Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Attention Merkur 34HD Razor Owners!

Yesterday I had a spirited discussion via article comments with a prominent member of the on-line DE community, shawnsel.

The Merkur 34HD

This discussion centered on my assertion that the 34HD razor head has been demonstrated to be different than its cousin, the Merkur 33 Classic. To say the least, some remain unconvinced.

To better help verify the truth, I'm requesting that anyone with a 34HD please mount a blade and take a clear, side-view close-up photo with the camera lens sighting directly down the blade edge (not centered on the handle), and then please forward it to me at my shavelikegrandad@gmail.com email address.

Then I can compare that view to a similar photo of the Merkur 33 in an article in this blog site, and hopefully this will help us to confirm what is actually true and what is not.

Happy shaving!
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4 comments:

  1. ShawnselMarch 4, 2015 at 10:51 PM

    There are some decent photos here (bottom of page):
    http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Blade_Angle

    While they are copyrighted, a couple of them might suffice for measurements?

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  2. Doug NealMarch 5, 2015 at 5:35 AM

    Thanks. I took a look; nice pics, but they are not taken from the best angle for best measurements. Best is with the blade edge centered in the picture -- meaning the lens is looking directly down the edge of the blade.

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  3. AnonymousApril 1, 2015 at 4:24 AM

    On this list of blade gaps it shows that there is a difference between the Classic (33c) 23c and 34 HD. All a bit confusing as they look so similar and makes choosing one very difficult!

    http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Double-Edged_Safety_Razors_Ranked_by_Blade_Gap

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    Replies
    1. Doug NealApril 1, 2015 at 7:35 AM

      Thanks for calling my attention to that list. Though they are measuring the more convenient dimension, gap, rather than the more significant but more difficult-to-measure dimension, span, it does support my assertion (of which I have no doubt, but others were not so sure) that the the 34HD is more aggressive than the 33 Classic. Certainly these gap measurements, if correct, indicate that the razor-head designs of these instruments are NOT identical. So I'd go out on a limb and say that, like the lone-gunman theory, this one is "case closed." ;-) It would be nice to have the actual dimensions of exposure and span, however.

      Also, if the gap dimension were definitive (and of course it's not), the 33 would be the mildest of these three razors. It IS the one that is always at hand in my bathroom cabinet as some others come and go. When ever my face is slightly abused and needs some recovery time, the 33 is the razor I will choose.

      Thanks for your comment.

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