Wet shaving. Because Grandpa was right.

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.

Lifehacker has a post about how to extend razor blade life by soaking your gear in mineral oil between uses.

I’m sure this works, because anything you can do to eliminate water from the blade will keep it from oxidizing. Those tiny rust spots can wreak havoc on your blade’s edge.

I’ve also previously posted about a canny gent from Iowa who has set up an entire line of products devoted to keeping your blade edge sharp.

I’m not too crazy about spending a lot of money to save some. I’m also not much into oil when it comes to wet shaving. I find shave oil gums up the blade more than it’s worth.

So, I’ll say again: I use a different method for eliminating water from the blade, and it works pretty well. It’s also dirt cheap and doesn’t leave any residue.

Rubbing alcohol. Plain old isopropyl.

I keep a covered dish of it by the sink. When I shake the water from my razor, I then immerse it in the alcohol, and swirl it around a bit.

That will displace the water, dry quickly, and extend blade life.

Now go spend that money you saved on something great, like a new brush or some killer soap.

Wait! I meant, flowers for your wife. Yeah, that’s what I meant.

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.