First Vintage cleaning, ID help and some questions

[Senshi]

Konbanwa Gentleman!

Up until now I've been using a Muhle R89, as it's my only razor. I love it, gives me great shaves. But I have felt like I need to try something new. I know some of you know this feeling . I was perusing the bay and found a vintage lot of three razors from a man in Argentina. I won the bid at about 30 dollars....and the countdown began.


The box was delivered this morning. I brought it to school and was ecstatic.



To my surprise there were 4 razors with a little piece of paper saying "gift" wrapped around the dirtier of the smaller razors. The little ones both say made in Argentina and say "Industria" Has anyone ever heard of these? Thanks to this site I was able to ID the others as an Slim Adjustable and a Super Speed. (If anyone could tell me what year/more specific model they are I would really appreciate it) The little ones were the hardest to clean.



I had a spare old toothbrush in school (japanese kids brush their teeth in school after lunch usually) and figured I would start to get to town. As much as I tried with cold water and toothpaste, it just wasn't enough. The Slim had a disgusting amount of buildup inside and I knew I would have to wait till I went home to get down to business.






I went to the store and found some scrubbing bubbles (first time I've ever noticed them in my four years in Japan). I boiled some water up and poured it into a bowl to let the razors soak and lo and behold copious amounts of gunk started spewing from the Slim. I then took each razor into a separate bowl and sprayed it with the scrubbing bubbles leaving them to soak for about 5 mins a piece. Couple of minutes with the toothbrush and they were getting clean. But not clean enough. So I made another pot of hot water and let them soak again. Repeated the process with the scrubbing bubbles and re washed them in hot water. Then I let them soak in a bowl of Alcohol (should I have cut it with water too?) and cleaned them using Q-Tips and pipe cleaners. They kind of lost their shine so I made another pot of boiling water and let them soak again (overkill?) Then they were cleaned with a microfiber cloth and more Q-Tips.








I don't know if I scrubbed too much with the Slim or if it was there before all the gunk was taken off but it looks like some of the finish has come off. There was a lot of green gunk on it so I attributed the current status to oxidation.



All in all I'm very happy with the purchase and how they ended up. I hear how a lot of my predecessors have been victim to RAD and I want to keep it to these with the potential slant bar purchase in the very very distant future (haven't forgotten about my gentlemanly restraint promise) But this should keep me honest for some time.






On the little razors there is an area that appears to be black/red depending on how you hold it. I want to say it looks more like the plating is coming off. Do you think this is alright to use? Part of me want to try to scrub it off but if it's loose plating it might just make it worse...


For all the TL/DR people. Un resumen:

1. Got some razors and cleaned them up
2. Not sure about the "Industria" models and would like to know more specific model information about the Slim and the Super Speed.
3. The little model has some potential corrosion and not sure if it's alright to use
4. If you were me which one would you use first?

 

[tacchini]

the first 2 are a flairtip superspeed and a slim , the other 2 look like aluminium handled techs, i think some gillettes were made in brazil so these might be argentina made versions.

 

[dcobranchi]

3. Any of those razors should be fine to use after just a little cleaning.

4. I'd go with the Slim. Set it on 4 and go to town. Enjoy!

 

[Mako72]

Aluminum Handle Techs or a close Knock Off. Without seeing the bottom plate its impossible to tell.

 

[midniterambler]

the first 2 are a flairtip superspeed and a slim , the other 2 look like aluminium handled techs, i think some gillettes were made in brazil so these might be argentina made versions.

flare tip superspeed; flair is a soft tipped pen or a knack for doing something.

 

[JaxJim]

Nice work, Andrew. The Slim Adjustable and Flare Tip Super Speed will have date codes located on their bottom base plates. Gillette produced Slim Adjustables from 1961 through 1968; Flare Tip Super Speeds were made from 1954 to 1966. The date codes consist of a letter (year) and a number (quarter). E.g., "E-1" means 1959, January-March. The Gillette date codes can be found in the Shavewiki here.

 

[Toltepeceno]

Nice snag and nice of the seller to include the 4th.

I did 12 years usn and spent quite a bit of time in yokosuka. I remember one time in the 70's a bunch of us drunk squids wandered to a ball park and the team (kids) and their coach challenged us to a game. They tore us to pieces and we even had a few of them on our side to complete the team. Japan was beautiful, the people amazing.

 

[Senshi]

Nice work, Andrew. The Slim Adjustable and Flare Tip Super Speed will have date codes located on their bottom base plates. Gillette produced Slim Adjustables from 1961 through 1968; Flare Tip Super Speeds were made from 1954 to 1966. The date codes consist of a letter (year) and a number (quarter). E.g., "E-1" means 1959, January-March. The Gillette date codes can be found in the Shavewiki here.

My newbness stinks for not checking the Shave Wiki

Cheers!

For anyone who is interested

SS is k-4, putting it at a late 1964 (Hecho en Mexico)

The Slim Adjustable is an L-1 making it an early 1966 model.


Looking for the tech/industrias I stumbled upon this

http://mr-razor.com/Rasierer/Tech/1976%20(W4)%20Argentina%20Tech.JPG

So they are 1976 W4 Techs/ Industria when translated into Spanish I guess

 

[Christian_V]

I love shaving with my slim. I vote you try that one first. See if you can pick up some maas or flitz. A good polish will make them shine like mirrors! Also it's pretty easy to repaint the numbers. There are several videos on YouTube. All you need is a bottle of black model paint and your finger.

Edit :spelling errors , word swipe sucks!

 

[Senshi]

I love shaving with my slim. I vote you try that one first. See if you can pick up some maas or flitz. A good polish will make them done like mirrors! Also is pretty easy to repaint the numbers. There are several videos on YouTube. All you need is a bottle of black model paint and your finger.

I always knew you were a smart cookie Christian, I used the Slim first last night. Popped in a new feather blade and whipped up an uber lather (VDH and Cool Mint Arko tube cream) all I can say is WOW! Super smooth and absolutely no irritation (not even on my troublesome whacky neck growth)

I started on 1 just to be safe but wanted more blade and ended up using a 5 on my second and third pass.

For all you adjustable users, do you switch in between passes from time to time or do you just keep it at one setting?

I can see the Slim becoming a mainstay in my rotation.

 

[Christian_V]

Senshi, Here's how I do it with my slim, and it provides great results. Of course YMMV.

1st pass - WTG - setting 3..
2nd/3rd pass - XTG/ATG - setting 5.

So about what you did with yours with just a little more aggression on the first pass. Other more pro shavers may crank it up higher, that's just what works for me.

Yeah, it's a great razor. My Slim and I are besties.

And props on using Arko. How is that cool mint variation?

 

[TacticalPanda]

I use both a flair tip and a Slim occasionally, great razors.