Newbie goes vintage: My first vintage Gillette experience

[DesertIguana]

Maybe I am opening a can of Worms, but let me ask simple question????

If you get Shave your are happy with, your Razor is Old Vintage.

Is there any reason to change what make you happy? Plus gives you great shave?

 

[TronBonshavey]

Maybe I am opening a can of Worms, but let me ask simple question????

If you get Shave your are happy with, your Razor is Old Vintage.

Is there any reason to change what make you happy? Plus gives you great shave?

Whatever works for you works for you! Nobody actually needs to have more than one good razor, but collecting is fun and having a variety is fun. Each one to me is a different tool for a different purpose, this is the same excuse I use to justify purchases in all of my hobbies

 

[Brewster]

Arriving a bit late to the party......Vintage Gillettes are the only way to go.

I have a couple of three piece Techs (everybody needs at least one three piece Tech) a 1941 Ranger Tech TTO, a couple of SuperSpeeds and a couple of Red Tip Superspeeds....all of the Superspeeds were manufactured before 1958.

None are in pristine condition....showing a little brass in spots, but will probably outlive me.

 

[Ranyart Finn]

Vintage Gillette-wise, I have...

2 x 'New' - one Long Comb, one standard, with the standard being British-made and very comfortable to use
2 x Aristocrats - one American (Gold), one British (Rhodium). The British Aristo is heavier and nicer to use than the US
2 x Gillette Fat Handle Techs - one US, one Canadian. The Canadian one is very smooth, and more efficient than the US version
2 x British Rockets - Decent razors, moderate efficiency, both nice to use
1 x British Flare Tip (silver) - Nice and smooth
1 x US Red Tip Superspeed - Incredible razor. Smooth, comfortable, efficient
3 x Fatboys - All are very nice shavers; 6 is my preferred setting
3 x Slims - My favourite of the lot. I have a Slim for my birth year (65) and quarter (3) that I had revamped with a Prospector Rhodium and Gold finish. Perhaps my favourite razor.
3 x Black Beauties - A 109 with the black nylon tray, an Executive 109 in gold, and an 84 with the nickel tray. I love all three, but the 109 black tray is my favourite. They are really, really good razors, despite living in the shadow of the Fatboy and Slim.

But I love all my Vintage Gillettes. I love shaving with them, looking at them, and having them on display. I really enjoy shaving with pieces of history, occasionally wondering who owned them before me, how they shaved, and what their stories were. The fact these razors have lasted 60-80+ years is fantastic, and part of their charm and appeal.

 

[TronBonshavey]

Sadly I'm too young to get one from my birth year (1990)

Well.... I spoke too soon been looking into injector razors and Ac blade razors for a while, and stumbled on a sealed NOS 1990 Schick injector on eBay! Did i pay too much for it? Probably but I don't care. Will I commit collector sacrilege and open the blister pack to shave with it? 100% you bet your sweet shaved faces I will

 

[Zynn]

Vintage Gillette-wise, I have...

2 x 'New' - one Long Comb, one standard, with the standard being British-made and very comfortable to use
2 x Aristocrats - one American (Gold), one British (Rhodium). The British Aristo is heavier and nicer to use than the US
2 x Gillette Fat Handle Techs - one US, one Canadian. The Canadian one is very smooth, and more efficient than the US version
2 x British Rockets - Decent razors, moderate efficiency, both nice to use
1 x British Flare Tip (silver) - Nice and smooth
1 x US Red Tip Superspeed - Incredible razor. Smooth, comfortable, efficient
3 x Fatboys - All are very nice shavers; 6 is my preferred setting
3 x Slims - My favourite of the lot. I have a Slim for my birth year (65) and quarter (3) that I had revamped with a Prospector Rhodium and Gold finish. Perhaps my favourite razor.
3 x Black Beauties - A 109 with the black nylon tray, an Executive 109 in gold, and an 84 with the nickel tray. I love all three, but the 109 black tray is my favourite. They are really, really good razors, despite living in the shadow of the Fatboy and Slim.

But I love all my Vintage Gillettes. I love shaving with them, looking at them, and having them on display. I really enjoy shaving with pieces of history, occasionally wondering who owned them before me, how they shaved, and what their stories were. The fact these razors have lasted 60-80+ years is fantastic, and part of their charm and appeal.

Gonna get a 109 after reading this. I agree with the part about the Fat boy and Slim. I really like my 195 Fat boy!

 

[TronBonshavey]

Got my 90s Schick today, a little bit of a bait and switch with the yellow plastic lol, fully thought it was a gold razor and blade dispenser until I opened it first impressions: feels sturdy but light as hell, lots of plastic in the very long handle. I will post an update after first shaves with it, excited to give this thing a go!

 

[TronBonshavey]

Ok so first shave down with the 90s Schick, so far this has been the least stellar experience of the three vintage razors I've acquired.

Firstly, the included injector was supposed to have 2 blades, but only came with one, bit of a bummer, i guess this was a 34 year old QC oversight as everything was definitely sealed in the package .

I used my standard prorasso white preshave, stirling unscented soap and Razorock bruce synthetic brush. did a bowl lather to minimize exfoliation since i have been shaving more often than usual this week and already had a little irritation on my neck, so not off to the best start.

Now to the shave, i definitely thought i would have an easier time getting used to the shallower 15 degree angle of the injector head, but it seems my muscle memory has trained itself for a DE 30 degrees at this point. I kept having to re-adjust because it still shaves at a steeper angle, but it's much more aggressive and scrapey. when i got the angle right it was very smooth, but unfortunately that wasn't the majority of the shave. I think this would have been an easier transition coming from cartridge razors, but now that i am close to a year into DE razors, the light long handle and small head feel very foreign, will need some more practice with this one.

I did 3 passes on about 1.5 days growth, and while the end result was pretty close, i came away wiht 4 or 5 little nicks on my neck and one on my lower lip, and don't feel that i got quite as close as i have with my DEs, especially the Slim.

I will chalk some of this up to my inexperience, but i think some of it may have to do with the blade. Especially around my chin and center neck line, i noticed a bit of tugging and just general discomfort. Since i only have one blade to go on right now, im uncertain if this is just a dud shcick blade, or if this is representative at all of the current injector blade quality form Schick. I know options are limited for different injector blades, considering trying out the supply or parker blades. can anyone point me to a relatively recent thread on this subject?

I will give this guy another few tries to fully evaluate, but i think this may have to end up being PIFd or re-sold at a loss.

I guess i should have listened to my first instincts, i'm too young to get a GOOD vintage razor from my birth year .

 

[Lord NSIC]

Other than the "rare" Gillettes (double ring, red dot, toggle, bottom dial, early 30's TTOs, etc.) I've been able to shave with an example of every Gillette, and they're all good shavers; some I prefer over others (Fatboys, Red Tips Aristocrats) but they all work great (not a big fan of the head geometry of the Slims and 109s/84s but I can make them work). As for Schick injectors, I only have one and will only have one, and it's probably the rare, elusive F only made one year, and in my opinion, the only one to have... Happy Shaves

 

[Edgelord]

Arriving a bit late to the party......Vintage Gillettes are the only way to go.

I have a couple of three piece Techs (everybody needs at least one three piece Tech) a 1941 Ranger Tech TTO, a couple of SuperSpeeds and a couple of Red Tip Superspeeds....all of the Superspeeds were manufactured before 1958.

None are in pristine condition....showing a little brass in spots, but will probably outlive me.

Only… ? He hasn’t tried GEMs and injectors yet.

 

[TronBonshavey]

Other than the "rare" Gillettes (double ring, red dot, toggle, bottom dial, early 30's TTOs, etc.) I've been able to shave with an example of every Gillette, and they're all good shavers; some I prefer over others (Fatboys, Red Tips Aristocrats) but they all work great (not a big fan of the head geometry of the Slims and 109s/84s but I can make them work). As for Schick injectors, I only have one and will only have one, and it's probably the rare, elusive F only made one year, and in my opinion, the only one to have... Happy ShavesView attachment 1947397

daaaamn what a stunner!

 

[TronBonshavey]

1 day after my first injector shave i am reevaluating my assessment. less regrowth than i typically have in 1 day in the easy areas (cheeks and sideburns) but more in the tougher areas. I think i ended up pressing to hard at too steep of an angle which caused me to miss a lot more in my tricky spots (mostly on the neck under the ears/ jawline) and get so many little nicks. I decided to skip shaving today and give the face a rest, also in part due to how smooth my cheeks still felt this morning. I will try to be more mindful of my angle and pressure and give this old boy another fair shot tomorrow. also my shave yesterday was during my lunch hour (working from home) so i had not showered before which i think may have contributed, i did do a hot towel but i feel it's never quite as good as a shower to soften the whiskers.

Will report back after tomorrow's shave.

 

[TronBonshavey]

Second injector shave went much better. I think I got the hang of the shallow angle, it really is a very different cutting feel compared to a de blade, I have heard people say it feels more like a straight razor, but I have yet to give one of those a try. The only spot where I ran into an issue was the atg pass on my neck, specifically from Adams apple up to chin on the center line it was just super tuggy no matter what I did with the angle/pressure. Ended with 2 little nicks in this area but overall a BBS shave.
I think part of my issue is the blade, I've heard people talk about these injector blades lasting 10-20 shaves, but after 2 shaves I feel it already seems to be dulling. I'm usually a one and done guy with de blades, at most I'll use them for 2 shaves before I start to feel the wear, so I was excited about the injector blades lasting longer, but this one seemed to be a little dull from the get go. I did order a 7 pk of Schick injectors from Amazon, so I will try those newer blades out and see if there's a difference. Looking into the Parker and supply blades there seems to be a lot more QC complaints, like 4 dull blades out of 8 in a pack of supply! Shick seems to have the most consistent reviews on their injector blades, but I hope they are a little sharper than the one I got in this package!

Bit of a long wait for those blades for some reason (not prime delivery in my area) so I think I will go back to DE for now until I get the new shick blades.

 

[TronBonshavey]

went back to my slim for this mornings shave, it wa slike slipping back into an old comfy pair of shoes, perfect shave 2 passes no issue no drama. Did an all prorasso shave this mornning with the white preshave, shave cream and single blade azur lime AS. also tried out some of those viking revolution blades i keep seeing on amazon, they were like 50% off for black friday so i got sleeve of 100 for like 12 bucks, they are actually quite good, feel similar to my vokshods, happy surprise with these blades at least in the slim.

 

[Zynn]

This thread have been a good read so far, thank you.
Keep it up