So I picked up a rather crusty lot on Ebay and one of the razors in it was one of the vaunted "Slim" adjustables from 1968 which was the tail end of the production run. The Slim is also the last Gillette to be made entirely of metal. There are serious 'fanboys' of these things on the boards, and they sell for ridiculous prices normally, so I basically jumped at the chance to try one for little dough. Initial impressions? Construction is solid, but the quality of the materials is noticeably less than my Super Speed that is only 9 years older. It cleaned up well, as you can see. My 'fans' know that I'm into 'aggression' - the more blade the better, so I'm coming at the whole idea of an adjustable with a healthy dose of scepticism. Does it really have a purpose, or is it only as I suspected, a clever marketing gimmick? What are the 9 settings 'for'? Let's explore.
OK, I tried it out yesterday, with a fresh Derby. Started the WTG pass at "5" and it was kind of a joke - hardly any 'bite' at all so I immediately went to "7". 7 was OK, but no more aggro than a Super Speed. So I just opened the fucker up to "9". 9 was good and worked well. I then stirred up a minor shitstorm on B&B by saying I was underwhelmed and couldn't imagine using the Slim on anything other than "9". Some of the replies were pretty vehement! Some of the 'cooler heads' explained to me the 'why' - start high and then dial down on subsequent passes. Supposedly it increases the 'safety' as you get down to skin level. Gotta say I'm intrigued by this concept, although the opposite can be argued that too mild can mean you have to hit certain spots over and over which leads to irritation...
Shave#2: WTG at 9, XTG at 7 and ATG at 5. As predicted, at 5 there were some neck spots that required a lot of touchups. The pleasant surprise was on the upper lip where the different settings worked great and resulted in super smoothness. Basically I'm still on the fence. A cheapo razor like a LORD or YUMA works just as well, and faster in the right hands. For example, the Yuma does more on the upper lip XTG than the Slim does ATG on 5. On the third, mostly ATG pass with the Yuma I just do another XTG on the upper lip because you see, that's all it needs. 2 shaves is probably not fair before passing judgement on the Gillette, but I still believe that the outrageous prices these things fetch aren't really justified. Also, at least for me, I found changing the settings during the shave to be kind of a PITA, but hey YMMV. The best 'adjustability' IMO comes from just knowing how to drive the razor - when/where to use your muscles to subtly change the blade angle and pressure. If you can do that you don't need any dumbing down. It has been said that the most adjustable razor of all is the straight. The 'adjustability' of a straight is limited only by your level of training and physical coordination. Bring it on, haters!
TBC
YMMV.
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