Futur Knock-off: an early review

I know there's a thread on this razor already on this forum, but that got sidetracked a bit with people weighing in on the morality of buying a knock-off razor. Jerry's review got buried a bit in that thread, so I decided to start a new one to focus on the performance of the razor itself.

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This is a review of the Gold Futur Knock-off (made in China) that Shaveabuck sells.

Price: I bought mine from Jerry, off the BST subforum here. The price was $39, though the price from Shaveabuck has now gone up a bit, it's still cheaper than the Merkur Futur. My reasoning was that if the razor worked like a Futur, it was a good deal.

First impressions: On opening the box I got from Jerry, I immediately noticed something he pointed out ---- it is heavy. It apparently weighs in at 150g, and most of my razors are about 80g, so this is significantly heavier than any DE razor I currently own. The weight is apparently due to the fact that it is made of brass (reportedly).

I looked the finish over carefully, and I couldn't find any obvious blemishes. It is a gold-tone razor, and I don't like gold, as a rule, so it doesn't do anything for me. Still, I cannot complain about any aspect of the finish.

It looks just like a Futur (as was intended), and even though it's heavy, it feels balanced in the hand.

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Mechanism: The adjustment mechanism aligns well at 1. The adjustment is certainly stiffer than the Futur (going off memory). Also, it doesn't stop at 6....you can keep going and loosen the adjustment until the head pops off. This means that it is basically adjustable over several orders of aggressiveness magnitude. I didn't try to use it past the first round of 1-6, but it seemed like the head was firm past that, so it is probably usable at higher aggressiveness, if that's what you want to do.

The head is exactly like the Futur, in that the cap pops off and you insert the blade on the tabs in the head. There is no play in blade positioning, and the blade is aligned well.

Since the adjustment is stiff (probably due to a firm spring), it stays where you set it, and will not change by chance during the shave.

Shave: The shave this morning was great. The weight of this thing leads to it mowing through my whiskers (coupled with a Feather blade today). There was some auditory feedback, but not as much as I remember from my Futur.

I set it at 4, and it felt very mild. So I moved it to 5 for the next pass, and it still didn't feel aggressive. I seem to remember that I found the real Futur significantly more aggressive at these settings. I think I could use this one set at 6 with no problems. I don't generally like aggressive razors, so this is on the milder side.

Of course, as I mentioned above, you could loosen up the head past the 6 mark, and that should make it more aggressive.

Regardless, the shave was excellent. Smooth, effortless, and close. This is an easy razor to shave with. It was a pleasant experience.

The lack of feedback did result in me loosening my technique a bit and it felt like I peeled my skin off in a small region in my upper lip area. This is certainly one of my only negative criticisms of this razor.

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The final verdict: Leaving aside the legality of a knockoff (an issue for the companies involved to settle), and the fact that it's made in China (some people don't like this), I think this a very good razor ---- excellent value for money certainly, and a great shaver.

If it was matte silver, I'd certainly keep it, and even though it is gold, I'll still hold onto this one for a while.

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I decided to quote Jerry's review here, just so it's also recorded in this review thread. I hope that's okay:

(04-29-2013 11:20 AM)slantman Wrote:  I received the gold knock off Futur today. Joe @ shaveabuck is very fast. This is a very heavy razor weighing in at 5.3 oz (150 grams) which makes it for me the heaviest razor I have ever owned. It looks almost identical to a gold Futur. I am sure there are differences but I couldn't find them. The adjustment works very good but when I kept turning it clockwise the head came apart from the body. No problem I just pushed the top down and screwed it back in. The genuine Futur works slightly different as there is a stop which doesn't allow you to unscrew the head unless you depress it. At first I had a hard time removing the top plate to load the blade but after doing this several times it became easy. I loaded the razor with an Astra SP and did one pass . The blade sits in nice and even and I set it at #4. The shave was very good. For $35 this is a nice razor built very well. But it is a heavy cutting machine. Overall I am happy with it.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.