Yaqi AdjustableThere is so much controversy over this razor and truthfully I am not really understanding why all the fuss.
Yaqi have taken their standard Closed Comb head and mated it with a "Gibbs Seven Part" adjustment mechanism. The closed comb head design is used by a fair number of companies and the 7 part - Gibbs type adjustment mechanism is also used by a few companies.
I never managed to get the first version. When I heard that there was a local Yaqi agent I asked Fernando at Yaqi SA to see if he could get me one. He couldn't but put me down for the V2.
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Onto my thoughts on the razor itself.
Its an All Zamak razor and the price point for an adjustable is very reasonable.
The head part and twist knob are fine, the adjustment knob and handle are not.
They haven't fixed the problem that existed in V1.....
Yaqi001.jpg
So, whats wrong with the handle and adjustment knob.
The adjuster knob is nothing serious. They have made the indicator too small and it gets lost in all the chrome. Other than that it works as it should.
The handle is their biggest mistake. Simply put - you are able to screw the head too far into the handle. All their problems could have been avoided/fixed by machining a stop in the handle itself.
You can work around this by:
1 - Loosen the twist knob and install blade.
2 - Make sure that the adjuster knob is it its most closed, not tight though.
3 - Undo the handle 1 to 1,5 turns and at the same time made sure that the adjuster knob is still loose-ish
4 - Hold the handle and re-tighten the twist knob.
Now that you have everything all tightened up, the adjuster knob will rotate freely.
How do I know all of this - Well I have the T-Shirt, I made exactly the same mistake on the very first Gibbs Brass handle that I made.
Two other minor irritations are:
1 - It's calibration is 1 number out and
2 - the numbering is weird - 1,2,3,6,5,4 - Why??
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How does it shave:
I have the similar fixed head and have found it to be pretty mild. On the low settings this is slightly more aggressive. The fact that I can open the gap up on it has turned it into a pretty decent shaver. I found a fair a bit of blade feel but not as efficient as I would have expected. There is also a bit of drag but both the "high-end" Personna and the Rex have more so I don't see it as a big negative.
Overall, I managed a BBS in 3Passes plus some touch-ups.
Future plans - The thread is a very weird one and If I can get the correct tap I'll make a new handle that fixes the issue and also make a new adjuster knob with a decent size indicator that my aged eyes can see. At the same time I can calibrate it correctly. I believe that I have found the correct tap and have two on the way, one of which needs to be modified.
UPDATE 13/03/21:The Yaqi is now working as it should. I received the taps yesterday and first made the handle. As I indicated earlier in this post, there is no stop in the handle - such a small mistake. Last evening I made the twist and the adjuster knobs to complete the job. The adjuster knob has a nice big red dot. There is still some polishing to do. The image shows the fixed razor and the three parts that I replaced. (The fix only needs the handle.)
The handle was inspired by an Italian Radimi. I've been pretty keen to make one but didn't have a need for another handle until this popped up. I also prefer shorter handles so this is about 7mm shorter than the original.
Yaqi Fixed 02 small.jpg
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