Sunday, May 17, 2015

More on Gillette Slim and Merkur Vs. Personna Blades

Regarding the Slim....

Gillette Slim Adjustable made in 1963
Yesterday morning I wrote that I was keeping the Gillette Slim Adjustable razor in the cabinet as an as-I-feel-like-it alternative to my new BFF razor head, the Lord L.6 and the next-in-line Rimei RM2003. Yet after considering yesterday's shave with the Lord L.6 on a heavy handle and comparing that to the Slim's shave of the previous day, the inexpensive three-piece Lord design is noticeably less irritating -- so much so, that the Slim went back into the closet shave box; I'm only keeping it as a keep-sake in remembrance of my dad -- for the time being anyway; I may auction it at some point.

Lord L.6 razor head on the Maggard MR3B handle
So the shifting sands of my preferences continue, and my two bathroom-cabinet razor heads (for my beard) are simply the L.6 and the RM2003. For now I will use both on the heavy, fat Maggard MR3B handle.

I do still keep the tame Merkur open-comb razor, the 15C, in the cabinet for when I feel the need to trim up my hairline at the back of my head and the hair on the back of my neck.
The Personna lab-blue blade is sharper, smoother, and less
expensive than the Merkur Platinum blade, IMO.

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Blades Merkur Vs. Personna

This morning's shave was with a fresh Personna Super blade, the lab-blue with the so-called comfort coating. After last week with the Merkur blade, I wrote that it was as good but more expensive than Personnas. Today I amend that by saying the Personna is better -- and this isn't even my favorite Personna, which is the red label from Israel. I think the lab-blue blade is sharper and smoother than the Merkur.

So there's no way I would purchase the more expensive Merkur blade.

Those are my thoughts for today. Happy shaving!
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4 comments:

  1. Stephen McGuireMay 17, 2015 at 9:40 AM

    I do like the Lord L6 head but I like the Gillette Early Tech top better paired with the ATT Atlas handle better. I think the Lord L6 top is slightly more aggressive than the Tech top (by blade gap 0.025 vs 0.022 in). It's so close it's likely just preference. The heavy short handle makes it a great pairing.

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    1. Doug Hansford (DouglasNHansford@gmail.com)May 17, 2015 at 12:30 PM

      Hey, Stephen, thanks for your input. Yeah, I've heard good things about the Techs, and I'd like to try the right one. However, be careful about gap-based evaluations. As I've written about before, though the gap is easily measured, it has little relationship with the shave character of a razor head. It is the blade-bar SPAN that has a major influence on shave character, but unfortunately, the span is much more difficult to measure accurately. (Note: my early blog posts referred to the span dimension as gap. There came a point where a reader pointed out to me that these terms have meanings that are generally understood and acknowledged, and that I was using the term, gap, incorrectly. I now use the correct term, span. Yet the fact remains that published gap dimensions are not particularly related to shave character, while span dimension is, though it is generally unpublished. For example, in the L.6 razor head, the safety-bar cross section is rather unusual in that even though the gap is rather small, the span is large in comparison to the gap dimension, which accounts for the fact that the L.6 shaves more aggressively than the somewhat similar Merkur 33C razor head.)

      That said, how does one identify a Tech that would have the shaving character that you prefer?

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    2. Stephen McGuireMay 18, 2015 at 1:07 PM

      Hello, I agree gap does not necessarily equate to aggressiveness but it's something you can at least compare. :) Not sure I understand "span" in your context, I've compared the two razor heads and the bar is different, I think the top is higher and the bar is wider with the Lord but it's so close. The razor I use is a Gillette Early Tech Fat Handle but I've replaced the handle with the ATT Atlas. The top has triangle holes not long slots and weighs 24g without the blade. The handle is 24g as well. I purchased a 2nd razor of the same type and could mail it to you if you'd like to try it with your MR3B handle.

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    3. Stephen McGuireMay 18, 2015 at 1:33 PM

      Excellent, thanks I sent you an email with some info.

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