Didn't want to start a thread until I had a few shaves with this. This is the third one of these I know of existing and the last two turned up like 15 1/2 years ago on the bay. The ancient threads are all dead links and no pics so I may as well make this for reference purposes. This one like the one sold solo as well as the one in the lot all those years ago were from estates of ex-Gillette employees. They are all 59s. My example is 56.7g so a tick lighter than a typical flare tip. As you can see it has a solid guard bar across, but at the same time it has a full open comb. In action it's very familiar, but at the same time a bit more different than I expected it to be. It has more audio feedback than a standard flare tip. It also has more blade feel to it than a standard flare tip, though like a standard flare tip it is quite mild. I tried this on two days growth as well as one day as I wanted to see if there were drainage benefits to this design as my beard is quite coarse and I would have to open a solid bar tto Gillette to rinse it with a 2 day growth every pass I make. This drained more than well enough with the razor closed under the tap so it seems plainly superior in that respect to the stock razor. Tried it with a Vokshod and it shaved well enough, tried it with a red Israeli Personna and it sparked to life so it definitely benefitted from the different blade choice. Similar deal to a regular open comb where if your angle is off you get the lines in the lather. I prefer it to the stock flare tip just because it seems to cope with a little extra growth better, but I totally see why they didn't do anything with this as well as it is quite a marginal improvement for something that is completely unlike their other products at the time.
1959 Gillette Prototype Super Speed Flare Tip With Hybrid Solid Bar/Open Comb
- Thread starter kcb5150
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ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!! 
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
Amazing find. Thank you for posting the photos.
WOW!
That thing looks like it shaves smooooooth with that comb.
Congratulations!
That thing looks like it shaves smooooooth with that comb.
Congratulations!
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- #6
It's like a slightly more user friendly flare tip. It has more feedback, that's for sure
Wow, just wow!
That's amazing. Congratulations on the acquisition.
I just saw one of these for sale. Was this on Ebay? CONGRATULATIONS that's so cool!
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nope
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It's like they became aware of the existence of the eclipse red ring 20 years after the fact and decided to mock up a handful of hybrid comb super speeds to see if it gave any advantage. It's just very very weird
I’m so fascinated by this. I thought I had seen most all of the Gillette razors… even the rarest, but nope. Very unique. I’d love to know how many they actually produced.
This is a unique find for sure! I don’t think it’s even listed on Mr Razors website. What a fantastic piece of history!
Enjoy!
Guido
Enjoy!
Guido
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- #15
I sent him photos and data and he let me know he had some pics from another collector and just doesn't update his site any longer.
ERS4
My exploding razor knows secrets
It's sad news to hear that he is no longer updating his website, one of the most important repositories in the world of wet shaving.
Congratulations on finding a piece of Gilead's mysterious history, it really fascinates me.
Thanks for sharing some pics of such a precious razor. I've never known that such razor exists.
Sick razor man!
I'm going green round the gills ..... if it wasn't a Genuine REGUS PatOff as opposed to the WipeOff, I'd be sayin nah can't be can it?
Bless me Father for I hath sinned, thou shalt not covet another mans razor.
Bless me Father for I hath sinned, thou shalt not covet another mans razor.
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What would be amazing would be this comb with the full tray adjustment mechanism of the 1-9 toggle or the red dot but that doesn't exist afaik. Having given it a lot of shaves in a row it's definitely a better design in use than what they were going with at the time, though I don't like it more than a regular open comb, personally. It does have the virtue of the teeth being protected from bends, though. It's quite a bit harder to clog than the standard solid bar and that's worth a lot in my book.
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