Thread: Merkur FUTUR Gold plating issue

I got in a new Gold Merkur Futur Friday (7-29-11), but I notice that there is a few spots underneath on the top part of the razor head that seemed to miss getting gold plated. Is this a rather common occurrence? Has anyone else had a bit of gold missing here or there on their FUTUR?

I can't answer your question but it is a sign of poor workmanship. Eventually all gold plate will wear off but if it bothers you send it back for another. Personally, I would never buy gold plate unless it's for a now and then use razor.

I just got an email back from Bob at Elite Razors. He looked at 3 other FUTUR gold razors he has and they all have the same missing piece of plating. Perhaps it was some spot for holding in the plating?? Bob was kind enough to make sure I was completely satisfied. From his observation on the other 3 he has, perhaps this is not a single isolated issue. I agree on the now and then use. I understand from some feelings here and there on the net that the gold plated Merkur FUTUR is/was suspended and what is in the circulation of distributors may be all that there will be for a long while, if ever. It was sort of a "investment" piece or just to say I have one now, bought new, before they won't be found. I have PLENTY of others to shave with. I even have a matte chrome of this same model, FUTUR, that I have used. Incidently, the top piece of the chrome FUTUR fits perfectly onto the gold bottom of the all 24k gold FUTUR razor.

Bought two last year,both crap,lots of issues with merkurs of late from the other shaving sites.

I also have a Chrome-matte finish FUTUR I got from ebay. Nice folks! She bought it for her husband and he went back to his Gillettes and it sat in the drawer for a few years, so she decided to sell it on ebay for a nice "buy-it-now" price. I happened to do a search for new listing adjustables and saw it recently listed. Was a very good price, so I bought it. Only thing different about it was she did not have the original Merkur blade it came with as her husband used it as a trial. So, she sent along a Feather blade in it's replacement. Adjusts fine, actually they both do. I did a measurement with my digital calipers and they are basically the same opening at each setting. I thought maybe the gold might be a nice to have razor for the occasional shave, being it was polished I thought it might slide across the skin better than the matte razor. I'll say one thing. If anyone needs aggressive, this FUTUR has that in spades. At it's highest setting, 6, it moves the head up and lessens the "curvature" of the blade as well as opens up more exposure to the blade. 4 seems plenty to me, and at that it's a little on the side of "pay attention" It seems to cut closer at 4 than my Gillette Fatboy or Slim Adjustables do on 7. I think I'd have to crank the Gillette adjustables up to their highest setting of 9 to get the same as the FUTUR would be on say 5 or 5 1/2.

There is one thing interesting. The adjustments are tight and steady, no clicks. So, if you like it on a 3.75 or 3.8 that can be adjusted in as there is really no marking between say 3 and 4 except a "dot", but you can stop half way between the dot and any number if you are so inclined.

I got the FUTUR for $75.00 shipped so it is not that high of a price, but I wanted to find out if this was a commonality among the gold plated Merkur FUTUR razors.

There is a bit more to the story. I noticed that when I shaved with it the other night that one side of the razor was more grabby, aggressive, than the other side, same setting. Thought it might be the blade.

This afternoon I looked at the razor with the top piece off. Set it on it's lowest setting of 1 and then on the highest setting of 6. There is a major difference in gap between the piece that raises up and adjusts the blade exposure from one end to the other. Pictures below illustrate the gap. End A has a "dot" and end B does not have the dot. Then I included a side view at the highest setting of 6. You can see that the adjustable piece slopes more to one side than the other. This is not the same way with my older chrome FUTUR. I believe this is a definite defect. The missing gold one could live with, but this is an actual affect on the shave worthy of the razor. In the pictures end A and B as they are sitting in the trough of the razor. I have actually measured the distance of the difference of the gap at the highest setting. But, I believe you will see it for yourself without the actual measurements. Quite a quality issue I believe.





HIGHEST SETTTING:



Other end:


Side view


.

I looked at this and the chrome model I have, and it is perplexing. I bought the chrome one from a lady on ebay that bought it for her husband and he went back to his Gillette razors after trying it and it sat in the drawer for a few years. So, it is not the new model, but look exactly like the polished gold model, but adjsuts, or turns much easier. FWIW, I contacted th vendor, the original seller of the Gold Merkur and he wanted me to send it back for a replacement, which I did today. I would think Merkur/Dovo would have better QC that to let this leave like it did.

Contacted the vendor and he wanted me to send it back for refund or exchange. Mighty nice of him, so I obliged asking only for a replacement. He looked over the 11 of his razors and found the best of the best. Then he took a gold cap from a new shipment and exchanged it. The new ones had complete plating on the underneath of the top cap.

I've used the new replacement and it shaves very nice with the right blade. It would seem it does exceptional with Personna Med Prep blades and a couple of others. Does alright with the IP blades. Tried a Voskhod blade and noticed that one side seemed like it had better exposure (more cutting of whiskers) than the other side. I have not seen this on the Med Prep's of Personna. I used the digital calipers and measured the blade in question, which obviously made it a candidate for the recycle can. Measuring from the inside cut-outs to the outside of the blade cutting edge there was a difference. Not much, maybe 4 thousandths, but it was there.

Another thing is I got an email from Mekur after I sent pictures of the top plating issue to them. She said that it is normal, and they do that on the underside so that it is not visible when it is all together. Sounds like a "Cover Your *ss" reply to me, since I have heard from others that their top piece is completely plated and so is the new one from the verndor. It was very nice of the vendor to exchange the razor. However, it is kind of sad that one has to "cherry pick" though a number of razors to find one of better quality. My notion is they should all be ok or none.

In this day and age if you took any product and looked at it under magnification you will see flaws. Heck you can go out and buy a fancy new watch for 3 grand and you will have issues with it. It's just the sad state of affairs and the fact folks accept the stuff.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

In this day and age if you took any product and looked at it under magnification you will see flaws. Heck you can go out and buy a fancy new watch for 3 grand and you will have issues with it. It's just the sad state of affairs and the fact folks accept the stuff.

As long as people keep posting the Merkur 34 and such in lists of "beginner razors to get" Merkur will continue to sell their sub-standard over-priced razors to people who are used to "Gillette plastic vibrating handle quality"... they won't know the difference, as long as big chunks of plating don't start falling off, or until they actually LOOK and SEE the mis-alignment on the head of a $75+ Futur razor.