I have been at it for 2 weeks with the Fatboy, and it has been a love hate relationship. Aesthetically it is a great razor with nice lines, and leaves no question that this is a man's razor. Functionally it has yet to give a good shave, regardless of the setting used. When I put it to task, the razor seems very clunky and unbalanced. There have been days where I get BBS shaves on my cheeks, but my neck is a different story. There have been days that my neck has been turned into a scene from a horror flick, and others where the forest has barely been trimmed. My neck has always been difficult to shave, but I feel the Fatboy has been the worst at navigating it.
The razor might not be in proper adjustment, I've had 5 of them and and only two were correct in the actual blade gap. Next thing I wanted to point out ( you probably already know this ) you need to make that last quarter turn to tighten the razor properly before shaveing .
The good thing is that it is adjustable. Find what setting works on your cheeks - set it there. Find what setting works on your neck - set it there. No rules saying you have to leave it locked at one setting for the entire face, or even for the entire shave, for that matter.
I am not sure if it is a setting problem, or a problem with the geometry of the head vs the angles of my neck. I was definitely getting better shaves with my ranger tech.
See if it actually changes when you make adjustments. Some don't. When you set to one the gap should be pretty small and barely shave on 9 you should see a fair difference. Sometimes they get " overclocked ". This is when someone held in the spring and moved it past the maximum adjustment.
If you are getting BBS shaves in areas, then bad shaves on the neck, then it will be your technique. Something you are doing isn't being done consistently. If the razor isn't damaged, and is properly locked down then: Make sure your beard is properly hydrated, before shaving. Make sure your soap or cream is slick. Take some between your fingers and rub. It should feel very slick. Fluffy doesn't mean slick. Make your you use a shallow blade angle, and very light pressure when shaving. Use a good aftershave to top it off. I can only handle a single pass on my neck, without getting irritation. You might try that.
With the fatboy I can do cheeks at 5 but have dial down to 2-3 for the neck . I suggest you shave your cheeks first. Get them smooth and then move to your neck. There isn't a standard shaving pattern. You can customize your shave routine to how the equipment you have works for you.
My fatboy was a little wonky on one side when I first got it. Using feeler gages, I was able to get the safety bar adjusted evenly on both sides, and it improved the shaves greatly.
I will post pics when I am home (working night shift). There is definitely a difference in blade gap between 1 and 9. I find that 6 gives an excellent cheek shave. I go down to 3 or 4 on the neck. The neck really boils down to two areas that I can't seem to get to. They are just lateral to my Adam's apple on both sides. I have tried multiple directions, and either have a bunch of irritation, or stubble. I generally only one pass or two pass and get a pretty good shave on the rest of my face. I have never been able to tolerate 3 passes. I will check the soap. I always shower and face wash just before shaving so I think I am hydrated well.
Have you tried pulling the skin sideways on either side of your Adams apple? This allows me to get close irritation free shaves around that area of my neck.
It never occurred to me to use different settings for different areas of the face. Thanks for the tip. Sent from my LG-V480 using Tapatalk
It's always a lot smoother and closer on my cheek then on my neck I will usually make an adjustment with my Fatboy when shaving the neck that's just the way it is
I agree that it sounds like a technique issue, rather than a problem with the razor itself. The Ranger Tech uses a slightly different angle than the Fatboy. If you are trying to use the same angle with all razors, only one razor will work for you. You need to learn each razor's angle.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is your blade. What brand are you using? Some of the guys here have said that they get different results with any given blade, in different razors.
