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A tale of two Tuckaways

The New Improved Tuckaway is one of my favorite razors.
I have two, a gold plated one made in the USA and a silver one made in England.
But why does my English razor shave slightly better (IMO) than the American Tuckaway?
I'm not sure exactly how old each razor is.

Here are my two razors, with the American Tuckaway on the right:
$ta1.jpg

The teeth on both razors looked similar, although the American razor has a better finish on the bottom plate:
$ta3.jpg

I did notice that the bullet shaped lugs were a different shape, the English more like a cone,
but this wouldn't make any difference to the shaves.
$ta2.jpg

Then I noticed this:
The surface width of the English razors bottom plate is wider!
This would give the blade a different cutting angle.
$ta4.jpg

They are both great razors to use, but my preference leans towards the English Tuckaway.
The New Improved razors were made over several years during the 1920's and they are fantastic razors to use.

My preferred handle when using the English razor is an ATT Atlas:
$ta5.jpg
 
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I have a gorgeous silver Tuckaway but I'm not sure if it is American or British. I assumed it was American.

thanks for illustrating the difference.
 
I like Tuckaways too - I have an American silver that I use on a Weber Bulldog handle.

Could you measure the width of flats on each of the base plates? It would be nice to have empirical values so that Tuckaway owners can compare.

Cheers

Simon
 
I have a gorgeous silver Tuckaway but I'm not sure if it is American or British. I assumed it was American.

The British razors have a serial number ending with a "Y".

I recently acquired a US made Tuckaway and compared the head to my English Big Fellow. I found exactly the same thing plus the fact that the English cap is slightly wider.

Porter has expressed an opinion that the divergence between US made and British made commenced with the NEW, but perhaps the Brits went their own way with the opening of the Slough factory?

Cheers, George
 
The British razors have a serial number ending with a "Y".

I recently acquired a US made Tuckaway and compared the head to my English Big Fellow. I found exactly the same thing plus the fact that the English cap is slightly wider.

Porter has expressed an opinion that the divergence between US made and British made commenced with the NEW, but perhaps the Brits went their own way with the opening of the Slough factory?

Cheers, George

Aren't they stamped with the country of manufacture?
 
Aren't they stamped with the country of manufacture?

Yes, they'll say "Made in England" on the bottom of the guard plate.

The size difference on the top flat of the guard plate is something that I don't believe I've noticed before. I'm pretty sure that's not an "American" thing, though. That is, I'm pretty sure that not all American Tuckaways have that same design.

That C-series number is quite late in the run... I wonder if it wasn't a change that they made at some point during the New Improved era. I know I've got at least one Tuckaway with a higher serial number at home. I'll give it a check when I get home.
 
That C-series number is quite late in the run... I wonder if it wasn't a change that they made at some point during the New Improved era. I know I've got at least one Tuckaway with a higher serial number at home. I'll give it a check when I get home.

Interesting ... well, I am not sure where the Canadians fit, but I measured mine and it's 15mm wide.
Supposedly it's an early one, since it has a 5 digit serial number, ##### Z.
 
Aren't they stamped with the country of manufacture?

Well of course they are! But that's too easy. :blink::huh:

My Tuckaway is also a "C" - 70617C. The Big Fellow is 077384Y.

Some time ago I ran the micrometer over all my single rings and there was no significant difference in any dimension between the US and British. I have a US and a British 102A, so I'll check the dimensions of those.

I had thought, until now, that all the New Improved models had the same head design with different handles and boxes.

Cheers, George
 
The other differences I noted were that the cap on the Big Fellow is longer and wider than the Tuckaway, but the Tuckaway's Guard plate is longer than the Big Fellow's.

Cheers, George
 
OK, there was definitely a change to the New Improved head late in its run. In the first image below all three guard plates are from American Gillettes. The first from the left is a 1927 silver Tuckaway, the center one is a 1929 chromium Tuckaway, and the last on the right is an unserialed NEW DeLuxe. Notice how the dimensions of the '29 guard plate are more or less identical to the NEW DeLuxe. It seems pretty clear that this change was an evolution towards the NEW DeLuxe head.

In the second image I've tried to capture the profiles of the two Tuckaways to show how different they actually are.

I just love finding transitional forms like this. Really great find, Corny! :thumbup:

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I wonder if the British New Improved razors transformed as well. I recall Porter started a thread to find the highest serial number on a non US New Improved. It would be interesting to find out the configuration of that razor.

It is also interesting that the Cornishman preferred the shave from the earlier incarnation.

Cheers, George
 
Some time ago I ran the micrometer over all my single rings and there was no significant difference in any dimension between the US and British. I have a US and a British 102A, so I'll check the dimensions of those.

No significant difference in dimensions on these two razors either.

Cheers, George
 
I call foul! Of COURSE you like the English version. Where's a flag when you need one?:thumbup:

Good sleauthing on this. Learning something new & interesting.
 
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