The newest Schick entry into the shaving market is a five-bladed device that features, rather than the hydrating ’strip’ that’s been around for more than a decade, a ‘reservoir’ that contains aloe vera, vitamin E… you know, stuff to make your skin feel better.

I priced a pack of four replacement cartridges at Walgreen’s at $11.99 USD.

That’s THREE DOLLARS A CARTRIDGE, kids.

At that kind of price, it ain’t your face that needs to be lubricated.

It’s simple, fellas. If you want your skin to feel and look great, and your wallet to stay full, take up wet shaving.

You can get a vintage Gillette Super Speed on eBay for ten bucks.

Blades average a quarter each.

Etc. Etc.

You can buy a nice tub of high-end English shave cream if you really feel the need to drop serious coin on your shave, and even then you’ll save a bundle compared to this Schick affront to the dignity of shaving.

If you’ve found your way to this post via Google, because you were looking for info on the Schick thing, I sincerely hope I’ve talked you out of it, or at least given you food for thought.

One of the players I noticed while flipping through the shopping channel (looking for boss Invicta watches! lol) was a device that appears to be an electric shaver that you can get wet, or use dry. The Rotoshave!

Hahahahahahahahaha. I had to check the price on this new miracle. Around a hundred and twenty bucks American. It would seem the thing also requires replacement blades.

Looking around the net, I’m entertained by the various reviews and comments on the Rotoshave. A standard review will say it doesn’t give any better shave than any other electric and some go as far as to say it sucks. Invariably a shill will post a comment about how the Rotoshave is the second coming of shaving Jeebus! And obviously the reviewer doesn’t know how to use it right.

*sigh* I feel for the unenlightened masses who might be duped by this snake oil hucksterism, when their forbears knew how to get a good shave and actually enjoy the experience.

No.

Bond used a Slim.

Check out ‘Goldfinger’, the movie so cool it’s even responsible for the sale of millions of watch straps. While in Pussy Galore’s plane, you’ll see 007 pull a tracking device out of his specially modified Gillette Adjustable Slim.

Just something to think about the next time you start drooling over that Fat Boy on eBay.

Nod to Bond Lifestyle for the info.

For the record I should update that the seller who neglected to include the Fat Boy in the Gillette razor lot I had purchased made an honest error. She not only sent the Fat Boy along but let me keep the Super Speed she’d included by mistake! Now that’s the kind of seller that keeps eBay going.

As I thought might have been the case, she was a seller of all things vintage and wouldn’t really know a Fat Boy razor from a Harley-Davidson.

The Fat Boy was in kind of ‘meh’ condition. Solid mechanics but lots of plating issues and no paint at all on the numbers.

I flipped it and one of you out there is enjoying outstanding shaves with it. If I were to keep it I’d have it re-plated in heavy nickel, and fill in the numbers with black nail polish. It would be a beautiful piece for years to come.

It would seem the gloating I did in the previous post has come back to bite me. I received the shipment of razors from the seller today – but instead of the Fat Boy pictured, another Super Speed was there.

Oh, my. I am PISSED.

I can’t help but wonder what’s going on here. This seller frankly doesn’t strike me as a person with the mental horsepower to know what the Fat Boy was, and purposely leave it out of the package hoping I wouldn’t notice or something.

No, I suspect she just screwed up. Or… somebody noticed it in her antique shop or whatever, offered her way more than I paid, she took it and just threw in another Super Speed hoping I wouldn’t notice.

Looks like I gloated too soon. It was a lot of fun, though.

I’ll post the follow up to The Great Fat Boy Scam when it’s resolved, for good or ill.

I’d say the odds against me getting my hot, grubby hands on that Fat Boy are pretty long.

"Gilette Fat Boy Razer"

I recently bought this lot of fine, Gillette safety razors from that large auction site. Got a good deal, too. I don’t want to tell you how good, because you might cry. See that thick one in the picture? Yep, it’s a Fat Boy.

I have posted previously that sometimes you have to look hard to find a Fat Boy for a good price on eBay. I mentioned that occasionally you can find one listed when the seller doesn’t know that’s what it is.

Well, sometimes, you can find one where the seller not only doesn’t know what it is, but doesn’t know how to spell ‘Gillette’. Or ‘razor’.

That’s when you can score a true bargain.

Keep looking, kids. The deals are out there.

“The store’s toiletries buyer, Graham Speak, said: ‘Instead of lining the pockets of Federer, Henry and Woods, we think companies like Gillette should ditch their razorsharp pricing and put customers first…”

The revolution will be televised. It will feature Messrs. Woods, Jeter, and Federer.

The gent found through his research that water rusts blades – figure out how to remove the water, and presto! Blade life is extended. You shave with the lube, then store your razor in the extender.

Christensen.

His Revolt sells for around ten bucks a bottle.

Okay.

I’m down with invention, making a buck, the American way.

And I agree, if you can remove all water from your blades after a shave, they stand less chance of developing micro-spots of rust which will make the next shave rougher.

I’ve been doing some research of my own in this field and have found something that does the trick a helluva lot cheaper than Revolt.

Rubbing alcohol.

Plain old isopropyl alcohol displaces water. Using it as an after-shave razor rinse, you clear water from the blade before you put the razor away. You can enjoy the warm, relaxing pleasure of a wet shave and still extend blade life.

I’m not claiming anything new here. I’ve read about this trick, and have been trying it lately.

My DE blades have gone from three comfortable shaves to five. Also, any nasty germs that may have jumped from my face to the blade are killed before the next shave.

I keep an Anchor Hocking bowl of the alcohol on the sink. After my shave I swish the head of the razor in there.

Works like a charm, for 80 cents a bottle.

Here at Wet Shavers Blog mocking the modern Gillette is daily bread. The ‘True Blood Shave’ campaign, virtual Woods and Jeter running around chasing razors… I haven’t even touched the ‘How to Manscape’ videos Gillette has posted. Too easy.

Now that stock analysts, who are actually educated and stuff, are scratching their heads wondering WTF is going on at Gillette, I feel validated in my scorn.

Also, sad to see the once-mighty Big G, maker of such elegant old Boston Shaving Iron, slip into decendancy.

Shark Teeth Were Used for Shaving, Back in the Day.

Mental Floss brings us a brief history of shaving, including the item that ancient men shaved with shark’s teeth. I wonder if the barbers back then kept a selection.

“Would you like the Great White today, sir, or I have a new arrival of Hammerhead I think you’d like.”

Mental Floss mentions the fact that Gillette pretty much started the marketing ploy of essentially giving away the item (razor, printer) and making profit on the back end with the consumable part (blade, ink cartridge). They don’t mention that it took a while for Big G to get to that point. Originally, they lost their ass on blades. Razors sold for five bucks. That’s five bucks in 1904 money, yo. I think you could buy a new Chrysler for that now.

This one just suffered from neglect and poor presentation.

A Neglected Red Tip.

I sniped rescued the Red Tip and its long tooth NEW partner. A little scrub, a little TLC, and voila:

Red Tip After TLC.

I already have a Red Tip that I’m quite fond of, and don’t really need another. I just couldn’t stand to imagine this one going in the “Meh, didn’t sell, fuck it” trash bin. Which is what I believe would have happened.

So, search Ebay for ‘Red Tip’, look for the ‘after’ picture, and bid away. It’s yours. Just please, give it a good home. Take it out to play once in a while. You’ll be glad you did.

One thing I like to do on Ebay is pick up old razors that need some tender loving care, and give them a clean up.

Here we have a Gillette Old Type with a ball end handle. The Old Type was Gillette’s original mass production razor. It’s a testament to Gillette and early twentieth century manufacturing prowess that you see a lot of these around to this day. This razor, while not having a date, probably is from the mid-1920’s.

Before:

Gillette Old Type Double Edge Razor with crud

After:

Gillette Old Type Double Edge Razor after cleaning

I recently scored a Fatboy in need of love that cleaned up nicely. Maybe we’ll see that one down the road.

There is no other word that drives traffic to an Ebay razor auction like that one.

With good reason. The Gillette adjustable razor known as the Fatboy was one of the best DE shavers ever made. Wet shavers love ‘em. Newbies to wet shaving find this out, then run over to Ebay hoping to score one.

Trouble is, lots of Ebay sellers know this. It would seem more of them know this than know what a Fatboy actually is, because it’s easy to find a razor up for auction misrepresented as a Fatboy when actually it’s Gillette’s other DE adjustable, the Slim.

This is a Fatboy:

This is a Slim:

It is kind of hard to tell the difference, isn’t it?

That’s why you need to be careful when shopping Ebay for vintage DE razors. Most of the sellers are straight up folks who aren’t trying to trick you. But it’s caveat emptor on Ebay, pal. It’s up to you to know what you’re looking at.

Luckily, poster fidjit on Badger and Blade put together an excellent thread on how to tell the difference between a Fatboy and a Slim. Give that some study, then wade into the Ebay razor auctions armed with knowledge.

Psssst! Occasionally sellers put Fatboys up for auction and don’t know that’s what they are. Then you can sometimes get one for a steal. But you didn’t hear that from me.

Tips are given on getting started shaving with a straight (or, cutthroat) razor. Key: new razors need to be honed and stropped before they can be used!

Read it here: the lure of the straight razor

Maybe there’s another way, Jeff…