edge of the cap and the blade tab.
The only place the blade is clamped is at the edge of the cap and its free to vibrate and flex all it wants. Because of the little blade exposure it just happens to vibrate at a frequency that suits me perfectly, though its too mild for more than around 60 hours growth. I've thought about sanding the inside of the cap to make it fit flush across its length and width, but if it aint broke... If, on the other hand, that razor had as much blade exposure as my Grande, it would be unusable by me.
Longer strokes are easier with more blade exposure, assuming the correct angle. Using my MMOC with a steep angle, basically nothing but blade, I'd say 80% blade and 20% comb, a full beard would just fall off your face as the razor moved. One quick pass ATG and I'd be done.