Scotto's Musings on DEs

[Scotto]

Day three of the Futur. Man, this razor pi$$es me off. I am getting great shaves with it, but the design really gets to me. Today I dropped it in the sink as I was shaving. Darn handle is too slippery, and the head and blade flew off to boot. I think if Merkur put the Futur head on the Vision body it would be a winner.

If I wasn't getting such great shaves, this razor would spend its days in the closet. As for the slant bar, I haven't picked one up yet.

 

[roughrider]

The FUTUR's one flaw is the lack of grip. I haven't dropped mine yet. You could always wrap a rubber band around it.

 

[guenron]

Day three of the Futur. Man, this razor pi$$es me off. I am getting great shaves with it, but the design really gets to me. Today I dropped it in the sink as I was shaving. Darn handle is too slippery, and the head and blade flew off to boot. I think if Merkur put the Futur head on the Vision body it would be a winner.

If I wasn't getting such great shaves, this razor would spend its days in the closet. As for the slant bar, I haven't picked one up yet.

Ave Scotto,
We have very similar opinions on these razors. It took a moment of extraordinary RAD for me to buy the Futur as I had such great disdain for the pull me off-cut you up cap. I think the adjustment mechanism is far superior to the Progress and about as good as the Vision.
Your observation on the hybrid FuSion is interesting. Unfortunately it is the mechanism for the clam shell (butterfly if you wish) doors that causes the high clearance shaving head. Oh well. Perhaps someone at Dovo is reading our musings?

 

[guenron]

The FUTUR's one flaw is the lack of grip. I haven't dropped mine yet. You could always wrap a rubber band around it.

Anyone want to try painting the handle with latex paint?

 

[Scotto]

Or dipping it in some sort of rubber compound. Then you could do it in all sorts of way-cool colors and attract a new breed of wet shavers.

 

[Joe Lerch]

I think if Merkur put the Futur head on the Vision body it would be a winner.

I think you have it backwards. I wouldn't want that head on any razor.

As for having a winner. They already have that in the Futur. I don't now how old it is, but I've had mine for 40 years. It has the Hoffritz name on it. I got mine as a gift. Hoffritz was a prestigious cutlery store that carried only the best German products. The Futur was its premium razor, while you could buy the Gillette DEs in any drug store. That snap on head was always a nuisance, and I could never understand why they didn't have butterfly doors like the Gillettes. Now I'm thinking that maybe Gilette had a patent.

After all my experience with the Futur, I concluded that it was a harsh razor and not user friendly. After analyzing the head in photos I found that the head design prevents it from having as flat a minimum blade angle as a Vision or Gillette. That would cause it to be harsher.

The Feather blades transformed the Futur, making it very smooth and the closest shaver of any of my DEs. This gave the razor a new lease on life and put it back in my rotation.

 

[rtaylor61]

Joe,

Do you still use your original Futur, or have you "upgraded" to a newer version?

Randy

 

[Joe Lerch]

Joe,

Do you still use your original Futur, or have you "upgraded" to a newer version?

Randy

I use the original. I've compared it to new ones and they look, feel and operate the same. I haven't done anything special with it and it has held up pefectly. I do keep it in its original plastic case.

 

[Scotto]

I think you have it backwards. I wouldn't want that head on any razor.

As for having a winner. They already have that in the Futur. I don't now how old it is, but I've had mine for 40 years. It has the Hoffritz name on it. I got mine as a gift. Hoffritz was a prestigious cutlery store that carried only the best German products. The Futur was its premium razor, while you could buy the Gillette DEs in any drug store. That snap on head was always a nuisance, and I could never understand why they didn't have butterfly doors like the Gillettes. Now I'm thinking that maybe Gilette had a patent.

After all my experience with the Futur, I concluded that it was a harsh razor and not user friendly. After analyzing the head in photos I found that the head design prevents it from having as flat a minimum blade angle as a Vision or Gillette. That would cause it to be harsher.

The Feather blades transformed the Futur, making it very smooth and the closest shaver of any of my DEs. This gave the razor a new lease on life and put it back in my rotation.

I am somewhat confused, Joe. You say you wouldn't want the Futur head on any razor, but then go on to say the Futur is a winner. Did you mis-type, or did I misunderstand?

the Futur has a reputation as a harsh razor, but I have found it much more gentle than the Vision. I agree that the Vision presents a much flatter blade angle than the Futur. For me, that makes it harder to control the angle of the blade to my face, leading to irritation. The Futur feels much more natural to me. Of course, the design stinks, so how it shaves is somewhat irrelevent to me.

 

[roughrider]

I am somewhat confused, Joe. You say you wouldn't want the Futur head on any razor, but then go on to say the Futur is a winner. Did you mis-type, or did I misunderstand?

the Futur has a reputation as a harsh razor, but I have found it much more gentle than the Vision. I agree that the Vision presents a much flatter blade angle than the Futur. For me, that makes it harder to control the angle of the blade to my face, leading to irritation. The Futur feels much more natural to me. Of course, the design stinks, so how it shaves is somewhat irrelevent to me.

I think Joe stated that the Feather blade transforms the Futur into a much better razor.

 

[Joe Lerch]

I am somewhat confused, Joe. You say you wouldn't want the Futur head on any razor, but then go on to say the Futur is a winner. Did you mis-type, or did I misunderstand?

the Futur has a reputation as a harsh razor, but I have found it much more gentle than the Vision. I agree that the Vision presents a much flatter blade angle than the Futur. For me, that makes it harder to control the angle of the blade to my face, leading to irritation. The Futur feels much more natural to me. Of course, the design stinks, so how it shaves is somewhat irrelevent to me.

I was just pointing out that the Futur has already been a success. That doesn't mean that it couldn't use improvement or that I would want it's head on my Vision.

I don't understand what you're saying about the agle. If I could find a razor that would shave with the blade flat against the skin that would give me the most control of angle- all the way from 0 to 90 degrees. The design of the Futur doesn't let you drop below about 30 degrees. So, I guess it's easier to control because you have a narrower range of angle, but it also accounts for its harshness. A 90 degree angle makes a blade a scraper. As you reduce the angle, the amont of scraping decreases, removing a major source of irritation. If you can't get below 30 degrees, you're forced to accept a certain amount of irritation. I'm sure the razor was designed to minimize that, but it can't prevent the razor from being somewhat harsh.

The fact that the Futur feels more natural suggests that you are used to using more than the flattest angle. So, the Vision may be harder to control because you have all that additional control of angle available. The reason you get more irritation from the Vision is that you're going to th 30+ degree angle that you're used to and using the Vision at very irritating angle. I suggest that when you go to a razor other than the Futur, you find the flattest angle by raising the handle perpendicular to the face and reducing the angle until the razor just begins to cut. At the same time you can reduce the pressure on the razor (really try to make it zero with the Vision), because minimizing the angle allows you to apply a lower pressure.

Sometimes we forget that every razor is different and requires a different technique to be used optimally. The first thing to do when trying a new razor is to find it's flattest angle and minimum pressure and work with that.

The design of the Futur doesn't stink. It just has shortcomings: the snap on head and the excess minimum blade angle. The only thing you can do about the head is be careful. I always use a towel when I open the head or change the exposure. The blade angle limitation seems to disappear when you use Feather blades, and then it becomes surprisingly smooth and close shaving.

 

[Scotto]

Joe, the angle I am talking about is the angle of the blade relative to the head. The Vision has it flatter (more perpendicular to the handle) than the Futur, thus I have to hold the Vision at a more unnatural angle when shaving. In other words, with the Vision wide open, I am holding the handle close to parallel with the floor to get the right angle, which I find uncomfortable and harder to keep constant as I map the terrain of my face. I think perhaps we are saying the same thing.

 

[Joe Lerch]

Joe, the angle I am talking about is the angle of the blade relative to the head. The Vision has it flatter (more perpendicular to the handle) than the Futur, thus I have to hold the Vision at a more unnatural angle when shaving. In other words, with the Vision wide open, I am holding the handle close to parallel with the floor to get the right angle, which I find uncomfortable and harder to keep constant as I map the terrain of my face. I think perhaps we are saying the same thing.

That's the angle I'm talking about too. With most razors that angle will be the same as for the Vision. And if if the handle is close to perpendicular to the face it's the optimum angle. If you're getting irritation with that angle you need to look at some of the other possible causes, like pressure, blade exposure and the aggressiveness of your shaving style.

 

[Scotto]

I continue to really enjoy this razor from a shaving (not design) perspective. It is much more natural to me than the Vision. Then again, I started with the Vision first, so that might have helped the learning curve with the Futur. I'll be curious to try a Feather blade in this razor, since folks seem so keen on that combo. I am going to give the Futur/Merkur blade another week I think, but then again I just got this new str8, .... too many choices.

 

[Scotto]

I have a Feather in the Futur ready to go for tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how the inaugural journey goes....

 

[guenron]

I have a Feather in the Futur ready to go for tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how the inaugural journey goes....

Hi Scotto,
When I first got the Futur the blade for the maiden voyage was a Feather. I set the razor to 5. Great shaves, challenged the Vision. Today I rotated back to the Futur loaded with a Merkur after some Vision and Progress time.. Same setting for this morning's shave. Not bad, but not as smooth a shave experience. I'm going to open it up tomorrow and see if that makes a difference. I did get a good, close, long lasting shave though. Each razor is truly a different tool. My week with the Progress with Merkur was A+ every day.

 

[Scotto]

My last few weeks with the Futur and a Merkur blade have produced the smoothest, best shaves ever. I am going to start on a 3 tomorrow with the Feather and see how it goes. After a couple of weeks with the str8, though, my skin is feeling pretty tough.

 

[Scotto]

Well, first shave with the Feather in the Futur was a success. In retrospect, I could have shaved with it wide open as I usually do, but discretion is the better part of valor, as they say.

I like these blades a lot. Very smooth shave, and they appear to do a better job on my gorilla-whiskers than the Merkurs do. Going across and against the grain with Merkurs, I always feel a bit of pulling around my chin and moustache area which can get a bit uncomfortable. Not so with the Feathers. These babies are so sharp that they cleaned up those areas with no discomfort. I am looking forward to cranking the razor wide open tomorrow to really see what they can do.

 

[rschul2]

Glad to see things are going well Scotto. I've really learned to like the Feathers as (to me) they are the sharpest blade available. I'm currently using a Futur with the Feather set to wide open. One thing I have noticed about the Feathers though is that once they are ready to be switched out, they give little to no warning....I'm just cruising along and all of a sudden I have lots of tiny nicks all over my face. At least with the Merkur blades, they begin to tug a bit when they are becoming dull. That has not been the case for me with the Feathers...they just start nicking me. I've learned to just always shave with a new blade each Sunday, and I haven't had a problem since.

 

[guenron]

Glad to see things are going well Scotto. I've really learned to like the Feathers as (to me) they are the sharpest blade available. I'm currently using a Futur with the Feather set to wide open. One thing I have noticed about the Feathers though is that once they are ready to be switched out, they give little to no warning....I'm just cruising along and all of a sudden I have lots of tiny nicks all over my face. At least with the Merkur blades, they begin to tug a bit when they are becoming dull. That has not been the case for me with the Feathers...they just start nicking me. I've learned to just always shave with a new blade each Sunday, and I haven't had a problem since.

Hi Randy,
It's amazing how similar the results we are both receiving. I was getting 8 or 9 shaves from the Feathers if I was willing to accept the change me now nicks. I wasn't and now they get 7 days max. The Merkurs I can use until I get diminished closeness without fear. They do have a nasty problem with dragging like crazy against the grain on the moustache and environs when it is time to retire the blade. Seven days will have to be enough.
I was reading an article from the early eighties where two or three different testing agencies arrived at the conclusion that you should be able to get 40+ shaves from a "GOOD" blade (whatever that was). I can't get that even if I count each pass as a shave.