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R41 Revelation!

I have been using my R41 for a while now, enjoying its efficiency. Having tried Feathers and Bic Chromes in other razors and having enjoyed their performance, something was amiss with the R41, even with the Nacet, Bic and Feather.

My issue was that I could feel the blade chatter, and this led to some inconsistency. Granted, there is no question about the blade’s sharpness but I hated the feeling that if the razor bites more than it can chew, it will cut me. It kept you on your toes, not because of aggression, that I love, but apparently random blade behavior. I have to add that other than growing a beard for a while, I have been using DE from 2007 give or take – I think I am entitled to say that technique is not an issue.

I had read a bit about fellow shavers preferring a firm clamp on the blade, to increase comfort and preciseness. Upon eyeballing the R41 head I saw that the blade gets clamped pretty far from the action. I decided to place a full width shim under the blade to see if I could improve on this.

I picked a brand new Derby Extra blade (that’s the only thing they are good for in my case – sorry!) and with an angle grinder knocked down the cutting edge, taking as little off the total width of the blade as possible.. Of course don’t try this at home, wear safety gear, hazmat suits, condoms, whatever strikes your fancy.

I placed the shim under the blade and aimed for the worse possible scenario. No prep, no shower, a brand new Bic Chrome and away I went.

I don’t want to sound cocky, but I think I came up with something that shaves like an R41 and is docile like my Merkur 23. We are talking about a combination of smoothness and efficiency that I have not felt before!


This goes to say that maybe razor geometry is an art.
 
great! did it make it even more efficient/aggressive? people here say that if you only want to decrease blade chatter, use a top shim. Have you/would you try that?

I have shimmed other razors, but it hasn't crossed my mind to shim the R41 :) Now I eventually will have to...
 
great! did it make it even more efficient/aggressive?

To be honest I have no idea how it compares to that metric. Razor geometry makes my head spin so maybe more knowledgeable members will contribute. To my face it didn't seem to lose efficiency. I am just reporting my findings.
 

Hannah's Dad

I Can See Better Than Bigfoot.
Interesting discovery. Way to go!

‘Twas @exppii killed the Beast!’
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To be honest I have no idea how it compares to that metric. Razor geometry makes my head spin so maybe more knowledgeable members will contribute. To my face it didn't seem to lose efficiency. I am just reporting my findings.
yes, I was wondering if it actually increased aggressiveness, because that is what happens with a bottom shim usually. :straight:
 
yes, I was wondering if it actually increased aggressiveness, because that is what happens with a bottom shim usually. :straight:

I tried to figure it out, the curvature of the blade is dictated by the top cap, so as long as the blade is on top it shouldn't matter if we put one or three shims. Correct?
 
I have been using my R41 for a while now, enjoying its efficiency. Having tried Feathers and Bic Chromes in other razors and having enjoyed their performance, something was amiss with the R41, even with the Nacet, Bic and Feather.

My issue was that I could feel the blade chatter, and this led to some inconsistency. Granted, there is no question about the blade’s sharpness but I hated the feeling that if the razor bites more than it can chew, it will cut me. It kept you on your toes, not because of aggression, that I love, but apparently random blade behavior. I have to add that other than growing a beard for a while, I have been using DE from 2007 give or take – I think I am entitled to say that technique is not an issue.

I had read a bit about fellow shavers preferring a firm clamp on the blade, to increase comfort and preciseness. Upon eyeballing the R41 head I saw that the blade gets clamped pretty far from the action. I decided to place a full width shim under the blade to see if I could improve on this.

I picked a brand new Derby Extra blade (that’s the only thing they are good for in my case – sorry!) and with an angle grinder knocked down the cutting edge, taking as little off the total width of the blade as possible.. Of course don’t try this at home, wear safety gear, hazmat suits, condoms, whatever strikes your fancy.

I placed the shim under the blade and aimed for the worse possible scenario. No prep, no shower, a brand new Bic Chrome and away I went.

I don’t want to sound cocky, but I think I came up with something that shaves like an R41 and is docile like my Merkur 23. We are talking about a combination of smoothness and efficiency that I have not felt before!


This goes to say that maybe razor geometry is an art.
When you look at the regular R41 next to the R41 GS, you can see that the blade is clamped better in the GS. This is why i think the GS model is an upgrade from the original one. This is probably part of what you are experiencing with you mod.
To me there is a difference, especially if you lean towards being a steep angle shaver.
 
M

Member 113878

I may be wrong but my thought is that your shim actually just reduced blade chatter near zero.
That increased rigidity of the blade yield much more smoothness to the shave.
 
I think this is where it is at. Blade chatter makes the shaving uncomfortable because the blade is unpredictable. Especially with a Bic chrome it was almost unusable, to the point that I believed I got a bad blade.

With the shim underneath there is no blade chatter, so the blade can do its job. I now find it much more comfortable and no less efficient. I think I will keep the shim.
 
Interesting approach.

I never had issues with my R41s in terms of blade chatter, but the issue is reported often...

There's another way to reduce blade chatter by changing the R41 top cap (replace the standard top cap with a topcap of RR SLOC). But, atmittedly, your solution is way more handy if you don't have access to a SLOC.
 
I have a 2011 R41(the more aggressive version) which I felt always had a lot of blade chatter and was hard for me to get consistently good shaves with. I tried using a top cap off of a Lord L6 which significantly reduced the blade chatter and made the razor much easier to shave with yet still extremely efficient. The Lord L6 top cap clamps the blade much better because it is wider than the original R41 top cap. My understanding is that the Lord L6 is a Merkur clone. I also tried a top cap off of one of my Merkur 3 piece razors and it worked the same and as well as the Lord L6 top cap.
 
You can also try on Aliexpress the R41 clone head..on sale for few bucks:

 
I have a 2011 R41(the more aggressive version) which I felt always had a lot of blade chatter and was hard for me to get consistently good shaves with. I tried using a top cap off of a Lord L6 which significantly reduced the blade chatter and made the razor much easier to shave with yet still extremely efficient. The Lord L6 top cap clamps the blade much better because it is wider than the original R41 top cap. My understanding is that the Lord L6 is a Merkur clone. I also tried a top cap off of one of my Merkur 3 piece razors and it worked the same and as well as the Lord L6 top cap.

Good suggestion! :thumbup1: :thumbup1:
 
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