The DE21 razor is our newest addition to our adjustable safety razor selection. We love the look of this razor, and it is built strong and robust, I dropped mine on my cobble stone shower floor during its second use and the cap, blade and razor jumped apart, apart from no resulting bent or broken parts, there was not even a scratch on the finish, pretty impressive. The design mimics that of the Merkur Futur, the cap and adjustment features are similar, with the DE21 being more streamline and despite's the Merkur's name, it also has a more modern, futuristic look. It weighs around 15% less than the Futur at 107 grams.
An interesting feature of this razor is the rubber strip that brings about a tauter skin where the blade makes contact to do its work. The razor does not have as smooth a feel to it when compared to an all metal, chrome finished safety bar, but it pays back in terms of the efficiency of the shave. Some razors are so smooth first timers think they are not taking down beard at all, this feels more like a cartridge razor, so it is certainly still very comfortable.
The razor has a handle that is profiled to a slimmer centre portion that seems to guide your hand to a lower grip with the heavier head then being able to do the job using its own weight and gravity better than most safesty razors. Although it has quite a smooth profile, even a sloppy shaver such as me who do not rinse during shaves had no issues with slips or slides. The machining of the lower end of the razor that spirals up is just so cool, and the striped etching on the base above the numbers complements the spiral effect well to make this a very sexy razor indeed.
The razor disassembles in about a 10th of the time the fastest guy in your platoon managed to disassemble and reassemble his R4 rifle, so this is your time to shine when it comes to easy maintenance of your guns! The components are large and chunky, so there are not really any fine nooks and crannies where soap can accumulate and cause jams or eventual corrosion, it is a well designed razor in this regard. The razor strips easily by lightly pressing the cap and base together and turning the razor handle anti-clockwise, assemble by reversing your actions.
The adjustability is via the handle (or head) that is turned clockwise and anti-clockwise. make sure you have a good grip on the head when adjusting when wet, the razor does offer indents on the sides of the cap making for better grip, so it is quite easy to adjust prior to, or during the shave.
The razor has sufficient openings in the form of two slots at the bottom of the base to allow for good flow-through of shaving soap or cream, like with most safety razors I completed a single pass shave from A to Z without the need for a single rinse under a tap or in the basin.
It is still a nice and heavy razor at 107 grams and has a very solid feel to it, the razor stands 117 mm tall and is 52 mm wide on the cap, easily covering all parts of the blade apart from the working sides.