When I was still living in the USA, I bought a Merkur 37C. I’d heard that, in spite of imperfect finish, it was an awesomely efficient razor. So I paid the 40+ dollars it cost in the USA and brought it home. The finish was indeed lacking, like the chrome which did not perfectly followed the teeth of the safety bar for instance. To me, that was no big deal at all — so long as it shaved right.
Anyway, so I loaded a blade in and, after struggling a bit, got it aligned on both sides with the top cap. That playing around with the blade didn’t bother me much either: I knew the blade wouldn’t fit in as perfectly as it did in my Edwin Jagger razor; and again, as long as it shaved right…
However, I soon discovered that the cap had been ground shorter on one side, meaning that blade exposure was greater on one side of the blade. That did bother me a bit, but I soon accepted the fact that my razor would possibly be a tad more aggressive on one side of the head than on the other. I actually found that it might not be a bad thing; I could modulate the level of “aggressiveness” (or efficiency, I like this term better) I wanted as I went on with my shave. I did contact Merkur at that point though, because that was a problem with their setup at the factory, and to me it qualified for a replacement cap already. I started obsessing over my razor a bit. We razor geeks are a bit ridiculous at times, let’s admit it. But then, after looking at the blade exposure in the sunlight, in different angles, I found that my blade was wavy! Not only was one side of the cap ground shorter (which I could see because, in addition to blade exposure being greater on one side, the scalloping on the cap was also visibly shorter on the side with greater blade exposure), but also the shorter side was not ground evenly, and there was a “inward belly” where the edge should have been straight… This caused the blade to come up at that point, to fall back again on either side of the “belly”. That was not acceptable to me. I thought, if you are to make money out of selling engineered pieces of metal, it has to be done right. So I contacted Merkur again. For the longest time, they kept telling me that uneven blade exposure was how slants work, although of course I knew that and was not talking about blade gap. After many emails, they knew I wouldn’t let that one go, and they sent me a replacement part after I’d moved back to France. The replacement part had the exact same defect. I ended up giving the razor to a friend.
I’m not sure how, or whether this impacted the shaves I got from this razor (which were by no means terrible, but never struck me as fantastic), but as I’ve said before, if you are to make money selling engineered pieces of metal, you must do it right. So that was my first — and last — experience with Merkur. Merkur strikes me as a brand that lives off its name and… nothing more. I don’t know that they’ve come up with innovations in a very long time, and they charge a good amount of money for faulty razors. I could understand if at least they sold their razors cheaper than others do, like Fatip does, but they don’t. I have a very high opinion of German brands, they build cars with minute attention to details, they have a reputation for high-level engineering and perfection. The Merkur I had, and its two caps, simply didn’t live up to the idea people have of German manufacturing. And again, maybe I’m a bit anal when it comes to the stuff I buy, but although I was willing to disregard imperfectionssuch as chrome finish, I can’t accept that the edge of the blade isn’t perfectly straight in my razor. Some will think it’s tiny details, but how come my grandfather’s Gillette adjustable has the blade sit perfectly straight in it? I mean, it IS possible to attain perfection in this regard.
So, no more Merkur for me. There have been many reviews that shed light on such defects on their production lines, I don’t understand how they haven’t fixed the products yet. I guess they're products are selling so they're good enough for them.
In comparison, I’ve just received a Mühle R41, and that razor boasts an innovative design plus perfect finish, for the same price. And no I’m not affiliated in any way with Mühle, nor can I ever imagine them posting bad reviews on Merkur. They seem like a brand reaching for perfection, and the reviews that can be found on their products, in comparison with the ones that can be read on Merkur’s, is probably enough publicity that they don’t have to make the competition look bad.
Oh, by the way, in videos I’ve seen two ways of pronouncing Mühle (which means “mill”) with the correct accent. I’ve never seen anybody get it right, so I’d like to make things right: no diphthong there, but the two dots on the “u” make it not the “u” sound of “brood”, but the one we have in French, /y/ in phonetic writing. Not an easy one for English speakers, I’ll give you that. As for the final “e”, that people got right, it’s the “schwa”, that is the sound of the “a” in “about”.
My experience with Merkur
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