Poor Man's fix for the Asylum 17-4

The Asylum 17-4 is such a beautiful and well made razor and I did not feel good about relegating it to the parts bin and so tonight I tried an old trick to see if I could coax the razor to shave the way it was designed to. Ever since my first shave the other night, I examined the razor closely to see how the shave could be improved. We all figured out that the bevel on the SB was not fully what it should have been, however there was a very slight bevel which gave the razor a negative blade exposure:



I decided to do an old trick I learned a long time ago to turn any razor into an adjustable. I got a rubber (or silicone) O-ring and placed it between the base plate and the handle similar to how folks like to put a nylon washer there. The purpose of the O-ring is to allow constant pressure to the base plate while loosening the handle to allow for slight adjustment in blade angle relative to the base plate. This does not allow for a full 1-9 type setting like a regular adjustable razor, but does allow for some adjustability.



Tonight, I was able to adjust the 17-4 so that the blade was more neutral or slightly positive and loaded a blade that was a couple of shaves from being tossed.



The reason I used an old blade was so I could feel what the blade was doing, and if I could get a decent shave with an old blade, I would get a better shave with a slightly new blade. WTG and ATG passes went extremely well - about what I was expecting from the 17-4. I finished off with an XTG pass along my jaw line and under my chin and ended up with a very comfortable BBS. this was definitely a change from my original shave where it took me four passes and a lot of skin stretching and buffing and still I needed to touch up with a different razor.

For all those folks that insist on using an equivalent to a stainless steel buzz saw to take care of your barbed wire beard, you can loosen the handle just a little more to get a positive blade exposure. this is something that I never tried nor want to try, but just letting you all know that it is possible.



Give it a try, all it takes is a trip to the plumbing section of your local hardware store. Bullgoose was nice enough to let us keep the razors, it's just an additional 10 cent investment to get a great shave.

What an excellent writeup Les - clear text and helpful pictures. Thanks.

Would using a few shims help with this issue? Has anyone who owns the razor tried to use some shims to see if it will shave?

Interesting tip...I always thought the washer was to protect the gnashing of handle against baseplate, and preserve
the like-new surface looks.

I will admit I don't see how this works as a fix, although I do not disbelieve what you're saying. I have a dread of loosening handles
while shaving...I like mine nice and taut.

Having said that, your pictures are so clear that I can now see the problem with the plate. Its amazing Bullgoose missed this on a
visual examination, because a non-engineer like me spotted it right away. He could've saved himself a lot of strife if he had ordered
101 pieces, and tried one himself before shipping them out.

Of course, hindsight is always perfect...yada yada yada.

Interesting tip...I always thought the washer was to protect the gnashing of handle against baseplate, and preserve
the like-new surface looks.

I will admit I don't see how this works as a fix, although I do not disbelieve what you're saying. I have a dread of loosening handles
while shaving...I like mine nice and taut.

Having said that, your pictures are so clear that I can now see the problem with the plate. Its amazing Bullgoose missed this on a
visual examination, because a non-engineer like me spotted it right away. He could've saved himself a lot of strife if he had ordered
101 pieces, and tried one himself before shipping them out.

Of course, hindsight is always perfect...yada yada yada.

You’re still exactly right, trust but verify.

Interesting tip...I always thought the washer was to protect the gnashing of handle against baseplate, and preserve
the like-new surface looks.

I will admit I don't see how this works as a fix, although I do not disbelieve what you're saying. I have a dread of loosening handles
while shaving...I like mine nice and taut.

Folks today are using nylon washers to protect the base plate from being marked by the handle. Nylon washers serve that purpose well, but not for the purpose of being able to slightly adjust the razor's shave quality because it does not compress/decompress the base plate. The rubber O-ring is used to be able to keep the pressure between the base plate and the cap steady, which sometimes is not possible when just loosening the handle. Some razors were designed to allow simply loosening the handle to be adjustable such as the PAA Ascension series, but these razors have severely curved base plates and caps to maintain the tension by bending the blade. Unfortunately, the 17-4 was not designed this way and so the rubber O-ring is needed to maintain the proper tension. Believe me, the O-ring insures that the cap and base plate is taut.

So in effect it's giving a slightly increased blade gap, I suppose, where the blade can get to whiskers ?
   Like someone said already,  I'm wondering about the ole shim, which might be more in the same gap increase.

Well done sir.

He could've saved himself a lot of strife if he had ordered 101 pieces, and tried one himself before shipping them out.

Of course, hindsight is always perfect...yada yada yada.

He actually posted that he'd been using one of the razors from the final approval, which was razor #101, for the past month + and it was fine. Somewhere between there and receiving the 100 razors something changed on the machining end. Having been in that industry its more common than one would think and to someone that doesn't know anything about a razor its just numbers and equations that a machinist is punching into a CNC and its clear to see he obviously punched in a wrong number in the bar area to cut the bevel...

Amazing....I guess this episode perfectly sums up why I'll never be an early adopter.