slant blade alignement

isaiah53

isaiah53

Joined
Saturday December 10, 2011
Location
british west hartlepool
just got my merkur slant in the post today and im really excited about giving it a try. just wanted to ask advice over the blade alignement, is it lined up with the cap or the safety bar? im sure ive read conflicting ideas before about this, and as im playing about with it at the moment, it makes more sense to me to align it with the cap but id rather seek advice from seasoned slant users. cheers.
 
I always align it with the cap. I put the blade against the cap, push it firmly in place, then holding the ends of the cap securely it keeps the blade in place while you attach it the the base plate.
 
I go with cap alignment but I'm not even sure it matters that much to be honest, sometimes I've just thrown a blade in and got started without thinking and the results have still been good.
 
Blade in and tighten it up. The razor will do the rest.

Any faffing about holding the blade or wiggling it makes a mockery of the term 'safety razor'.
 
I found the thing to do is once you re attach the end cap just lift the blade by the ends up against it before tightening and it sort of slips into a stable alignment. Easier to do than explain.
 
I unscrew the razor upside down so the head is down on the table and long screw parts are sticking up. Then put on the blade, and then still upside down screw on the handle. It's always been perfectly aligned for me!
 
joe mcclaine said:
Blade in and tighten it up. The razor will do the rest.

Any faffing about holding the blade or wiggling it makes a mockery of the term 'safety razor'.
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Sadly, dear Vinny, in this case your guideline doesn't apply, despite the fact that, for every other safety razor I've ever heard of, your no-nonsense approach is absolutely correct. Due to some annoying property of the way it's designed, the Merkur Slant is different. Might I point the OP (in as modest a manner as possible) to my own words in the "OC or Slant?" thread, which I shall quote below?

I've spent a long while trying to work this one out. As I see it, there are two complicating factors:

1. Having used both the pass-around Slant and the one I subsequently purchased for myself, it seems that two different Slants are not necessarily identical. My own Slant has much less of a difference in angle between the edge of the cap and the guard bar than the pass-around example.

2. Due to the manufacturing tolerances of the way Merkur makes the Slant, the blade can, as you've realised, sit in 2 different positions when the head is screwed in place, which is different from most, if not all other DE razors.

To give you an idea, with the pass-around Slant, I aligned with the guard bar, as aligning with the cap made it shave like a mild version of the 34c. On my Slant, I align with the cap, as it feels plenty aggressive enough.

HOWEVER, I think I know the reason. If you install the blade and get your eyeline set across the top of the head with the razor held in your hand as though you were about to shave you upper lip, and tilt it so that the top of the head, the blade edge and the guard bar are all in view at the same time, what you want to see is the blade appearing evenly across its width. If it sticks out a long way one one side, and disappears from view on the other, it's set incorrectly.
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What are we talking about here? You just sent me running upstairs, Chris! All I've ever done is as Vinny says - let the razor do the aligning, never a problem. However, I now find there is some slack between the used blade I chucked in (a NOS Wilkie) and the aligning prongs so that if I deliberately mis-align and tighten, I finished up with a slightly mis-aligned blade. If I just chuck the blade in and tighten - guess what? - no discernible mis-alignment. My face agrees.
 
Bechet45 said:
What are we talking about here? You just sent me running upstairs, Chris! All I've ever done is as Vinny says - let the razor do the aligning, never a problem. However, I now find there is some slack between the used blade I chucked in (a NOS Wilkie) and the aligning prongs so that if I deliberately mis-align and tighten, I finished up with a slightly mis-aligned blade. If I just chuck the blade in and tighten - guess what? - no discernible mis-alignment. My face agrees.
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Evening Carl - by "aligned", I presume you mean aligned with the cap rather than the guard bar? I'd be interested to know whether, if you align the blade in the way you prefer, if you then view across the top of the head as I mentioned in the quote I repeated, whether the blade seems even?
 
chrisbell said:
Bechet45 said:
What are we talking about here? You just sent me running upstairs, Chris! All I've ever done is as Vinny says - let the razor do the aligning, never a problem. However, I now find there is some slack between the used blade I chucked in (a NOS Wilkie) and the aligning prongs so that if I deliberately mis-align and tighten, I finished up with a slightly mis-aligned blade. If I just chuck the blade in and tighten - guess what? - no discernible mis-alignment. My face agrees.
Click to expand...

Evening Carl - by "aligned", I presume you mean aligned with the cap rather than the guard bar? I'd be interested to know whether, if you align the blade in the way you prefer, if you then view across the top of the head as I mentioned in the quote I repeated, whether the blade seems even?
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That's what I'm saying! The blade appears correctly aligned and evenly 'matched' on each side. Only if I manually mis-align does un-even-ness occur. The slant behaves as all other safety razors I own (except it's the only one I've tried to deliberately mis-align.)

Are we sure that your perceived or actual mis-alignment is not a function of the angle of dangle of the slanting blade, cap, guard bar - and consequently, of one's eyes?

isaiah53 said:
just got my merkur slant in the post today and im really excited about giving it a try. just wanted to ask advice over the blade alignement, is it lined up with the cap or the safety bar? im sure ive read conflicting ideas before about this, and as im playing about with it at the moment, it makes more sense to me to align it with the cap but id rather seek advice from seasoned slant users. cheers.
Click to expand...

Where did this idea of aligning the blade originate?
 
Bechet45 said:
chrisbell said:
Bechet45 said:
What are we talking about here? You just sent me running upstairs, Chris! All I've ever done is as Vinny says - let the razor do the aligning, never a problem. However, I now find there is some slack between the used blade I chucked in (a NOS Wilkie) and the aligning prongs so that if I deliberately mis-align and tighten, I finished up with a slightly mis-aligned blade. If I just chuck the blade in and tighten - guess what? - no discernible mis-alignment. My face agrees.
Click to expand...

Evening Carl - by "aligned", I presume you mean aligned with the cap rather than the guard bar? I'd be interested to know whether, if you align the blade in the way you prefer, if you then view across the top of the head as I mentioned in the quote I repeated, whether the blade seems even?
Click to expand...

That's what I'm saying! The blade appears correctly aligned and evenly 'matched' on each side. Only if I manually mis-align does un-even-ness occur. The slant behaves as all other safety razors I own (except it's the only one I've tried to deliberately mis-align.)

Are we sure that your perceived or actual mis-alignment is not a function of the angle of dangle of the slanting blade, cap, guard bar - and consequently, of one's eyes?
Click to expand...

I'd agree that the geometry of the thing can lead to some strange optical effects. That being said, I'm convinced that there's variability between individual Slants - the pass-around example wanted to automatically load the blade aligned with the bar rather than the head, unless you deliberately held it in alignment with the head. In that razor, aligning with the head lead to it being a very mild shaver, as the blade exposure, when viewed in the way I describe. By contrast, my own Slant seems to load with the blade parallel with the head 50% of the time, and the rest of the time slanted so heavily it actually slants more than the guard bar! In the case of that razor, aligning with the cap generates even exposure when viewed as described.
 
Bechet45 said:
isaiah53 said:
Bechet45 said:
Where did this idea of aligning the blade originate?
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just from reading stuff on forums. id seen it mentioned before, and as id never seen or experienced one in the flesh, i thought id ask on here.
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And what does yours do when you just chuck in a blade and tighten up?
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ive just had a few goes and sometimes its pretty much where it should be, and sometimes its uneven blade exposure.
 
I've two slants, both the larger Barberpoles, and they have blade movement until tightened down. One has slightly more play than the other when the blade is sitting loose on the head lugs.

Like a couple of folk have already mentioned, I match the blade to the cover. My own routine is to put a blade on the lugs, screw down a little then, looking straight down on it, I check both sides for squareness and exposure, to the head above it, before setting it right and tightening up. I mention exposure as it is possible on one of mine to have the blade square, yet with a lot more exposure on one side.

As far as loading a blade and tightening it down without looking and being alright, that person has either been very lucky or is an Internet hero full of idle, dangerous chat. All I can say from my own experience and research is to seriously avoid against doing that. I can see for myself how wrong it can be with a misaligned sharp blade and have read, from some well respected people, where they admitted getting awful shaves because of this mistake - mainly though just not knowing any better at the time.

Finishing on a happier note, loaded properly they're a fantastic shaver - well recommended.

Mark
 
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