Gillette Tech Head Weights

[pjgh]

Mulling over using my Lord Tech clone to have a run through the remainder of my Lord blades (thinking that many have already been tried out with my benchmark Tech, the 1980s [Blank] in the list below), I thought the whole razor felt ... well, kinda quite well made when compared to that late Tech and certainly better than the Sterling that I got with some of the new Gillette Super Blue blades.

I started weighing them out ...

Model	Manufacture	Cap (g)	Baseplate (g)
1930s pre-War (NDC)	American	16 Red Brass	11
1930s pre-War (NDC)	American	14 Yelllow Brass	11
1940s post-War (W1)	American	11	11
1940s FB #44	British	12	13
1940s FB Brass	British	13	12
1950s FB Brass	British	13	12
1940s Hybrid	British	14	18
1950s	British	14	11
1950s (B3)	American	15	11
1950s (Z4) Gold	American	12	11
1950s Aluminium	British	14	3
1960s (K4) Gillette	American	10	10
1960s (L2) Gillette Taveller	American	10	10
1970s (P2) Gillette	British	10	10
1970s (T2) Gillette Ball	British	10	8
1970s (U3) Gillette Ball Traveller	British	10	8
1970s Double Edge/G1000	British	10	8
1970s French (Diamond Stamped)	British	10	10
1970s French (Diamond Stamped O3) Open Comb	British?	10	10
1970s Rotbart (Embossed)	British?	11	10
1980s [Blank]	British	11	10
Lord	Russia?	11	7
Sterling	China?	8	2

Make of it what you will, but down the later Techs you'll see that the baseplate lightened by the '70s and then I have a couple of anomalies where the baseplate appears to return to 1960s weight. The 1940s British FB versus the American pre/post-War are interesting results.

I think when I get to the Lords, I'll use the Lord cap from that razor and pop it onto the baseplate from my benchmark 1980s Gillette Tech. It's a guess where it is made, though. I think I recall Russia on the packaging which makes sense as the vendor I bought mine from also has all manner of Rapira Sterling clones.

 

[Bogeyman]

I'll drop in later......after you convert these silly metric weights to oz. or grains.

 

[jimmyc]

I'll drop in later......after you convert these silly metric weights to oz. or grains.

3 grams is 4/64th of a cup.

 

[pjgh]

I'll drop in later......after you convert these silly metric weights to oz. or grains.

g (here) = units of Gillette

The contstant is the 1960s Tech where both cap and baseplate are 10 Gillettes (g) each, making the 1970s baseplate 0.8 Techs while the pre-War baseplate is 1.1 Techs.

 

[Bogeyman]

I understand both antiquated (avoirdupois) & metric, but I could never wrap my head around using grams easily. I always harken back to when I was young and was taught that 1 gram = approx. one paperclip or a raisin which as you can see is a pizz poor analogy.

 

[pjgh]

I understand both antiquated (avoirdupois) & metric, but I could never wrap my head around using grams easily. I always harken back to when I was young and was taught that 1 gram = approx. one paperclip or a raisin which as you can see is a pizz poor analogy.

I dread to think how your school taught human reproduction

... and yet when it comes to picking a scale based on something else observable, like, oh ... say, water freezing (0C) or water boiling (100C) you guys prefer to use fahrenheit. Go figure.

I'm a hybrid, somewhere in the middle of when Britain dropped old money, accepted centigrade (folks just a year or two older than me prefer fahrenheit) but still most definitely feet and inches for lengths. I weigh myself in stones and refer to the weight of my cats (all Maine Coonies) in stones! I don't tend to weigh anything in the kitchen, but we do have scales ... for which I thought grams (or units of Gillette) were a good unit to pick as my scales don't do grains and splitting a part ounce between 8g and 10g would be so fine it wouldn't register.

I do like a pint and a quarter pounder, but would happily down a litre and a kilo of steak!

 

[TobyC]

Minor complaint,... but the red parts are red brass I believe, not copper, copper threads wouldn't last very long.

Maybe that's why I like the pre-war, it's a heavy cap. (16 Gillettes)

I have seen a few red brass Tech bottom plates (which I'd love to have) I wonder what they weigh, I've also seen two OLD types with a red brass tube in the handle with yellow brass ends, I wonder if they would have been less prone to cracking.

 

[TobyC]

I understand both antiquated (avoirdupois) & metric, but I could never wrap my head around using grams easily. I always harken back to when I was young and was taught that 1 gram = approx. one paperclip or a raisin which as you can see is a pizz poor analogy.

We could measure everything in "stone".

 

[pjgh]

I've added a couple more: the 1950s American (non-gold) and a 1970s French? Open Comb.

 

[TobyC]

Centigrade or Celsius?

"The Celsius and centigrade temperature scales are the same scales, where 0 degrees is the freezing point of water and 100 degrees is the boiling point. However, the Celsius scale uses a zero that can be precisely defined. Here's a closer look at the difference between Celsius and centigrade:

The Origin of the Celsius Scale​

Anders Celsius, a professor of astronomy at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, devised a temperature scale in 1741. His original scale had 0 degrees at the point where water boiled and 100 degrees where water froze. Because there were 100 degrees between the defining points of the scale, it was a type of centigrade scale. Upon Celsius' death, the endpoints of the scale were switched (0° C became the freezing point of water and 100° C became the boiling point of water), and the scale became known as the centigrade scale.

Why Centigrade Became Celsius​

The confusing part here is that the centigrade scale was invented by Celsius, more or less, so it had been called Celsius' scale or the centigrade scale. However, there were a couple of problems with the scale. First, the grade was a unit of plane angle, so a centigrade could be one-hundredth of that unit. More important, the temperature scale was based on an experimentally determined value that could not be measured with the precision deemed sufficient for such an important unit.


In the 1950s, the General Conference of Weights and Measures set out to standardize several units and decided to define Celsius temperature as Kelvin minus 273.15. The triple point of water was defined to be 273.16 K and 0.01° C. The triple point of water is the temperature and pressure at which water exists simultaneously as a solid, liquid, and gas. The triple point can be measured accurately and precisely, so it was a superior reference to the freezing point of water. Since the scale had been redefined, it was given a new official name: the Celsius temperature scale.

 

[pjgh]

Minor complaint,... but the red parts are red brass I believe, not copper, copper threads wouldn't last very long.

Maybe that's why I like the pre-war, it's a heavy cap. (16 Gillettes)

Ah, okay ... I've just picked up on what it's referred to as. Brass is copper and zinc, so red brass is just "more coppered".

You got the picture, though. The "copper" cap is the one that is much more red and the fat handle also has "more coppered" parts, whereas the "brass" example is yellow brass throughout.

Sound.

Yes, picking up a pre-War, I'd go with the red/yellow one over the all yellow one that I have, any day. It's subltle, but it must make a difference.

 

[TobyC]

You should also say what the alignment "blade" configuration is, a long full blade will weigh more than two short ones.

 

[Boycie83]

 

[donnie_arko]

Mulling over using my Lord Tech clone to have a run through the remainder of my Lord blades (thinking that many have already been tried out with my benchmark Tech, the 1980s [Blank] in the list below), I thought the whole razor felt ... well, kinda quite well made when compared to that late Tech and certainly better than the Sterling that I got with some of the new Gillette Super Blue blades.

I started weighing them out ...

Model	Manufacture	Cap (g)	Baseplate (g)
1930s pre-War (NDC)	American	16 Red Brass	11
1930s pre-War (NDC)	American	14 Yelllow Brass	11
1940s post-War (W1)	American	11	11
1940s FB #44	British	12	13
1940s FB Brass	British	13	12
1950s FB Brass	British	13	12
1940s Hybrid	British	14	18
1950s	British	14	11
1950s (B3)	American	15	11
1950s (Z4) Gold	American	12	11
1950s Aluminium	British	14	3
1960s (K4) Gillette	American	10	10
1960s (L2) Gillette Taveller	American	10	10
1970s (P2) Gillette	British	10	10
1970s (T2) Gillette Ball	British	10	8
1970s (U3) Gillette Ball Traveller	British	10	8
1970s Double Edge/G1000	British	10	8
1970s French (Diamond Stamped)	British	10	10
1970s French (Diamond Stamped O3) Open Comb	British?	10	10
1970s Rotbart (Embossed)	British?	11	10
1980s [Blank]	British	11	10
Lord	Russia?	11	7
Sterling	China?	8	2

Make of it what you will, but down the later Techs you'll see that the baseplate lightened by the '70s and then I have a couple of anomalies where the baseplate appears to return to 1960s weight. The 1940s British FB versus the American pre/post-War are interesting results.

I think when I get to the Lords, I'll use the Lord cap from that razor and pop it onto the baseplate from my benchmark 1980s Gillette Tech. It's a guess where it is made, though. I think I recall Russia on the packaging which makes sense as the vendor I bought mine from also has all manner of Rapira Sterling clones.

Fine work Paul.

Have you used the MIC Tech? I've used one similar and it's really mild.

The Sterling Indian market Gillette Tech is quite a bit more aggressive! Looks like a Tech but doesn't shave like one.

 

[Weean]

the MIC tech head weighs 11g total, which could equal the 8+2g of the Sterling (bearing in mind the precision of kitchen scales).

I have two versions of Rapira Tech-style razors (one scarily aggressive, one merely assertive), both of which weigh 16g.

Not sure that's helpful, but it's nice to be a part of something.

 

[pjgh]

Fine work Paul.

Have you used the MIC Tech? I've used one similar and it's really mild.

The Sterling Indian market Gillette Tech is quite a bit more aggressive! Looks like a Tech but doesn't shave like one.

Not the MIC Sterling. I have used an Indian Sterling some years ago but it was when I'd first come to traditional shaving and so I only had the comparatively heavy Merkur 23C to compare with. I found it okay, to be frank. Likely today, I'd find it pretty primitive.