@Boycie83 - as promised - a modified Gillette Slim Twist - I think
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Provenance - all the following information came from the original owner of the razor and what little I could find on t'interweb - which wasn't a lot - if anything is wrong - I'm happy to be corrected - so -
I was given this by Jim - who I got to know at Glasgow Sheriff Court until he retired a few years back - before he worked there - he did 20 years in the City of Glasgow - subsequently Strathclyde Police - this was the razor he used every day he was on duty - cops were not allowed to look like hipsters in those days. When he left school in the mid-sixties - before he joined the police - he went to work for Perma-Sharp in East Kilbride - the first of Scotland's new towns - the company were American in origin and at one point had plants producing - mostly - blades - in the US, Australia, Israel in addition to Scotland. They made them under their own name - and for other markets - they were - and still are - very highly regarded - if you ever see them at a reasonable price - buy them. The ones manufactured in East Kilbride are particularly sought after - perhaps in part - because when the plant was set up the company poached the engineers who had developed the original stainless steel blade for Wilkinson Sword. The parent company went bust in 1972 but the facility continued to manufacture blades under license from Schick. Perma-Sharp had a nice pr thing going - their staff - male presumably - were given half an hour a day - paid - to shave at work - some have wondered whether this was just a stunt - but Jim confirmed it was absolutely true. The razor above was supplied by the company - the subsequent mod to the handle - he had done - we'll come to that in a bit. It looks like a Gillette Slim Twist to me - but oddly if you look at the close up - an engineer had engraved A and B on the bomb doors - he doesn't know why - that is the way it arrived in his hands. I have no idea how to date the head - it is almost completely missing the normal marks you would expect on a vintage Gillette - no patent declaration, no date code - all it has on the base - is 'Gillette England' on either side of the handle stem. If anybody knows more about this - I'd be happy to hear from them. The handle mod - is potentially the most interesting aspect to this razor - Jim didn't like the original - he felt the balance was off - so asked a mate who was a lathe operator/turner at John Browns ship builders in Clydebank - to make him a replacement to his own design - which is the one you see. At the time the yard was coming to the completion of order - 736 - better known later - as the QE 2 - it is likely that the rod stock used to make the custom handle was 'borrowed' from materials destined for one of the last great Cunard liners. A nice touch I think.
So - that is the story of this razor - when Jim retired from the cops - he retired the razor - deciding to take a more relaxed approach to shaving as he didn't have to every day - it sat in a drawer for years - until for some reason we got to talking about wet shaving - the next time we met - he presented it to me - wanting it to go to someone that would appreciate and value it. I was touched. I wasn't going to insult him by offering money but knew he took a dram - so got him a very nice bottle of malt. Honour satisfied. By their nature vintage razors are mass produced objects - but this one - in its current form - is unique.
Finally - I can't find out how long Perma-Sharp lasted in East Kilbride - at least until the late 70's - in 1966 Gillette sued them in Glasgow Sheriff Court for infringement of patent rights - they lost - but had the last laugh - they latterly bought the company and shut it down - but kept their trademarks - which - of course - they still use today.
Thanks for reading - cheers - I.
