Vintage Gillette Adjustable Safety Razors
When I first started shaving with a traditional, double-edge (DE), safety razor, I saw and heard great things about Gillette’s vintage adjustable razors. The common names for these razors are — “Fatboy,” “Slim,” and “Black Beauty.” [1] For those of us who might not know about these razors, Gillette introduced adjustable razors in the 1950’s. These razors have a dial which allows the shaver to fine-tune the closeness of the shave. The dial ranges from 1 (least blade exposure) to 9 (most blade exposure) with a distinctive “click” locking the setting in place. There’s a knob on the bottom of the razor handle that the shaver twists to open the head (TTO) and load the blade. Once the head’s been closed, there’s an additional ¼ turn to lock the blade in place. Another interesting thing about these razors (and a lot of vintage Gillettes) is they’re stamped with a “date code” on the bottom plate. [2] The date code is a letter indicating the year and a number identif...