Shaving journey thus far.

[NotTheStig]

Hi @pjgh - my vintage razors are a Gilette made in England Flaretip Superspeed - truly like the butterfly action.
The other is a cracked handled all brass affair, other than it being made by Gilette, that’s all I know about it. I defer to those that know all about this stuff.View attachment 147868View attachment 147869

That's an Old Type. Basically one in the first generation of razors Gillette made from the mid-1900s until the New Improved in 1929.* The brass handles do tend to crack over time, and often if dropped the outer teeth get bent (I see yours in no exception).
They are actually fairly mild razors and require a bit of 'riding the cap' as the angle is a bit steeper than most later razors. Still plenty of these around and some people love them.

* I'm sure people will delight in correcting me if I'm wrong.

 

[Sideburns]

That's an Old Type. Basically one in the first generation of razors Gillette made from the mid-1900s until the New Improved in 1929.* The brass handles do tend to crack over time, and often if dropped the outer teeth get bent (I see yours in no exception).
They are actually fairly mild razors and require a bit of 'riding the cap' as the angle is a bit steeper than most later razors. Still plenty of these around and some people love them.

* I'm sure people will delight in correcting me if I'm wrong.

Thanks for the information. I actually wondered about its age and have speculated how my father came by it. Maybe it was something he acquired from his father. Of course I’ll never know so a waste of time thinking about it.
I was intrigued to see how rudimentary the soldering is on the handle. The whole thing seems incredibly utilitarian.
The amazing thing is that after all these years since its manufacture the three part system is still very much in use today - a real credit to the original designer.

 

[TobyC]

Hi @pjgh - my vintage razors are a Gilette made in England Flaretip Superspeed - truly like the butterfly action.
The other is a cracked handled all brass affair, other than it being made by Gilette, that’s all I know about it. I defer to those that know all about this stuff.View attachment 147868View attachment 147869

Thick head ball end OLD type, the end teeth get bent from folks tapping them in the sink to clean them off. DO NOT try to bend them back, they will break off if not annealed first. Fantastic razor! It's what I started with years ago and nothing has beat it yet, and I have a bunch of razors. Yours is from the '20-'29 year range, shave with a shallow blade angle and you will be rewarded with glorious shaves.

 

[Sideburns]

Thick head ball end OLD type, the end teeth get bent from folks tapping them in the sink to clean them off. DO NOT try to bend them back, they will break off if not annealed first. Fantastic razor! It's what I started with years ago and nothing has beat it yet, and I have a bunch of razors. Yours is from the '20-'29 year range, shave with a shallow blade angle and you will be rewarded with glorious shaves.

That’s pretty specific, thanks for your help identifying. Aside from the Gillette stamp there’s note much in the way of markings to help identify it.
Amazing that it’s going on for a century old.
Oddly enough, it was the one that set the start of this Odyssey I cut my face with so much, I had to stop shaving for about 4 days for it to settle back down.

 

[pjgh]

Shamelessly lifted from another forum:



Notice the top cap is thicker on the ones at the right?

Yours is 100 years old right now! @Sideburns



Notice the angle? The cap appears quite flat to the face. The guard should not come into play - if you're getting guard lines in the lather, change the angle. The guard is only there to stop you beaching the blade into your face.



See? So easy, even a baby can do it!

 

[Sandpaper]

Shamelessly lifted from another forum:

View attachment 147882

Notice the top cap is thicker on the ones at the right?

Yours is 100 years old right now! @Sideburns

View attachment 147883

Notice the angle? The cap appears quite flat to the face. The guard should not come into play - if you're getting guard lines in the lather, change the angle. The guard is only there to stop you beaching the blade into your face.

View attachment 147884

See? So easy, even a baby can do it!

sorry to hijack but does the single ring that is second from the left have a 2 part handle incl. a barrel that tightens at the base of the handle? I'm trying to identify an old razor that's found its way to me. I'll uploa and shave with it once i've cleaned it up. Thanks

 

[Sideburns]

Shamelessly lifted from another forum:

View attachment 147882

Notice the top cap is thicker on the ones at the right?

Yours is 100 years old right now! @Sideburns

View attachment 147883

Notice the angle? The cap appears quite flat to the face. The guard should not come into play - if you're getting guard lines in the lather, change the angle. The guard is only there to stop you beaching the blade into your face.

View attachment 147884

See? So easy, even a baby can do it!

Thank you @pjgh that’s quite a find. It never ceases to amaze me the specialist knowledge that resides within these fora.

You can see from my pictures that the razor has obviously had a life.

I wondered about the flatter top and what the reason for it was. Comparing its side profile to the twist to open that I also inherited, the profile difference is quite marked and that difference had definitely intrigued me.

 

[pjgh]

sorry to hijack but does the single ring that is second from the left have a 2 part handle incl. a barrel that tightens at the base of the handle? I'm trying to identify an old razor that's found its way to me. I'll uploa and shave with it once i've cleaned it up. Thanks

Yes.

 

[Sideburns]

….I made the rookie mistake thinking the learned pattern of behaviour, reinforced by lots of years of instilled muscle memory using a cartridge razor would be of some help with trying to use the old brass Gillette razor - it wasn’t.

 

[Sideburns]

An amazing lather day - I mentioned that I’ve been experimenting applying soap / cream to my face and then using the brush to lather up - the chin acting like a mixing bowl and helping generate thick creamy lather. Today I did my 20 seconds loading the brush on my Tabac soap then transferring to the mixing crucible and wow - so much thick creamy lather - had lots left after my 3 pass. The lather was then worked into the face and it made so much more. Only drawback is the brush handle gets totally covered in lather when using the crucible. I can now see why some folk may use long handled brushes.

 

[TobyC]

Shamelessly lifted from another forum:

View attachment 147882

Notice the top cap is thicker on the ones at the right?

Yours is 100 years old right now! @Sideburns

View attachment 147883

Notice the angle? The cap appears quite flat to the face. The guard should not come into play - if you're getting guard lines in the lather, change the angle. The guard is only there to stop you beaching the blade into your face.

View attachment 147884

See? So easy, even a baby can do it!

It's sometimes hard to capture the difference in a pic, these are my efforts. Both cap and baseplate are thicker starting @1920.

 

[TobyC]

An amazing lather day - I mentioned that I’ve been experimenting applying soap / cream to my face and then using the brush to lather up - the chin acting like a mixing bowl and helping generate thick creamy lather. Today I did my 20 seconds loading the brush on my Tabac soap then transferring to the mixing crucible and wow - so much thick creamy lather - had lots left after my 3 pass. The lather was then worked into the face and it made so much more. Only drawback is the brush handle gets totally covered in lather when using the crucible. I can now see why some folk may use long handled brushes.

I don't use a bowl, all face lather.

 

[TobyC]

Thank you @pjgh that’s quite a find. It never ceases to amaze me the specialist knowledge that resides within these fora.

You can see from my pictures that the razor has obviously had a life.

I wondered about the flatter top and what the reason for it was. Comparing its side profile to the twist to open that I also inherited, the profile difference is quite marked and that difference had definitely intrigued me.

Over tightening could loosen the center stud in the cap in the the thin cap version, so they just made it thicker. Gillette originally had a guarantee where you could send the razor back to the factory for repair and they would fix it and send it back for free, the thicker head was Gillette's answer to earlier problems.

 

[Sideburns]

Over tightening could loosen the center stud in the cap in the the thin cap version, so they just made it thicker. Gillette originally had a guarantee where you could send the razor back to the factory for repair and they would fix it and send it back for free, the thicker head was Gillette's answer to earlier problems.

That’s fascinating - the material thickness of the top cap doesn’t allow for many threads to be cut to secure the protruding stud. Obviously a combination of thicker material and maybe a finer thread would help with securing the stud. It’s amazing that Gillette offered that guarantee. I wonder what the cost of the razor was back in the day in relation to average wages. I wonder if it would have been a considered purchase much like many of the offerings today.
Am I right in assuming that these razors are still reasonably common, so their intrinsic value is really the enjoyment to the owner in owning and using it?
From a design standpoint, I can’t get over the fact that a 100year old design is still replicated today. Essentially my EJ DE89 is still a 3 part razor - perhaps arguably a little more refined.

 

[Sideburns]

I don't use a bowl, all face lather.

It’s a very satisfying process, using the face to build lather, that’s a revelation in and of itself.

 

[Sideburns]

It's sometimes hard to capture the difference in a pic, these are my efforts. Both cap and baseplate are thicker starting @1920.

View attachment 147890View attachment 147891

Thanks for sharing that - those look like really fine examples of well cared for all brass razors.