Why so little love for adjustables?

KarlMaldensNose

KarlMaldensNose

Joined
Feb 3, 2009
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I haven't tried one yet, or any DE/SE safety for that matter, but it seems to me that an adjustable would be able to give the best shaves due to, well, its adjustablility. Being able to dial in the blade height/angle to perfectly match one's needs seems much better than the one-size-fits-all non-adjustable razors. So I'm curious why I don't read about more guys using them or see more models of them being made and sold. Is there some flaw or drawback to adjustables that I'm not aware of?
 
I have a Gillette Silm and the shave is just so so.

My Merkur Futur is excellent---very aggressive---I prefer aggressive.

YMMV


I think the retail cost and complexity of manufacture is why you don't see so many-----higher priced and harder to build sums it up I think.
 
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Hrmm - well I only started using DEs a few days ago, but the one I've been using is an old made in the USA, black long handled Gillette adjustable I got from my stepdad. It is fairly nice in that I was able to mess around with the settings to find my preference (which happened to be four) but after you find it, I think most people just leave it at the setting which sort of defeats the purpose to some degree.

I've heard of people bumping up the setting for when they have a couple day's stubble or bumping it down if their face is irritated from sunburn or something, but I honestly haven't been DE shaving long enough to have tried either of those :eek:
 
I have a lot of different razors, from old single rings to a fatboy and a slim adjustable. My daily shavers, highest use in the rotations are the adjustables. I can get a great shave out of most of my razor, shaved today with an open comb old style Gillette, but somehow the shave of an aadjustable(fatboy or slim) set to 9 with a Feather blade is hard to beat.
 
An adjustable takes time to get tweaked to your environment. Throw in different blades, lather, etc.. and more tweaking necessary. My first shave with a Fatboy was so-so but after the 3rd time I found my setting and it shaves very well.
 
I'm sure they are good, but I don't really see the point in them. The angle you hold the razor is surely the adjustable part of your shave, you need different angles for the contours of your face.
 
willgoy said:
I'm sure they are good, but I don't really see the point in them. The angle you hold the razor is surely the adjustable part of your shave, you need different angles for the contours of your face.
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I still by far prefer my Edwin Jennings DE89L to adjustables.
 
I like my Gillette Slim, but with my razor count sitting at 17 right now and the simple fact that I love my single ring the slim just doesn't make an appearance more than once a month.

When I do use my slim I am one of those ones that change the setting with each pass, starting mild and finishing on a more aggressive setting.
 
I've tried all kinds of DE razors. My favorite is still an adjustable gillette aristocrat that I've had for years, nothing beats it for an all round great shave.

Set to 9 it's aggressive as anything, but set to 1 it's practicaly impossible to cut yourself. Once you get the routing down of using the right number for the right pass/face area it's awesome.

All non-adjustables I've had require compromise obviously. Changing the angle you hold it at only goes a small way to adjusting the cut, compared to an adjusablt razor.

Slant bars are just vicious which is great, gives a quick, super smooth shave, but requires a lot of respect.

I've found good preperation is 90% of a great shave, it's vital.

I use feather razors exclusively now, tried tham all but keep coming back to feathers.
 
I've been using an adjustable Gillette since I started shaving (that's about 60 years ago). Using the same razor today. Bought a spare and cleaned it up at a yard sale for $1. Love it. I change settings depending on how long it has been since my last
shave (I'm retired, so only have to shave a few times a week - love that too :)

Rich
 
willgoy said:
I'm sure they are good, but I don't really see the point in them. The angle you hold the razor is surely the adjustable part of your shave, you need different angles for the contours of your face.
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Welllllll...kinda. Yes, angle is very important but the idea of an adjustable is to...umm, adjust :D , the exposure of the blade to the skin.

[youtube]0VClPqPMro4[/youtube]
 
OK:D I need to look into this further! Just wish I knew where you all GET these vintage razors from and what to try:confused:
 
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