Shemen Zait said:
Can I ask a quick question? I fancy an adjustable and apart from Merkur there is nothing new for sale so I am on the lookout for unused Slims or Fat boys, I see a NOS Black slim on ebay at the mom but I have to understand first what are the differences between the vintage and the Progress/Future etc'
The Gillettes all have nine clicks on the scale.
The modern Merkurs have a dial which does not click, hence you no longer have 9 settings but any number of settings between as aggressive as they come to as mild as Merkur can muster, therefore on the scale you could set it to 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2.0 and so on.
The Gillettes are all considered to be mild on the scale of aggressiveness, whereas the Futur is absurdly aggressive, IMO.
I find the Merkur Vision and the Progress go down to about the level of a 6 on a Gillette Fat Boy, set to minimum.
I love the Gillette Adjustables but use Merkurs myself.
That's all a bit waffly-
To surmise - Merkur adjustables start at a more aggressive blade gap / exposure than Gillettes, have a greater potential for settings and can be ramped up to very aggressives shavers.
Gilettes on the other hand have 9 settings and are relatively mild (the setting 1 is mild and 9 is medium / aggressive).