Cleaning an old Gillette Fat Boy

[radiodork6096]

I have a Gillette adjustable Fat Boy (J4) with an excellent travel case.
It is in very good shape, but a little on the dull side.
Would using something like Tarn-X help to add some shine back to it,
or should I just leave it alone?

Thanks.

 

[reegmo]

I don't have any first-hand polishing experience to offer, but I think your "Fat Boy" is a Slim Adjustable. According to the date chart (admittedly, not an exhaustive account), Fat Boys were made from '58 to '61, corresponding to date codes D through G.

 

[Nozzlejocky]

My cleaning regimen for silver razors is generally as follows: spray on scrubbing bubbles, let stand, brush with tooth brush, repeat as necessary, rinse in fresh water, barbicide 10 minutes, polish with flitz, rinse, dry. One thing you have to be careful of when freshening up adjustables is that you can take the black off the numbers if you're not careful. There is another method I read about on here that involves boiling water, aluminum foil, and baking soda, but I haven't tried it yet. Hope this helps.

 

[luvmysuper]

My cleaning regimen for silver razors is generally as follows: spray on scrubbing bubbles, let stand, brush with tooth brush, repeat as necessary, rinse in fresh water, barbicide 10 minutes, polish with flitz, rinse, dry. One thing you have to be careful of when freshening up adjustables is that you can take the black off the numbers if you're not careful. There is another method I read about on here that involves boiling water, aluminum foil, and baking soda, but I haven't tried it yet. Hope this helps.

The tinfoil and soda was for Silver Plated razors, not really for the Nickel plated ones, and just involves water that had been boiled. Just for clarity sake for any noobs reading this, it doesn't mean boiling the razor. Never boil your razor.

 

[fidjit]

I don't have any first-hand polishing experience to offer, but I think your "Fat Boy" is a Slim Adjustable. According to the date chart (admittedly, not an exhaustive account), Fat Boys were made from '58 to '61, corresponding to date codes D through G.

See my sig. This might help decide if it's a slim or a Fatboy but yes by the date code it is probably a slim

 

[Gringo]

The tinfoil and soda was for Silver Plated razors, not really for the Nickel plated ones, and just involves water that had been boiled. Just for clarity sake for any noobs reading this, it doesn't mean boiling the razor. Never boil your razor.

Why not?

 

[luvmysuper]

Why not?

If you mean the Tinfoil thing:
Generally, (and that means there are always exceptions) the "stuff" on a Nickel Plated razor is hard water stains and soap scum. This can be removed with a suitable bathroom type cleaner such as mentioned previously.
While you might have some of the same stuff on a Silver Plated razor, what you also have on silver which you don't get on nickel is silver tarnish, which is the black nasty oxidation of the outer surface of the silver.
The tinfoil soda cleaning is actually a chemical process that allows the reversal of oxidation due to the fact that the tarnish "pefers" to stick to the tinfoil rather than to the silver.
My degree is not in chemistry, so sorry if the explanation is lacking in specific detail, but that's the thrust of it anyway.

If you mean the boiling thing:
Just because it is 75 year old razor doesn't mean you have to use 75 year old methods to clean it.
There are a plethora of modern, good cleaning products available that do an excellent job, without the inherent risk to your razor that boiling presents. Do a search in the Safety Razor thread with the word "Boiled" or "boiling" and you can find some of the stories of guys who damaged razors with this method. Alas, too late they were asking how to rectify the damage.

Hope this is the info that you were seeking clarification on.

 

[koso]

I recently received a dull, grubby Fat Boy that I hit hard with Brasso. It cleaned up nicely.

Ditto on the be very careful not to take the paint out of the numbers.