Gillette old type "adjustable" - 1907 marketing

I found this ad (below) and I thought it was quite interesting that is sates:

"... by a turn of the handle, is adjusted for either a light or close shave."

I realize this now: if you put one of the really old blades in an old type razor, you will find that the blade is so thick that you have to really crack the handle and head to make the blade flush. Gillette had the idea that if you loosen these old razors, you can change the blade angle. You can't do this with modern thin blades though, but there you have it: adjustable razors go back as far as 1907.

No one thinks that is interesting???

I do! It's the same verbiage as far as the adjustment as my 1918 WWI Set. Those instructions are on the wiki.

Hmmmm, that is very interesting indeed. I'm going to give it a go, break out one of the old types I have and dig into my old blade collection and have a look. No, I will not shave with the old blade but I can measure the gap...
I'll check back in when I find out more.

i accidentally shaved with a 3 piece that wasnt fully tightened.

...It was agressive to say the least. The thicker blade aspect however is interesting. Ill keep an eye out for some old blades to use.

I find this really interesting. I have tried this before, but with thin blades... They tend to be unstable if it isn't fully tighten, but you can unscrew it just a little little bit and you will see a difference in aggressiveness. Of course, it's not a really good Idea, I will keep an eye for the old blades

Or you could get a normal thin blade, and get an old one, cut the cutting edges off the old one and put it underneither or on top to make up for the thickness.

Here is a thread about shimming an open comb razor. I have a Merkur 11C, which is a modern copy of the original Gillettes. I find mine plenty aggressive enough for my needs, but some men make a shim by trimming the sharp edges off two or three used blades and then place them under the blade that is in use. The effect is much the same as is achieved by an adjustable razor, except I know of no adjustable razors with a comb.

It is strange that no-one ever attempted an open-comb adjustable. Would have been interesting.

mdunn said:

i accidentally shaved with a 3 piece that wasnt fully tightened.

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I did this too and it felt like I was taking a layer of skin off my legs.

Mrs. Chip said:

I did this too and it felt like I was taking a layer of skin off my legs.

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That sounds about right. Very interesting that they recommended this. Must be the thicker more stable blades. Todays blades would flex way too much.

Has anyone tried stacking two thin blades (or even 3)?

actually never mind on that stacking the two blades idea... just tried it and it doesn't look good. Here are some pics with a thick blade in an old type. Hopefully you can see the gap when the head is loose... loose is a bad word to describe this because the blade and head caps are quite firm. I wonder if one can get NOS blades like this: I would be willing to bet this "old school adjustable" works better than slims and fatboys et al.

Good work, Doc. Maybe this will start a trend of people re-using old Gillette DE blades from this era, and even sharpening them on the same hones that are used for Straights. Then we can avoid yet another cost that the modern day cartridge users have.

BTW the instructions for the WWI set said a 1/4 turn was enough to adjust it to being more aggressive.

Can you post pictures of the 2-3 blades stacking?

verminisjk said:

Can you post pictures of the 2-3 blades stacking?

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I would but I don't think you would see anything interesting with the camera I am using... I could hardly see anything with my eyes.

Ok, I'll try it myself. Thanks

verminisjk said:

Ok, I'll try it myself. Thanks

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Try shaving with 2 or 3 blades and tell us what you think!

ahah, be sure I will.

I'm a little afraid to try this in fact