New Ebay Gillette Slim Ugly Surprise

Within the last day or so, I received a 1967 Gillette Slim adjustable from an eBay seller.  He had done a fine job on polishing the razor to a point that it looks almost new.  I was looking forward to it since the slim was the first new razor that I ever bought for myself.  Prior to that I had been shaving with a fat boy that my dad had given me, since he preferred his red tip -- if I remember correctly.

So I was all set for a pleasant nostalgic shave, but OMG it was as aggressive as a rabid weasel when only set on 3.  I dialed it back to 1 and it was only just tolerable.  Suddenly, as I was attempting a flesh shredding ATG stroke , nostalgia was replaced by one of those memories of past pain that we call experience.  I had seen this before.  That's when the light went on in my head.  Not one of those dim yellow government mandated lights either, this was the bright incandescent light of "Oh, I know what this is!"  I had done that to my original slim as well -- because I was a teenager and teenagers do weird and stupid things to any gadget that gets in their hands.

Apparently, while refinishing the razor,  the dial got one full extra turn.  I hadn't been shaving at 3, I had been shaving at 13 or better and when I turned it back to 1 the setting was at least a 10!   So I took a paper clip and depressed the dial detent and spun the dial back to where it is supposed to be and  now 1 is very, very mild and 9 is pretty aggressive -- just like it's supposed to be.  I was able to finish the shave in comfort.  All is well in shave world again.

Good endIng!

Wow, I guess you're lucky it wasn't broken. I don't have an adjustable, but I would think the dial wouldn't allow you to turn it past 9.

Wow, I guess you're lucky it wasn't broken. I don't have an adjustable, but I would think the dial wouldn't allow you to turn it past 9.

It doesn't -- exactly. There's a detent pin that stops it at 1 and 9, but the detent has a spring and can be depressed with any small pointy object like a paper clip. Once the detent is pressed then you can spin the dial past that point.

Wow, I guess you're lucky it wasn't broken. I don't have an adjustable, but I would think the dial wouldn't allow you to turn it past 9.

It doesn't -- exactly.  There's a detent pin that stops it at 1 and 9, but the detent has a spring and can be depressed with any small pointy object like a paper clip. Once the detent is pressed then you can spin the dial past that point.

I learn someting new every day at DFS.

It's called "overclocking", and was actually fairly common "back in the day", from my understanding. A lot of "wild caught" Fat Boys and Slims will be overclocked, and perform at an extremely aggressive level.

It can usually be fixed in the manner described, but sometimes requires taking the razor apart and resetting the mechanism that performs the adjustments. I have no idea how that works, though...

So what you're saying is that this one goes up to eleven?

What a way to wake up in the morning! Great to hear you remedied the situation!

I had no idea that was possible. I'm glad you were able to fix it.

So what you're saying is that this one goes up to eleven?

No, what I'm saying is that it was at 11 when the dial was set to 1. At 9, it would be like just holding the razor blade in your fingers and shaving like that.

The dial marker on the Gillette Slim is really an oblong hole in the handle of the razor. Looking through the hole you can see a piece of metal. Beneath that piece of metal is a spring. Normally, you can spin the dial and it will stop at 1 and 9, due to that piece of metal hitting stops. If you compress the spring the metal will slip under the stops allowing the dial to rotate past their normal position. Once you get back around to 1 or 9 and release the spring, the stops will work again, BUT the blade gap will be wrong since your either in the -1 to -9 position or the 11-20 range if you turned the dial the other way. In this particular case, it's clear the guy disassembled the razor to clean it -- really nice job btw, but when he put it back together the dial was in the 11-20 range which is really, really aggressive. It's a pretty easy mistake to make I'm sure.

So, if anybody gets a Slim that is so mild it won't shave or so aggressive that it peels your face off, that's most likely the problem. It's easy to fix.

1. Slightly loosen the TTO knob about 1/4 turn (should do that whenever you adjust the dial anyway.)
2. Set the dial to 1 or 9 depending on whether you're going less aggressive or more aggressive.
3. Stick a small sturdy piece of metal like a paper clip, bobby pin, dental pick or some such into the rectangular hole.
3. Fiddle with the metal retaining pin until you collapse the spring
4. Turn the knob past 1 or 9 depending on which way you want to go until you get to the numbers again
5. Release the pin and your good to go, but now your one whole dial more or less aggressive depending which way you turned it.