Thread: Probs with new Bismarck

Hi folks,

I've just read another thread about someone who had been having problems with their new Bismarck as well and its prompted me to post this.

I got my Bismarck from a reputable supplier and the razor was sold as shave ready. The first couple of shaves were pretty abismal, with alot of stubble left at the end so I had to touch up with my DE afterwards.

I contacted the supplier and voiced my concerns and they very kindly took the razor back for a re-honing and refunded my postage.

When I got the razor back it was sharper than before and would shave arm hair floating above the arm, though not as much as my other razor. This is a DOVO Black Star and I get great shaves from it, and I can shave vast quantities of arm hair very easily when holding the razor off the skin.

After shaving with the rehoned razor I still did not get as good a shave as I do with the Black Star and the keenness of the edge seemed to deteriorate over the course of the shave. By the end it was hardly removing any stubble at all and I had to do loads of passes to get an even halfway decent result.

I did actually strop the razor again during the shave which helped a bit, but not much. I also found that by the end of the shave I could not shave any arm hair at all.

I did follow the advice of just using the razor right out of the box with no stropping, and I've been using my black star for about 6 months now and, if anything, it seems sharper than when I first bought it..! So I`m pretty happy that my stropping isnt the problem.

So really I'm left with a few possibilities.

One, the razor hasnt been honed enough. I'm dubious of this though, because the supplier has an excellent reputation and I cant believe that it is their work at fault. I was just wondering whether these razors have particularly hard steel or something?

Two, its a dodgy razor.

Three, theres some secret technique to getting a good shave out of Bismarcks. But then why wont it shave arm hair when my other razor will? That just doesnt seem right to me.

So, what should I do next? Send it for another honing? Change the razor?

I really love the look of this razor and I dont want to give up on it. Plus the fact that my Black Star gives such excellent shaves, I cant believe that this is a one off dodgy razor. Its got to be something and its driving me nuts! Help!

EDIT: I've also tried a variety of angles on my face to no avail, both more and less than 30 degrees so I`m not sure what to do now!