Merkur Clone—A Good Thing
Gillette invented this kind of razor 120 years ago and it was so good it’s going strong in 2021. From its inception, disposable blade shaving has always made its money on the blades and given away the handle for a pittance. DE blades have long since been commoditized and there is very little profit left in them. There’s a little margin left in the brushes, soaps and creams that accompany this way of shaving but the razors and blades themselves are emblematic of their own thin profit margins. So it was gratifying to see Gillette delve into its heritage with little prospect of market reward. They didn’t go with one of their classic razor designs—a twist-to-open Super Speed, perhaps, or one of the great flat bottom Tech razors from their British factories. They still have the designs in the archives, but the tooling is long gone as are any employees with experience manufacturing those great old brass razors. So they looked around at current DE razor production for a good design. The one they chose, Germany’s Merkur, has been in production with basically the exact same head design for over 80 years and is considered by many to be the best DE razor in current production. Oh, there are plenty of fancier metals being used for razors: Stainless, bronze, titanium, aluminum, brass. But you can’t argue with the shaving geometry of the Merkur design. They nailed it. So Gillette licensed it from Merkur for production under the Gillette label and here we are. Every guy likes something a little different. I’ve got an awful lot of vintage Gillette razors, and this thing, a Merkur, is better for me than all of them. I don’t need another razor, so I ignored the introduction of the King C. But a couple weeks ago it popped up on Amazon Fresh for $9.95. A new Merkur 34c sells on Amazon for $40 and I don’t own one, so I thought about buying the King C. for the first time. Decided to buy and it was in my hands about 19 hours later. I popped one of my favorite Voskhod blades in it for the next day’s shave. Shaved with it. Meh. It was tuggy and a bit rough. I put that down to the blade pairing and switched out the Voskhod for a Feather. I’m not going to say I got the best shave of my life. I often get great shaves. This was a great shave though, and not from a $100 Rockwell or a $200 Karve stainless. It was from a $9.95 pot metal Gillette Merkur clone. That is remarkable. Those other razors are expensive because stainless steel is hard to machine into a razor. Theoretically they’re going to last a lot longer than this razor. But you are missing out on nothing as far as the shave is concerned, and as long as you don’t drop it and break it or strip the threads I see no reason it shouldn’t last a lifetime. Walgreens and CVS sell this razor for $20 all day. If you’re seeing it here for $20 just hit the Buy button. I’ve been shaving this way for years and I can’t think of a better way to switch from cartridges. All the Chinese razors you can buy on this site will do the job but most of them won’t do it this well. You get comfort and safety here along with enough efficiency to get soft and smooth in 3 passes or fewer—that’s a lot fewer blades going over the same patch of skin than with a multi-blade cartridge. Less irritation. A word about the handle: The chromed brass handle of this razor is an interesting design choice. You might like it. I found it a little too long and a little too heavy and a bit slippery too. I don’t care about slippery. Just touch my wet fingers on my alum block and presto, no slippery problems. But you might not like it. I switched it out for a generic stainless bulldog handle I had in a drawer. It was just a tad lighter but quite a bit shorter with a lot of knurling. It really improved the mechanics of this razor for me. As always, YMMV. You don’t need a different handle or Feather blades to get a good shave from the King C. Gillette safety razor. It is now my top recommendation for a first safety razor. I’m kind of a shaving geek. I get up 20 minutes earlier than I used to on shaving days (I shave 4 days a week) just to enjoy the ambience and feel of a high quality grooming experience. I’ve spent wayyyy more money than I ever spent on Gillette cartridges so I didn’t wind up saving money with my cheap DE razor and 7¢ Astra blades (which BTW work GREAT in the King C). I have so many razors, blades, soaps, creams, brushes, aftershave splashes and balms, even a $30 “shaving towel” from Lancaster Razor Works which I love and would buy again in a heartbeat. So I’m a very sick man. But I’m also capable of telling you a few things from experience. One is that you might not like this razor. In ten years of trying everything I could get my hands on, I found out that some of the stuff most of the guys lusted after, I absolutely hated. And vice versa. In all this time I’ve found ways to get free samples of soaps, creams and splashes so I can try before buying. But they won’t send you a free razor. So finding my favorite razors was about buying and reselling a lot of them. It was a pain and I still have a drawerful of razors that have to go. I won’t be using them but they’ll all be somebody’s favorite. Haven’t found any shortcuts. But what a find this razor was for me after spending thousands on much nicer razors that frankly were not a good fit for my skin and whiskers and technique. I cannot make any guarantees for you with this razor, because your experience will differ from mine. THAT I guarantee. I can say this is a pretty mild razor that tends to work better with sharper blades. Works great with Feather, sharpest in the world. But I typically use Astra SP, the green packaging, because I can get them on Amazon for about 1/4 the price of Feathers and they do a wonderful job for me in this razor. For you maybe. Maybe not. But a lot of guys like this combination. Haven’t tried the KCG branded blades in it. I’m sure they’re fine but overpriced. Astra, Feather, Nacet, Personna (Israeli “red” ones or USA “lab blue”), and many others are worth a try. They are amazingly cheap and you can buy 5 or 10 to give them a proper trial for you to see what works best. There are huge differences and you WILL have your favorites. If you’re not ready to go both feet into wet shaving with a brush and shaving soap, try the Crēmo brand shave gel in a tube. It’s in all the stores and does a good job. It’s very costly per shave like the goo in the push button cans but it smells better and shaves better. Give yourself a chance with a cheap synthetic brush from RazoRock or Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements, and a tube of Proraso green shaving cream or a tub of cream from Taylor of Old Bond Street. Try the grapefruit scent, or Royal Forest. Watch some YouTube videos on how to lather these creams properly for a good shave without wasting product. It doesn’t take much. You might think a tub of Taylor’s is expensive until you see how long it lasts. Heck, a tube of Palmolive cream is a great place to start and that stuff is cheap. The reason you should have a brush and a shaving soap or cream designed to lather with a brush and water is simple: multiple passes. You won’t get baby smooth in one pass with a DE razor. If you’re using Edge gel in a can you’ll blow through that stuff lathering up multiple times. A brush holds enough lather for all the passes you need for the smoothness you want. Good luck. Read more