Franken-nought-four

My first frankenrazor – or technically speaking, my first two.

First off, this is the Merkur 41C – also known as the 1904 – which is a razor with a good reputation, and one I don’t own:

I noticed that the head of the 1904 looks just like the heads on my Merkur 25C long handled open comb and my Merkur 985CL travel razor. It seems like the Merkur three piece OC’s all share the same style head…

As an interesting sidebar, I found while dredging the web for information on the 1904 and Merkur OC in general that they were actually intended to be adjustable… by loosening the handle 1/8 to 1/4 turn you can adjust the blade angle and gap, while the springiness of the blade should keep the mechanism tight. Needless to say I’m not too keen on trying it out… shaving with a loose head? Anyhow, back to the frankenrazor.

I also noticed that the nice handle of the 1904 looks very much like the handle of my cheap and cheerful Yuma – even if I do believe the Merkur handles are of a much, much better quality, finish and alloy than the cheap Yuma.

Cue wheels spinning…

Gentlemen, allow me to show you something:

This is the cheap and cheerful Yuma – which actually shaves rather well. Notice the handle.
This is the 985CL travel razor, which is a good shaver. Notice the head.

Drummroll please…

I present to you… the Franken-nought-four! The well shaving Merkur three piece OC head matched to the nice looking handle of the Yuma, creating a 1904 look-a-like razor.
The leftovers assemble into the Yuma travel razor… which I may never assemble again.

I could also have used the head from my Merkur 25C, in which case the leftovers would have given me a long handled Yuma. However there is a blade in that razor right now, and I’m not too keen on opening razors before it’s time to ditch the blade.

How the frankenrazors shave? I don’t know yet… but I am going to find out soon enough!

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