Weber DLC. I get it now.

[VT_Hokie]

So a few weeks ago I posted a WTB thread for a Weber razor.


I've been wanting to experiment with pairing a mild razor with an aggressive blade to see how it would work out for me and my skin/hair type.


My current stable is a Merkur 1904 OC, Gillette Ball End OC and an L'Essor OC.


A few days later, I found myself in possession of not only 1, but 2 Weber razors. One Polished Head with Bulldog Handle, one DLC Head only. The past week or so they have been the only razors I've used to get the feel for them.


Let me first start out by stating that these razors are extremely mild. Where with most of my other razors can wipe my face clean in one pass WTG for a decent shave, these do not. The blade gap on these razors is so mild that it takes 2-3 WTG passes just to get every hair on your face down to an acceptable level before you start your XTG or ATG passes.


Terrible news, right? Wrong.


My face and neck have never looked, or felt, better. My face was never really an issue, but the hair on my neck is extremely curly and grows in 5-6 different directions with swirls on either side. I have to pay particularly close attention to my angle, pressure and direction down there or it's ingrown city. Usually I do a fairly decent job, but all it takes is one ingrown hair to flair up, get cut on your next shave, so on and so forth until your neck looks like hamburger meat and your ripping out ingrowns and taking a week off from shaving to heal up.


This is where the Weber shines. It's so incredibly mild and inefficient that it's nearly impossible to screw it up and go too hard/aggressive with it. I would go so far as to say I think you would have to actually try to cut or nick yourself with this razor.


So in the end, I think I've found my new go-to razor. I may try to explore slightly more aggressive models, but these razors coupled with a good sharp blade like a Feather or SI is absolutely wonderful.

 

[wagstaff]

I felt like I really "discovered" the Feather blades when I got around to using one in my Weber as well. The Weber is more aggressive than my DE89 though, or SuperSpeeds or Tech for that matter....

I'm curious to know whether you find a difference between the DLC and Polished heads. That might take a lot more shaves to really assess, I know.

 

[VT_Hokie]

I'm curious to know whether you find a difference between the DLC and Polished heads.

The Polished def has more of the traditional feel to it where the DLC has slightly less glide. Not a big difference as far as shave quality goes, but the DLC does look amazing.

 

[ckang79]

So if a Weber is more aggressive than an EJ, that must make the EJ one of the mildest razors made?

 

[celestino]

Congratulations, again, Matt!

 

[Battou62]

I love my Weber. It delivers the most comfortable shave I have ever had with any DE. I do think it is slightly more aggressive than the EJ I had, but it was much more efficient and smooth. Truly a bargain is the SS world and a very comfortable shave. The fascination with super aggressive razor is very over rated in my opinion. I want a razor that is easy to use and causes zero irritation.

 

[wagstaff]

The Polished def has more of the traditional feel to it where the DLC has slightly less glide. Not a big difference as far as shave quality goes, but the DLC does look amazing.

I think Techs and flair tip SuperSpeeds are milder than the DE89. The DE89 is milder than the Weber. My experience with the Weber is not the same as the OP... I don't do multiple WTG passes with it, or find it necessary to. But I don't know about a Monday morning, post-Lost Weekend shave.

 

[chris.hale]

I find the Weber shaves very close to a Merkur HD, so close in fact that I sold the Merkur. I certainly wouldn't call it inefficient.

 

[VT_Hokie]

My first razor was a Merkur HD, but it's been so long since I've used it I van't remember what it shaved like.

Maybe I've been using my L'Essor for so long that everythibg else just feels super mild to me.

 

[VT_Hokie]

Well color me crazy!


Just got home and headed straight for the Den and washed my face. Disassembled, cleaned and inspected both razors and then loaded them both with a brand new Feather blade.


Lathered up enough Panna Crema heart to shave a Water Buffalo and went to town.


Used the Merkur 1904 OC on the Left side of my face and the Weber DLC w/Bulldog on the Right.


The Merkur left my face with a CCS in 2 WTG passes. The blade felt a little rougher against my skin but no irritation to speak of. It feels like the shallower angle of the 1904 gives me more feedback on my skin and leaves little to nothing behind. The aftershave splash stung literally just enough to let me know that it had alcohol in it and was then gone.


The Weber on the other hand was a bit different. It left me with a CCS in 3 WTG passes. I swear, this thing feels so mild to me that if you told me that it didn't have a blade in it, I would have believed you. The steeper angle and tiny blade gap fools my skin for sure. The aftershave splash felt like water.


The Merkur is super efficient. It leaves almost nothing behind with every swipe and I could get a Socially Acceptable Shave in 1 pass and run out the door.


The Weber is super smooth, but nowhere near as efficient. It leaves some hair cut as clean as the Merkur on the first pass, and some patches look like they haven't even been cut. Tricky areas like the chin, adams apple and mustache area are the reason why 3 passes are required with the Weber. It just tends to miss a lot.


While it requires an extra pass, the Weber leaves me feeling like I got a better shave and my skin has never looked better.


That being said, I'm obviously the black sheep here. There must be something wrong with either my equipment or technique. My 1904 tends to screw in a little funny when I'm tightening it down to the very last threads and I *think* the blade may be seating on a slight angle. Perhaps this is why I feel like mine is more aggressive than the Weber?


I also suspect that maybe I'm not used to using a razor with such a shallow angle and small blade gap as the Weber, and perhaps the angle at which I'm holding the razor to my face is less than ideal. I normally ballpark the blade angle and go to town with similar results from all my other razors, but I've never had a razor that would miss as many whiskers as the Weber does.


What do you guys think?

 

[wagstaff]

blade gap isn't all that small on a Weber.... maybe you just really do need super aggressive razors. Maybe you're shallowing out the angle too much. Maybe you got a bad one (which doesn't seem likely).

 

[sgtd]

I have a Weber polished and use 1 shim in it. I find that enough to increase the efficiency but still keep the shave super smooth. Without the shim it's still a great shave but it just takes a little longer. Try it with a shim and see what happens.

 

[wagstaff]

I have a Weber polished and use 1 shim in it. I find that enough to increase the efficiency but still keep the shave super smooth. Without the shim it's still a great shave but it just takes a little longer. Try it with a shim and see what happens.

Excellent advice. One or two (maybe) shims might be revelatory.

 

[UngerWoo]

I was also going to suggest a shim. I love my DLC and I always use a shim.

 

[VT_Hokie]

I should have updated this post, but there didn't seem to be anywhere near as much interest in it here as there was on another forum.

I've taken some photos of both my DLC and Polished head and there is a noticeable difference between the two. I'll post the pictures.

 

[VT_Hokie]

Houston. We have a problem.


Anyone else see what I see?


These 2 Weber's couldn't be any further apart. Talking major differences in both the blade angle, gap and exposure. The pictures might not do it justice, but believe me it's night and day.


Now I see why I'm missing hairs with this DLC....


We'll start with the 1904 OC, then the Polished, then the DLC.


Merkur 1904 OC







Weber Polished







Weber DLC







Polished vs DLC

 

[VT_Hokie]

I e-mailed these photos to Ed Weber. His suggestion was also to shim the razor.

How does one go about "shimming" I imagine that I need to place more blade between the base plate and my actual blade?

 

[wagstaff]

I can't see night and day from the pics, but I'm not the most observant. Bad eyes. Certainly the gap looks tiny on the 1904....

You make a shim by cuttung off the edges of a used blade with scissors.

Are you finding the polished is much more efficient?

 

[VT_Hokie]

To my eyes, it looks like the blade is sitting cockeyed in the DLC and the gap between the base plate and the blade on the Polished looks to be about double than the one on the DLC.

Polished is much more efficient. At first they felt very similar to me. However, I was using a different blade in the Polished so perhaps that's what made it feel more mild than it actually was. Now that I'm using both of them with a Feather, the Polished feels more moderately aggressive and is perfectly efficient where the DLC with the same new Feather misses patches of hair.

 

[wagstaff]

My eye can't.catch it in the pics, but that's my eye.... seems like your got an "off" DLC... I have both too. I think the DLC is milder maybe, but the difference is slight enough that I don't know if it is placebo!