Merkur Progress - What Year

Skylarking

Skylarking

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170
Hi all,

I've never had blade alignment problems until today, the voskhod was vastly out of line. It was fixed and I'm not overly worried about it but it raises questions that I've been meaning to ask for a while about my Progress.

I bought my Progress used. I've always wondered what year it was manufactured? I know it's not a vintage, I'm just curious. The alignment indicator triangle on the side looks different to all those I've seen online. What are the bad years where QC was shoddy, and are brand new models now perfectly alligned?

Pics below. I have the box too if that helps determine the age?

Many thanks

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I bought my first one in 2016 after reading Merkur had recently replaced their casting molds so every metal part looked very crisp however the plastic end knobs were very rough around the edges (literally!) They appeared to have switched to an inferior type of plastic... The blade alignment however was perfect.

Here's an album of that 2016 Progress: https://flic.kr/s/aHskB2y2av

Merkur have since sorted the plastic issue so now they have crisp metalwork, good quality plastic and still no blade alignment issues, which I can confirm having just bought another... Must say, yours looks exactly like the one I just bought (apart from the red dot, a DIY addition I presume as Merkur haven't done this for years.) Based on this I would guess yours is a couple of years old at most.
 
Rohleder said:
I bought my first one in 2016 after reading Merkur had recently replaced their casting molds so every metal part looked very crisp however the plastic end knobs were very rough around the edges (literally!) They appeared to have switched to an inferior type of plastic... The blade alignment however was perfect.

Here's an album of that 2016 Progress: https://flic.kr/s/aHskB2y2av

Merkur have since sorted the plastic issue so now they have crisp metalwork, good quality plastic and still no blade alignment issues, which I can confirm having just bought another... Must say, yours looks exactly like the one I just bought (apart from the red dot, a DIY addition I presume as Merkur haven't done this for years.) Based on this I would guess yours is a couple of years old at most.
Click to expand...

Yes ours look identical, I added the red dot (i forgot about that!).
 
I just spent a few minutes with the voskhod, took ages to get it to allign. Tried another brand new voskhod, that too was a pain.

Put the same voskhods in my DE89 - Perfect straight and true.

Dropped a new Astra in to the Progress, no faffing, aligned perfectly. Tried again a few times, spot on every time.

Do certain brands just work better than others?
 
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