Gillette adjustable: Locking the blade properly
Hi All,
It dawned on me recently that some of you may not be aware of the way almost all gillette adjustables lock the blade in place. This is kinda important, since a loose door (and resulting floppy blade) can be a nasty surprise. Hehe, I recently sold a few DE razors here, and thought this would be good to post for any future DE users.
When twisting the handle (closing the doors) after replacing a blade, you'll feel the handle sorta stop by itself. Now, there will almost always be another short turn needed to fully lock the doors. No, you won't need to force anything, but just use gentle pressure and see what happens. Actually, it's a nice feature, and almost feels like something's 'seating' well inside the razor.
The other thing to remember is try and adjust the settings when the doors are open, or near to it. I can't remember where I read that, but it's supposed to take less stress off the moving parts. Try it yourself, and you'll see it's much tougher to move the adjuster dial when the blade's locked in place.
There now............my public service announcement for the week.
Hope that helps someone,
Martin
4 Attachment(s)
Properly Locked & Lubricated
Good post De Layne! I had a problem with an old DE Gillette adjustable that I inherited from my Grandpa. It had not been used in a quite some time so the adjustable handle could barely move. I had to crank it around with a set of vice grips while holding the blade end with a washcloth to get the doors open. After I got the doors open I used some Tri-Flow lubricant and injected it into the opening in the movable shaft. I had to let it sit for a couple of days for the lubricant to work its way into the metal. Finally, I was able to work it out by repeatedly opening and closing the doors. You have to be really careful with the vise grips or you will crush the handle as it is hollow. As it was I scratched the handle a bit in the process but I was determined to get the thing working again.
Lubrication Steps
1. Remove the razor blade and store it in a safe place.
2. With the doors open all the way find the lubrication hole.
3. Apply lubricant to the hole slowly; too much and not all of it will go in.
4. After the lubricant has been absorbed into the hole, twist the razor to open and close the doors repeatedly working the lubricant throughout the inside.
5. Lubricant will begin coming out by the topside of the washer in the handle; use a cloth to wipe it away.
6. Wipe of the head of the razor and you are ready to shave with your newly lubricated razor.
I have attached some pictures the first one shows the lubrication hole, followed by the application of lubricant, and where the lubricant comes out. Of course there is a picture of the Tri-Flow and the application tube that is very handy for this purpose.