Asymmetry?

Hi All,

I'm new to DE shaving. I've tried a straight years ago, and quite liked the closeness but had a couple issues with it. First I never was able to resist the temptation to go against the grain each time and this was just too much for my skin to take, then the stropping and whatnot seemed a bi onerous. I went with a shavette for a while after that (Dovo) and over time veered away from that due to time. Then I pulled the dovo out again recently and decided that I do want to get away from cartridges and began to think that a DE might be just the thing. A few weeks in now I would say that seems to be true - ths is working out great. I'm sure no small part of that is due to the fact that I have now managed to resist the temptation to go ATG.

These past weeks I've been quite enjoying my Merkur 180 and the Merkur blades it came with (using with Proraso pre-shave, shave soap, and after shave - all of which I really like). I also tried some Derby blades and found those fine too.

With that at background, now to the question:

I recently decided to pick up an EJ 89 for variety. I also got a varietly pack and first thing I loaded in there is the Israel Platinum blade. On the first swipe I thought Wow.... closer than my Merkur (which I was not expecting from what I read). Then with that side full of soap now I rotate the razor and swipe with the other side and it's like I'm just pushing soap around and taking very little whisker. So I open the thing up and I see that the blade has quite a lot of play and of course it's biased way to one side. So I center i the best I can and keep going, but it still feels asymmetric in its aggressiveness. Now I've pulled both razors apart and can't see an obvious difference. I suppose that next thing I'll do is experiment by swapping parts around between the two, to see which part the asymmetry seems to follow.

Curious if others have experience this kink of asymmetry with this razor, or blade, or with any configuration. Or... is that just part of the fun with manufacturing tolerances being what they are?

Appreciate any tips/suggestions/experience along this line.

Thanks,
Charlie

It's normal to have to manually center the blade a bit before tightening the head. And sometimes a tiny amount of asymmetry is to be expected. But if it's noticeable during the shave it's most likely a defective razor. It happens. I have a cheap Parker that has a big variation between the sides (a known defect of those razors), I just learned to adapt to it. However, the Parker is a cheap razor and the EJ is not, so it will be your decision whether or not pursue an exchange.

Thanks Ryan for sharing your experience. I'll have to give it a bit of thought whether or not to exchange it. On the one hand, I do like the more aggressive side of this 89. On the other hand, that's not quite what I was going for with this razor, and probably want to hold off on anything aggressive until I feel I'm ready to go for a slant bar or adjustable, which I'm happy to wait patiently for. I think Leisureguy recommends a few months for that. Again, thanks.

Many of the cheaper razors have the central spine too thin to accurately center the blade and uneven results even on the same side are common because the blade is twisted.
~Richard