Hi All, I recently picked up a fatboy in nice condition at a flea market. I've used a bunch of fatboys in the past, and have one as my daily shaver, so I'm very familiar with that model. So, I was gonna sell this one over at SRP (hehe, some members seem to like DE razors.......who woulda thunk it), and figured I'd test drive it first. I should mention there's a small 'hitch' when opening and closing the doors, but they opened and closed evenly and the blade locked in fine. I checked to make sure the blade was even across both bars, although I'd never experienced that potential problem in a fatboy (never know). Looked good, so I used it for my morning shave. The set up was one of my favorites.......Iridium blade with IK soap, and plenty of prep. First stroke was down, from my sideburns towards the jawline. Did I mention I've had maybe 300 or so DE shaves by now, and I kinda know when something's not right. This downward stroke (with the grain even) was so unpleasant it actually shocked me. Right away I'm thinking.........the hell is wrong here? Bad blade? Overclocked razor? I mean, this thing felt like it was set on about 15, and figured it was probably out of adjustment. However I first switched the blade into my normal fatboy, and yeah, it shaved fine. So that left something in the new razor as the problem. I tried dialing it down (I use #3 normally), and that didn't even help, so I removed the blade and finished up with my go to razor. Then I got to figuring out the problem, which ended up making me sad. I did the overclocking thing, but couldn't really tell if it helped, although the gap looked mild and not much was exposed. Hehe.........then, I had my epiphany..........yeah, I looked at the other side and saw the gap on that side was HUGE!!!!!!! All across the bar it looked like that 15 setting.....even, but amazingly aggressive gap to it. Yeah, that musta been the side I'd tried shaving with, and no, the overclock remedy didn't help at all. Man, I'm so glad I tried this razor before putting it up for sale...especially at SRP. Can you imagine someone who's never tried a DE getting this one to learn on? Whoa momma, that'll chase you right back on those M3's. Anyway, I can't fix the thing, which is a shame cause it's basically in nice shape. Hehe, I guess I was overdue for a clunker...first one like this I've ever had. Just wanted to share this with y'all, and hope it helps someone sometime. Martin
Martin. It sounds like the guard bar on the aggressive side has been bent down. That would also explain the "hitch" you were experiencing. The under side of the guard bar doubles as a guide for the silo doors. I have adjusted a couple of these before. It takes a bit of patience to figure out exactly where and what is bent and how to correct it. I'm not guaranteeing that it can be fixed, but I wouldn't totally give up on it.
Rodd fixed an Aristocrat recently that he bought from the Monkey with a spark plug gapper I think. Maybe give him a jingle.
Hi there, and thanks for the post, Yeah, I think you're right about that bar being bent downward just a little bit. Strange how it's so evenly done though..........you'd figure it would look more obvious, but that's not the case. Might I offer this razor to you on the house? If you can fix it then great, if not, then that's ok too. Either way, feel free to do whatever you like with the razor.....if you'd like it. Hehe, fixing stuff is not my specialty. If you'd rather pass, then no problem, and thanks again for the help. Martin Oh, thanks for the kind words in a previous post......I appreciate it.
Hi there, Yeah, I can see how a set of feeler gauges could help there also, since it seems to be more of an up/down adjustment that's needed. Thanks
The Rogue will be sent to Guido for some 'correcting'. I imagine this fine tuning to include some major banging with a hammer, accompanied by some salty curses. He was even nice enough to insist on covering the shipping charge, since it was only $35. Yeah, I know that's third class shipping, but he's not in any hurry. As we all know, those fatboys are heavy!
