OK, so I've ever only owned a single DE (Futur), been using straights exclusively for about two years.
But lately I've been hanging aroung the DE section of the forums, seeing what's what....the new Feather really peaked my interest, and got me researching other stuff.
Now, in regards to DEs, there's alot of talk about how "aggresive" a razor is. Often this is equated with how much the blade is exposed above the safety bar.
However, as a guy coming from straights, which have no safety bar at all, I'll say that blade offset will have only a marginal effect, or should I say only a secondary effect.
What I would think would be more important to the *feel* of a razor, how smoothly it may cut your whiskers would most likely be related to incident angle of the blade to your face. As this is clearly apparent when using a straight razor. The balde is always goind to be directly on your face, but varying the angle of incidence makes a big difference in how the razor feels.
So, here are some pics I poached (two from TexBilly, one from me) where I have tried to measure the actual incident angle of the blade to the cutting plane of the razor (straight line between head and safety bar).
Bill's reports of how smooth the new Feather would bear out my theory, as the Feather, as measured here has the lowest incident angle of the three razors, while the Futur (set at 3) and the Tech both are at about 30degrees. However, if the Futur is dialed down to one, it changes the safety bar to head relationship, and therefore also changed the incident blade angle. With ethe Futur at 1, it also seems to have a very low incidence angle.
I am also calling upon you wisened DE users to post some similar profile pics of popular razors with blades loaded so I can make similar measurements and see if we can compile some data to find out what makes particular razors feel the way they do. ANybody have a EJ89 out there they'd like to share?
But lately I've been hanging aroung the DE section of the forums, seeing what's what....the new Feather really peaked my interest, and got me researching other stuff.
Now, in regards to DEs, there's alot of talk about how "aggresive" a razor is. Often this is equated with how much the blade is exposed above the safety bar.
However, as a guy coming from straights, which have no safety bar at all, I'll say that blade offset will have only a marginal effect, or should I say only a secondary effect.
What I would think would be more important to the *feel* of a razor, how smoothly it may cut your whiskers would most likely be related to incident angle of the blade to your face. As this is clearly apparent when using a straight razor. The balde is always goind to be directly on your face, but varying the angle of incidence makes a big difference in how the razor feels.
So, here are some pics I poached (two from TexBilly, one from me) where I have tried to measure the actual incident angle of the blade to the cutting plane of the razor (straight line between head and safety bar).
Bill's reports of how smooth the new Feather would bear out my theory, as the Feather, as measured here has the lowest incident angle of the three razors, while the Futur (set at 3) and the Tech both are at about 30degrees. However, if the Futur is dialed down to one, it changes the safety bar to head relationship, and therefore also changed the incident blade angle. With ethe Futur at 1, it also seems to have a very low incidence angle.
I am also calling upon you wisened DE users to post some similar profile pics of popular razors with blades loaded so I can make similar measurements and see if we can compile some data to find out what makes particular razors feel the way they do. ANybody have a EJ89 out there they'd like to share?
