Thread: Merkur Futur Safety Razor

Wow,....nicely done Christian.
You covered that very well,...thanks,
Ralph

Could not have described it better ! Great response.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Says a lot about guys who think about what's best for someone else than just themselves. I think I will give it another shot. I will first just use my regular method. I shave in the shower at the very last. I'll use my Edge shaving cream. I have an assortment of blades. Which one do you suggest?

We're not only nice, we're poor losers. No one here wants to lose you to a measly cartridge razor.

I have no valid input as to blades since I don't shave with a DE, but you may want to explore a nicer shave soap/cream that will help improve the shave performance and lessen any irritation. E.g., Tabac, Mitchell's Wool Fat, Speick stick, etc. Get yourself an inexpensive badger brush and a nice soap. Even if you sell the Merkur, you can still use this improved lather prep with your cartridge should you decide to quit on us.

Originally Posted by lambwd

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Says a lot about guys who think about what's best for someone else than just themselves. I think I will give it another shot. I will first just use my regular method. I shave in the shower at the very last. I'll use my Edge shaving cream. I have an assortment of blades. Which one do you suggest?

I will BEG you to throw that EDGE as far away as you can. It is honestly useless... You will have better success with a bar of shower soap. In fact, I will sometimes use Williams Mug Soap or Pears Glycerine soap, lathered with nothing more than my hand with good success, and I dare say infinitely superior to *anything* in the Edge product line. Use soap and WATER, it is wet shaving after all. A brush is nice, but using either of the above two soaps with just your hand to create lather is sufficient. In fact, I would propose that the current Williams Mug Soap does better without a brush than with.

As for brand of blades... it's very individual, my favourite blade may be the worst you have ever shaved with. It sounds as if you have a sampler pack, in which case select whatever blade you wish to try... Use the blade until it needs replacing and replace it with another blade from the same pack. Continue until the pack is empty... then, and only then, will you know for sure what you think of that blade for you. Every so often you get a *dud* blade.... even if it's your favourite, you will on occasion run across a bad one. If you do, just toss it and grab the next one. You never really know if the first blade you try is a good one, so use the entire pack before trying something else. I know it sounds boring and switching brands every time seems more fun, but may keep you from finding that elusive favourite blade and thus waste your time/money/effort.

It's a brave world out there.... when I first returned to wet shaving in the early 2000s, there were maybe 3 brands of blades one could obtain.... Thanks to the internet, more and more blades became available to us over the years.

And one last thing... if you live in an area that has HARD water, it WILL mess up wet shaving, and you *may* have to take steps to find some soft water for shaving only.


Good luck


Christian

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

I will BEG you to throw that EDGE as far away as you can. It is honestly useless... You will have better success with a bar of shower soap. In fact, I will sometimes use Williams Mug Soap or Pears Glycerine soap, lathered with nothing more than my hand with good success, and I dare say infinitely superior to *anything* in the Edge product line. Use soap and WATER, it is wet shaving after all. A brush is nice, but using either of the above two soaps with just your hand to create lather is sufficient. In fact, I would propose that the current Williams Mug Soap does better without a brush than with.

As for brand of blades... it's very individual, my favourite blade may be the worst you have ever shaved with. It sounds as if you have a sampler pack, in which case select whatever blade you wish to try... Use the blade until it needs replacing and replace it with another blade from the same pack. Continue until the pack is empty... then, and only then, will you know for sure what you think of that blade for you. Every so often you get a *dud* blade.... even if it's your favourite, you will on occasion run across a bad one. If you do, just toss it and grab the next one. You never really know if the first blade you try is a good one, so use the entire pack before trying something else. I know it sounds boring and switching brands every time seems more fun, but may keep you from finding that elusive favourite blade and thus waste your time/money/effort.

It's a brave world out there.... when I first returned to wet shaving in the early 2000s, there were maybe 3 brands of blades one could obtain.... Thanks to the internet, more and more blades became available to us over the years.

And one last thing... if you live in an area that has HARD water, it WILL mess up wet shaving, and you *may* have to take steps to find some soft water for shaving only.


Good luck


Christian

Hmm. Maybe it's the water thing. I do know that my body soaps don't lather very well. I'm originally from Western KY and my soaps lather very well there. But here in Eastern KY there is a high amount of limestone that affects our water.

Now, about the Edge. I have tried regular soap before and I can tell you it felt like my razor was ripping every hair out! The Edge is by far superior to regular soap. However, if the Williams Mug is as good as you say it is, I will be glad to try it. Will order some today and compare. Thanks!

Originally Posted by lambwd

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Says a lot about guys who think about what's best for someone else than just themselves. I think I will give it another shot. I will first just use my regular method. I shave in the shower at the very last. I'll use my Edge shaving cream. I have an assortment of blades. Which one do you suggest?

If you are getting good shaves with your cartridge razor and the other products that you are using, then stick with them. However, if you want to continue with a DE razor and you want to keep your Futur, use it at setting one, get a good soap and a cheap synthetic brush and practice. Unfortunately, it does take some time to acclimatize yourself to DEs, but they do work, very well, once you refine your technique.
Regarding DE blades, you'll have to experiment as this is extremely subjective, for all of us.
Good luck.