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What Causes Tugging?

Tirvine

ancient grey sweatophile
Microscopic whisker elves, belayed to the pins on the cap, sit on the edge of the blade and grab whiskers as the blade goes by them. They favor certain blades but can mysteriously appear on just about any DE or SE. When a blade is binned, they unhook their ropes, jump off, and wait for another blade to attract them. They usually wait only a few days but have been known to wait a month or more. Their tastes are hard to discern. They seem to like Dorcos and four day old or older Feathers.
 
Microscopic whisker elves, belayed to the pins on the cap, sit on the edge of the blade and grab whiskers as the blade goes by them. They favor certain blades but can mysteriously appear on just about any DE or SE. When a blade is binned, they unhook their ropes, jump off, and wait for another blade to attract them. They usually wait only a few days but have been known to wait a month or more. Their tastes are hard to discern. They seem to like Dorcos and four day old or older Feathers.
That's what I suspected when I started this thread!
 
Of my assorted crafty hobbies, I like doing projects with paper, one of which is making little miniature books (nothing fancy, very amateur). I started because I wanted a couple of books, to scale, and readable to go with a doll from my doll collection (another interest that leads to DAD as opposed to RAD). In fact, back when I was collecting razors, I had a nice little collection of tiny women's razors (the smallest was in a 1x1 inch box).. and I actually had it on display with a doll at the time. Anyway, this very neat, vintage booklet is screaming to be made into a tiny book, which I think I'll do, whenever I get a bunch of other projects finished up. It is also really good info.
1904-Doublering-Instructions.jpg

Photo from mr-razor.com
 
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What exactly is happening when you a razor produces a tugging sensation?
I had a lot of razors back in the day, most of which I didn't use a lot because it was while I was collecting, which was only a short period of time. I mention, only to make clear, I don't have near the range of experience with different types of razors.

I was kindly PIF'd two wonderful razors, a Slim, and Super Adjustable long handle. I was surprised that I had such problems with the SA, it stuttered/tugged a lot, and the Slim was basically fine, but I needed to work on technique still. I did try varying the technique with the SA, and it got a bit better, but I just couldn't get the hang of it. On reflection, I think part of the problem, for me, is that the weight/balance of a razor which is already important to me, had more of an influence than I had previously thought. I liked the handle length, but it was quite light, and to me, fairly head heavy. My Flare Superspeed that I love, is light, but it is also very well balanced. My Parker 26C is a bit aggressive, heavy, but again, a nice balance.

So, it occurred to me, that my techniques trying to find a sweet spot for the SA, may have been compromised by the balance/weight/length not working for me. I experimented a bit more, and reduced it, but finally concluded it wasn't the razor for me. I started with a new feather, also used it with a feather that had some shaves under its belt, a new personna, and a used personna. New feather made it bad, no real difference with the other three options.

As to the Slim, I got the hang of it, and it was a bit of muscle memory change from how I used my other two razors (which in and of themselves used different technique, mostly due to the Parker's weight. However a further improvement was when I gave them a good wash/scrub cleaning. It was clean when I got it, and since my Flare could use a bit of a wash up too, I did them both. It seemed a bit better, and then it occurred to me to give the SA a deep dive clean and major polish, focusing on the cap, and that gave even better results. Obviously this doesn't apply to new razors, but for vintage/second hand ones, there may be some soap residue that isn't looking obvious, that could possibly be adding to the problem. Maybe it was coincidence, but I figured mentioning build up on the cap might be a thing.
 
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