Lawrence Whitaker
Up & Coming
This is the Ideal Diplomat, a Gillette Slim clone manufactured (most likely) in Donetsk, Ukraine, during the 1960s/70s. Its longer and chunkier than the OG Slim, and is a little like a cross between the Fatboy, Slim and Super Adjustable, but clearly taking all the design aesthetics from the Slim.
Operation is identical: TTO, 9 click-through settings, nickel plated brass, and a head geometry that's near identical to the vintage TTOs of the period. Balance is good, and blade alignment is decent. The mechanism is smooth and feels secure, which can be hit and miss for Soviet era razors.
I've shaved twice with the Diplomat, both times with a Rex Platinum blade. Yesterday I tried it on settings 6 and 5, and today 5 and 4. After yesterday's shave, despite it being smooth and almost indistinguishable from a real Slim or Fatboy, my face did feel quite raw, leading me to feel that the Diplomat is more aggressive than the Slim on similar settings. I think that is still true, but today I realised that yesterday, when switching from setting 6 to 5, I hadn't fully locked-down the doors. The Diplomat does have a quarter turn lock, like the vintage Gillette Adjustables, but it requires more travel and is actually like an extra half turn. So I was actually shaving yesterday without full blade clamping, and I'll need to remember that for the future.
Today's shave was much less fiery, and the alum feedback and later rawness much reduced. It is more aggressive and less refined than the Gillette originals, but still offers a very nice shave, and once again I get a real kick out of using a 50 year old razor made in the Soviet Union, and in a region that is currently undergoing a lot of turbulence and distress. Using vintage razors wherever they're from makes me think of the original owner, who they were, and what their lives were like. The Diplomat was not a cheap razor when launched; certainly not if you were a Soviet worker at the time. Was this razor owned by a Party official? A KGB officer? A spy? Who knows - but I now have vintage TTO adjustable razors from both sides of the Cold War and enjoyed them a great deal.
Another Soviet razor arrives today - this time a Black Beauty clone that is more of a Green Beauty, so watch this space...
Operation is identical: TTO, 9 click-through settings, nickel plated brass, and a head geometry that's near identical to the vintage TTOs of the period. Balance is good, and blade alignment is decent. The mechanism is smooth and feels secure, which can be hit and miss for Soviet era razors.
I've shaved twice with the Diplomat, both times with a Rex Platinum blade. Yesterday I tried it on settings 6 and 5, and today 5 and 4. After yesterday's shave, despite it being smooth and almost indistinguishable from a real Slim or Fatboy, my face did feel quite raw, leading me to feel that the Diplomat is more aggressive than the Slim on similar settings. I think that is still true, but today I realised that yesterday, when switching from setting 6 to 5, I hadn't fully locked-down the doors. The Diplomat does have a quarter turn lock, like the vintage Gillette Adjustables, but it requires more travel and is actually like an extra half turn. So I was actually shaving yesterday without full blade clamping, and I'll need to remember that for the future.
Today's shave was much less fiery, and the alum feedback and later rawness much reduced. It is more aggressive and less refined than the Gillette originals, but still offers a very nice shave, and once again I get a real kick out of using a 50 year old razor made in the Soviet Union, and in a region that is currently undergoing a lot of turbulence and distress. Using vintage razors wherever they're from makes me think of the original owner, who they were, and what their lives were like. The Diplomat was not a cheap razor when launched; certainly not if you were a Soviet worker at the time. Was this razor owned by a Party official? A KGB officer? A spy? Who knows - but I now have vintage TTO adjustable razors from both sides of the Cold War and enjoyed them a great deal.
Another Soviet razor arrives today - this time a Black Beauty clone that is more of a Green Beauty, so watch this space...
