New razor day

S

safetythird

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I've recently been looking for budget razor to use for travel instead of taking my Merkur HD. After looking at Aliexpress for various razors, a few folks on Reddit suggested a vintage Gillette for the same money so I spent a bit of time looking through threads on here and then a bit of time on eBay last week. As a result of which, this just arrived in the post which I believe is a fat handled tech.

I thought the date stamp meant it was made in Canada in 1932, though I now believe that's the patent date. All I've done is give it a wipe over with IPA to sterilise it and basically it looks new. Probably lived in a drawer somewhere for many years. Looking forward to putting it to use later. Does anyone have an idea of how to better date it?

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Nice razor. My Tech knowledge is a bit rusty, because I haven't bought or used any for a few years, and the earliest made ones I did have have been claimed by my son.
However, from what I can remember that looks like it was probably made in the mid to late 1940s. I believe the 1932 stamp is a bit of a red herring, in that no Techs were made as early as that. I think they started making them around 1939. AFAIK it's not a very early one, because it lacks the triangular slots in the base plate. Later on (maybe in the early 1950s?) they started putting date codes on them, so I don't think it's one of those.
I hope somebody with a greater knowledge of Techs, and a better memory than mine, comes along.
 
Thanks very much, sounds like a late 40's model. Still, a nice bit of history to keep going and using.

I shaved with it yesterday evening and found it very mild but with a much narrower shave 'window' compared to my Merkur HD. By which I mean that you had to get the angle 'just right' to be able to get a shave. May have been that I had 3 days of stubble so will see what it's like with just a day's growth to compare.
 
Yep, 1932 is the patent date, started making them in '38. The only date code breakdown we have is for the US models, the ones made elsewhere have a different code system. The etched Gillette logo on the cap seems to have started @'51 and ran until the embossed zamak caps came along @'62~'63. Great razor by the way! I like the pre-war, but they all shave great.
 
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