Forgive me for beating a dead horse, but I’m a history buff. I have tried reading all of the related threads on this topic, but some are older than others, and there seems to be a fair amount of healthy disagreement.
So. Is there a level of detail that most everyone can agree on, tegarding NEW razor chronology, before the fight starts? I would appreciate any confirmation, clarification, and/or contradiction:
1. What we now call the Long Comb (NEW LC) was designed and put in production before the Short Comb (NEW SC)?
2. Further, the SC came out some time after the Gillette-Autostrop merger?
3. Further still, the SC appears to have come out after 1932/33, based on the patent reissued stamping?
4. There was an undetermined period of time where both LC & SC were hitting the shelves; but never as a customer option, it was just an internal parts/inventory thing?
But then, if I understand correctly, the debate begins in earnest. Either:
1. The SC replaced the LC, perhaps sometime circa 1936, but Gillette had a lot of already-made LC parts to use up, which took a while.
OR
2. Gillette Boston plant kept cranking out LC parts until the end (1939/40); while former Autostrop plants elsewhere got newer tooling and cranked out SC parts instead (1933 to 1939/40).
*3. What seems to NOT be an option, is that they were made simultaneously in the same plant. No factory shuts down to change tooling back and forth to make two different versions of the same part, unless they make different, marketed, customer options (hard tops one week, convertibles the next week).
Has anyone been able to tip the scales one way or the other?
So. Is there a level of detail that most everyone can agree on, tegarding NEW razor chronology, before the fight starts? I would appreciate any confirmation, clarification, and/or contradiction:
1. What we now call the Long Comb (NEW LC) was designed and put in production before the Short Comb (NEW SC)?
2. Further, the SC came out some time after the Gillette-Autostrop merger?
3. Further still, the SC appears to have come out after 1932/33, based on the patent reissued stamping?
4. There was an undetermined period of time where both LC & SC were hitting the shelves; but never as a customer option, it was just an internal parts/inventory thing?
But then, if I understand correctly, the debate begins in earnest. Either:
1. The SC replaced the LC, perhaps sometime circa 1936, but Gillette had a lot of already-made LC parts to use up, which took a while.
OR
2. Gillette Boston plant kept cranking out LC parts until the end (1939/40); while former Autostrop plants elsewhere got newer tooling and cranked out SC parts instead (1933 to 1939/40).
*3. What seems to NOT be an option, is that they were made simultaneously in the same plant. No factory shuts down to change tooling back and forth to make two different versions of the same part, unless they make different, marketed, customer options (hard tops one week, convertibles the next week).
Has anyone been able to tip the scales one way or the other?