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The Dollar Store Razor Challenge

My Dollar Tree does not carry these razors, so, when I was in Kansas City I bought 4 of these because I wanted to explore them and try to eliminate and variables of having a 1 off defect. I intended on checking them out thoroughly and selecting the best one to use for my trial next month.

Dave wanted me to send one to Bruce, and it’s on the way, so now I’m down to 3. I opened them up today, just to have a look.

Initially they look fine. Doors all open and close just fine, doesn’t seem to be any alignment issues. Then I looked at the safety bars and the way they came out from the razor. One side is curved more downward, and one side is more mildly sloping out. It’s a bit extreme, but it’s kind of like looking at the difference between a long comb NEW and a short comb NEW. The weird thing, is that all three razors have the exact same issue!

This could explain why why some have reported that one side was more aggressive than the other. I did my best to take a pic of each side from a perfect profile to highlight the difference.


You can see the frame on the left has more downward curve than the right.
 
it seems like everyone has had that. I am beginning to think my joke about it being on purpose wasn't as much of a joke as i thought.
 
Here it is with the blade installed. You can see there is a little bit of difference in the distance between the blade and the safety bar, and the resulting angle of attack of each side.



Butvwhat really gets me is how the razor is flexing the blade. You expect a razor to flex it into a continuous curve, bending it down towards the safety bar. What I see it that at the end, it’s actuall curving the blade back up! Making it more aggressive.

 
I approached this shave with some nervousness, not knowing what to expect. I paid particular attention to whipping up a thick, creamy lather. WTG went well, but it was immediately obvious to me that the blades was not very sharp. XTG went reasonably well, though slightly less so around the chin and upper lip. ATG was an adventure on the chin and upper lip. I had to shorten the strokes to mere millimeters to get all of the whiskers. Ended up with two weepers, chin and upper lip. All in all, a passable shave with an inferior blade, a DFS with a little blood, not requiring a styptic pencil. The razor had no issues: the play is sloppy, but the doors worked and stayed put with decent alignment. Not a bad shave, but not one I'd look forward to doing every morning. Days 2 & 3 to follow with the same gear.
 
Moral of this story...never say never!
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GearNoir said:
Sounds like Bruce is already planning ahead for his first shaves post-Assured. Someone get that man a Graham Field!
Click to expand...

KJ, I've never gotten 65 shaves out of any blade. At the first sign of tugging, it's gone, unless it's an Assured!

No need. I'll just PIF it to some brave soul.
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Assured Razor & Blade shave #2:

Exact same gear as in photo above. I was more confident this morning, but still careful. The shave went very well. In both shaves I did not alter my routine. Today I got a DFS with no weepers. We will see how it goes tomorrow, my third and final Assured razor shave. So far, so good, but nothing to write home about.
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