Curious Journey of the British Gillette Tech

pjgh

pjgh

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British Gillette Tech.jpg

I have posted a similar picture before in one of the many Gillette Tech mega-threads, but decided to make up a fresh one and re-arrange the models to show a developmental timeline but also show certainly a couple of side roads.

Straight into it ...

Building Baselines ...
1 Gillette New (USA) - Baseline New-type with long slot and ridge in the baseplate to accommodate the long bar
2 Gillette New (GB) - British New-type following the same material pattern
A Gillette Tech (USA) - Baseline pre-WW2 Tech ... long slot and diamond budge to accommodate and triangular drain holes
B Gillette Tech (USA) - Baseline post-WW2 Tech (1951 first date coded baseplate) ... still the long slot and same diamond bulge, but lozenge drain holes

Mighty-morphing Metal Magic?
3a Gillette New (GB) - Long-slotted New-type, but notice the slight indentation around the post to permit the handle to nip up?
4a Gillette Tech (GB) - Raised flat-bottom New-type where the raised part accommodates the bar, but notice that indentation has been removed?
3b Gillette Tech (GB) - Long-slotted Tech of the same material pattern as 3a
4b Gillette Tech (GB) - Known as the Hybrid Tech, notice the twin pins have become much shorter

Definitive Articles!
7 Gillette Tech (GB) - Flat-bottom Tech, popular throughout the 1940s - notice the diamond stamp and Made in England is on the upper half of the baseplate (as per 3b) which is the "usual" place for the Tech versus the lower half of the baseplace for the New-type (see 3a & 5)
B Gillette Tech (GB) - Diamond base Tech which replaced the flat-bottom Tech in the 1950s following material pattern of the American counterpart, but notice the shorter twin pins (seen in 4a>4b transition, 5, 6 & 7)

Odd One Out?
6 Gillette Tech (GB) - Flat-bottom Tech, but notice the diamond stamp and the Made in England is on the lower half of the baseplate as per the New-type and unlike the "usual" standard for the British flat-bottom Tech? I have placed this next to the post-WW2 American model as there is a detail which you can't see - on the side of the comb, there is a ridge on the British Tech (6) same as the later models (B & C) but not found on other British Techs of the 1940s. The razor does bear all the hallmarks of an earlier design possibility and are often found as "Service Sets" ... maybe consider this one a British-American Hybrid?

... and yes, I know. I know! The American post-WW2 Tech in position B is upside down. I'd like to say that was deliberate as some kind of mirror of the pre-WW2 in position A, but it was a mistake. No, I'm not going to get them all out again to take a corrected picture. I have tried flipping it around in software but it looks odd, so I'm going to stick to the mirror proposition and call it deliberate.

Summary?

American design stuck with a diamond bulge on the baseplate to accommodate the long-bar on the top cap and kept to that design from the off through the remainder of the 1930s, the 1940s and the 1950s where the model gained a slightly smaller handle.

British design went all over the place! Yep! All over the place ... but we can see it took its cues from the New-type, so as to usher in a development, if not cross-over of the New > Tech epoch. What we can see is that the baseline long-bar was trimmed not once, but twice to the short twin-pin design and that any kind of buldge, ridge or raised bottom simply flattened and cut out into twin-slots to accommodate.

That ... that, is arguably a design taken to its conclusion. Like when Steve Jobs (famously?) dropped the iPod prototype into a glass of water and noticed bubbles - he called for a redesign since the bubbles meant empty space, which meant the design had not been perfected.

Whatever!

All of these are fantastic shavers, each with an individual character that its fans will argue makes it the best.

You can check out the blade gaps thread (see: https://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/community/threads/interesting-tech-vid.57300/#post-893030) and the head weights thread (see: https://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/community/threads/gillette-tech-head-weights.54156/) to look for any actual material differences, but for me, the pre-WW2 Tech (USA) and the Hybrid Tech (GB) remain a couple of favourites, while the British-American Hybrid (in position 6) makes for a lovely piece of curio.

What is your favourite?
 
Fantastic post and very timely for me as I have been managing some stellar results with the flat bottom English Tech recently. I also have my birthday present from Matron due to arrive any day now - a 50’s ball end with the heavier, nickel plated brass handle and base plate. It will be interesting to compare the heads. The only other Tech I’ll want to get my paws on after that is the so called Spiral Tech but not in the much more common aluminium. I’ll be after the solid plated brass fella.

Another thing I must mention is the blade clamping on the Tech. Better than manys a modern razor, virtually eliminating chatter and making the shave very smooth indeed.
 
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I've focussed this around the flat-bottom British Tech, hopefully showing where it's come from and where it went ... I know there are many further revisions of the Tech, both British and American, and maybe I'll do a follow-on post with those. In the main, they're largely the same British or American for the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Some exceptions are the British aluminium baseplate/handle in the 1950s and that one heavier spiral-handle nickeled British Tech with 1950s head. Then, British stamped heads for the French market when etching was in favour; the open-comb Tech (yes, there is one, also under the Nacet brand) and those with plastic baseplates. There's Rotbart-branded Techs, too. I suppose earlier, also Minora and 7 O'Clock brands.

I also have a spiral-handle Tech which I believe is from the 1980s (stamped 24 on the underside of the top cap) with an ever-so slightly longer than usual handle. What's that about?
 
Blademonkey said:
I like the flat bottomed English Tech, the head is heavier than the others, it just feels like a substantial razor and never fails to give a great shave. :)
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Both that and the Hybrid Tech pair well with modern full stainless handles. I routinely use a Weber Bulldog with my Hybrid Tech and the weight/balance is superb ... dare I say it, modern?
 
pjgh said:
Both that and the Hybrid Tech pair well with modern full stainless handles. I routinely use a Weber Bulldog with my Hybrid Tech and the weight/balance is superb ... dare I say it, modern?
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Yes, I do like to match my FBT with a stainless steel handle, it works well and it looks good too! :)



Paul.
 
pjgh said:
Are you able to measure blade gap?

I have one of these (pre-War Canadian) and measured it as 0.025" which is different to the American pre-War at 0.030".
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I'll check shortly, but they shave the same to me. I never was one to measure a razor to see how it shaved, I shave with it to find it's worth.
 
Wow. What an incredible write up! Fine work Paul. It seems to be a checklist of razors I didn't know about and now I need to search out. I missed out on an auction for RFB NEW the other day.

If I had to pick one Tech, it'd probably be the triangular slot Fat Handle, but the all brass Ball End Tech is a touch more efficient. IMO, these two razors seem to work beautifully for a lot of different blades. But, I find myself reaching for a few of the NEW's pictured above, I find Gillette OC heads seem to work with my face really well.

Also, a guy on B&B did a Tech comparison, which isn't bad reading if you have a few minutes spare.

www.badgerandblade.com

My Giant Tech comparison thread

The point of this post is my own personal observations, thoughts, and feelings regarding the various Gillette Tech razors. Mainly done in a fairly straightforward and easy to understand post that isn’t presented in a long “shave of the day” fashion or with a lot of excess information to dig...
www.badgerandblade.com www.badgerandblade.com
 
pjgh said:
Yes, we had a further conversation about it, too.

I said that even putting a known US cap (at 0.030" gap) onto it, it still measured 0.025". Weird, eh?
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My Canadian Tech definitely felt more aggressive in the shave than my English ones. I used it a few times but I knew it wouldn't be my favourite Tech, but that's nothing against it.
 
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