What's Adjusted in an Adjustable?

[dash]

I have wondered on standard Gillette razors like the Fat Boy or other adjustables, just what is being adjusted? Blade angle? Position of the relative to the safety guard? Number of nick-causing gremlins?

Does anyone know?

My reading of the very comprehensive Gillette patent 2848806 persuades me that the blade moves up and down relative to the guard. It doesn't seem to be an adjustment of the angle of the blade. Is this true?


P.S. I was happily entering the patents from one of my razor cases till I realized it was a nonadjustable Super Speed!

 

[iron maiden]

On a Merkur Futur/Vision/Progress....you can see that what is being adjusted is the distance from the blade to the guard....I think the same would hold true for the Gillettes, but the level of aggressiveness just isn't as noticeable as the Merkurs.

I notice that the higher the number, the further away the blade gets from the guard.

 

[mr-razor]

I have wondered on standard Gillette razors like the Fat Boy or other adjustables, just what is being adjusted? Blade angle? Position of the relative to the safety guard? Number of nick-causing gremlins?

Does anyone know?

My reading of the very comprehensive Gillette patent 2848806 persuades me that the blade moves up and down relative to the guard. It doesn't seem to be an adjustment of the angle of the blade. Is this true?


P.S. I was happily entering the patents from one of razor cases till I realized it was a nonadjustable Super Speed!

there is a other thread to this theme

 

[VR6ofpain]

I think the same would hold true for the Gillettes, but the level of aggressiveness just isn't as noticeable as the Merkurs.

Have you ever shaved with a Fatboy adjusted to 9?

 

[moses]

It is the distance between the blade and the guard. That is true of both the Gillettes and Merkurs. Basically, the guard moves down away from the blade. (Technically, it is the blade and head that move up on a Gillette, but the same difference, obviously.) Nothing else changes. As the picture Achim posted shows, this will allow you to shave at a steeper angle, although I still maintain that doing so is using it wrong, and asking for trouble. (Like everything else, if you know what you are doing, experiment, and find it works for you, then it works for you. I'm just saying that I strongly advise that someone trying an adjustable for the first time NOT assume that because it will allow a steeper angle, you should use one.)

-Mo

 

[cutting_edge]

It is the distance between the blade and the guard. That is true of both the Gillettes and Merkurs. Basically, the guard moves down away from the blade. (Technically, it is the blade and head that move up on a Gillette, but the same difference, obviously.) Nothing else changes. As the picture Achim posted shows, this will allow you to shave at a steeper angle, although I still maintain that doing so is using it wrong, and asking for trouble. (Like everything else, if you know what you are doing, experiment, and find it works for you, then it works for you. I'm just saying that I strongly advise that someone trying an adjustable for the first time NOT assume that because it will allow a steeper angle, you should use one.)

-Mo

Right on. Also true with the adjustable Schick injector.

 

[Magruder]

It is the distance between the blade and the guard. That is true of both the Gillettes and Merkurs. Basically, the guard moves down away from the blade. (Technically, it is the blade and head that move up on a Gillette, but the same difference, obviously.) Nothing else changes. As the picture Achim posted shows, this will allow you to shave at a steeper angle, although I still maintain that doing so is using it wrong, and asking for trouble. (Like everything else, if you know what you are doing, experiment, and find it works for you, then it works for you. I'm just saying that I strongly advise that someone trying an adjustable for the first time NOT assume that because it will allow a steeper angle, you should use one.)

-Mo

Let me jump in with a stupid (well, ignorant) question.

Which part is the "guard"? Is that what we sometimes call the safety bar, the solid bar parallel to the edge of the blade? Same location as the comb, in an open-comb razor?

 

[Kyle]

Let me jump in with a stupid (well, ignorant) question.

Which part is the "guard"? Is that what we sometimes call the safety bar, the solid bar parallel to the edge of the blade? Same location as the comb, in an open-comb razor?

You've correctly answered your own question.