So Monday I was out delivering a load of firewood to a friend. And I had stopped to get gas at a station. A truck came up loaded with scrap. And while pumping I looked over in the truck at the items and spotted a nasty bent up razor. It was totally covered in green corrosion. I spoke to the man and asked if I could look at the Gillette razor and he said sure. I got it out of the mass of old wire and broken window screen frames and saw that it was a Slim Adjustable. It was bent when looking at it from the front the left hand side of the blade tray was bent upwards about twenty to thirty degrees. The doors were jammed open and it looked like a lost cause. I almost tossed it back in the pile when the guy said I could have it if I wanted it. I thanked him and put it in my pocket.
after delivering the wood and getting home I got the razor out and immediately began soaking it in nearly boiling water with Dawn dish detergent. I fill a glass 3/4 full of hot tap water and then set that in the microwave oven for two minutes to get the water to almost boiling. I then put in the detergent and razor and let it soak for 30 minutes or so. After three bathes followed by heavy toothbrush scrubbing I saw that this razor was in much better condition than I thought.
Now I needed to see if I could unbend the head enough to make it work again. I used my thumbs pushing down on the high side and the other thumb pushing up on the low side. I went slowly bending just a little at a time and resting for a few minutes between each session. After about an hour I had the head back to pretty close to original.
The guards were pushed back against the adjuster base effectively closing the holes. I used a padded electricians screwdriver and a piece of flat angle to spread the guard back out. I noticed the plating was intact and so I again decided to go very slowly. I also decided to use some heat from a butane lighter to keep the metal hot. It was used lightly and I never got the guard hot enough to burn you if you touched it. Just hot enough that you didn't want to touch it for long.
So after six or seven small bends and being very careful I was able to get the guard back to almost perfect and the plating had remained intact.
By This point I was very excited with the results and I knew this junk pile razor had the potential to become a working razor again. So I now tried closing the doors with the TTO knob. And it worked fine until the doors were almost closed at which point they kind of stick. I look and see that the hinges are slightly bent inward on both sides. And I use pliers and an old leather belt to pad the jaws and tweek the hinges just a bit outward. And now the doors close but it's still too hard to close so I know something else is binding somewhere. I think the center rod is slightly bent. And I don't have the skills to totally disassemble a Slim so I am sending this one to Captian Murphy for the final fix.
in my excitement I forgot to take before pictures, stupid me, but I did take some Picts of the razor as I sent it to Captain Murphy. Hopefully he can fix the last issues and get the blade gap right again so that this Slim will shave again.
The blade gap is bad right now it's very wide on the left and almost touching the blade guard on the right. But overall the plating is pretty good on the razor. You can see for yourself and Captain Murphy will be posting his experiences with the razor when he gets it later this week hopefully.
Hopefully in in a few weeks I can report on the first shave with the junk pile razor!
oh it's a J2 razor the third pic is not as clear as it ought to be. Darn Ipad just doesn't make good pictures for me.
after delivering the wood and getting home I got the razor out and immediately began soaking it in nearly boiling water with Dawn dish detergent. I fill a glass 3/4 full of hot tap water and then set that in the microwave oven for two minutes to get the water to almost boiling. I then put in the detergent and razor and let it soak for 30 minutes or so. After three bathes followed by heavy toothbrush scrubbing I saw that this razor was in much better condition than I thought.
Now I needed to see if I could unbend the head enough to make it work again. I used my thumbs pushing down on the high side and the other thumb pushing up on the low side. I went slowly bending just a little at a time and resting for a few minutes between each session. After about an hour I had the head back to pretty close to original.
The guards were pushed back against the adjuster base effectively closing the holes. I used a padded electricians screwdriver and a piece of flat angle to spread the guard back out. I noticed the plating was intact and so I again decided to go very slowly. I also decided to use some heat from a butane lighter to keep the metal hot. It was used lightly and I never got the guard hot enough to burn you if you touched it. Just hot enough that you didn't want to touch it for long.
So after six or seven small bends and being very careful I was able to get the guard back to almost perfect and the plating had remained intact.
By This point I was very excited with the results and I knew this junk pile razor had the potential to become a working razor again. So I now tried closing the doors with the TTO knob. And it worked fine until the doors were almost closed at which point they kind of stick. I look and see that the hinges are slightly bent inward on both sides. And I use pliers and an old leather belt to pad the jaws and tweek the hinges just a bit outward. And now the doors close but it's still too hard to close so I know something else is binding somewhere. I think the center rod is slightly bent. And I don't have the skills to totally disassemble a Slim so I am sending this one to Captian Murphy for the final fix.
in my excitement I forgot to take before pictures, stupid me, but I did take some Picts of the razor as I sent it to Captain Murphy. Hopefully he can fix the last issues and get the blade gap right again so that this Slim will shave again.
The blade gap is bad right now it's very wide on the left and almost touching the blade guard on the right. But overall the plating is pretty good on the razor. You can see for yourself and Captain Murphy will be posting his experiences with the razor when he gets it later this week hopefully.
Hopefully in in a few weeks I can report on the first shave with the junk pile razor!
oh it's a J2 razor the third pic is not as clear as it ought to be. Darn Ipad just doesn't make good pictures for me.
Last edited:
Now we know the fate some of these old razors face
Keep your eyes peeled, Gents! I am excited to bring this one back!
