British oc aristocrat oddity? Help needed

[elmerwood]

I recently picked up this razor from an auction site and was just given a couple of picks to decide whether or not I wanted to buy it and what it was. I know it was an OC Aristocrat but which one?? I counted the lines of pattern on the top of the box and swung over to Mr-Razor to compare notes. It looks like I have a case for a standard 1936 silver plated Aristocrat, but my razor doesn't have the base to match what is shown .on Mr-Razor site. I have a base like the rhodium No.15 or another razor that has wings on its center bar, except my notches don't protrude all the way through. It's almost as if they started the notching process and stopped once the caught it, or..... I don't know. I can't find any other razors with a base like this in the OC section or I may have just overlooked them. Am I missing something. The Pat. No. on the handle is 430.030 and 400.621 on the base plate. Have I got an oddity or am I missing something?

 

[elmerwood]

Mac where are you at?

 

[MacDaddy]

Mac where are you at?

Well, you did only give me 24 mins since you first posted.

I'm not seeing what you're talking about there with the notches. Any chance you could take a closer pic or crop into one tighter around what you're talking about? Right now it just looks like an earlier unwinged No. 15 Aristocrat set to me.

 

[Krona Kruiser]

Interesting.....I'm going to check mine.

 

[elmerwood]

Just giving you a hard time

 

[MacDaddy]

Just giving you a hard time

I know, I was just giving you one back.

That's just the same size as the other photo you posted rotated sideways. Are you saying that the things that look like two little brown smudges (running horizontally in this latest shot) below the "BRIT. PAT." and the diamond logo are actually cuts into the guard plate that don't reach the other side? If I'm understanding you correctly, are they plated over or do you see the bare brass there?

 

[elmerwood]

That's exactly it. Its like they started to make the notches to go through plate but stopped halfway through. I'm almost positive its plated. I've cleaned the razor but its at home in its case and I'm out and about, so I'll check it to be sure when I get home.

 

[alex2363]

That has to be an oddity, i never seen one like that and i had like 10 Brit 15's so far.

 

[elmerwood]

Here Porter. These are much better, and clean. Its plated not bare metal where they cut into the material.

 

[elmerwood]

 

[MacDaddy]

Wow, that's an entirely different picture there... I have no idea what that would even have been. They run out nearly to the edge of the flat area on the plate. The wing slots aren't nearly that long. They only reach up to just past the baseline of the patent number or just past the point of the diamond logo.

They look to perfectly placed to have been a mistake, but I can't even come up with a decent idea that they might have been testing out there. They do line right up with the tiny little tabs on the bottoms of the lifting arms, though, and it looks like your tabs are a little more bent outwards than on a normal wingless Aristocrat. So maybe they act as stops to the opening mechanism...?

 

[alex2363]

Wow, that's an entirely different picture there... I have no idea what that would even have been. They run out nearly to the edge of the flat area on the plate. The wing slots aren't nearly that long. They only reach up to just past the baseline of the patent number or just past the point of the diamond logo.

They look to perfectly placed to have been a mistake, but I can't even come up with a decent idea that they might have been testing out there. They do line right up with the tiny little tabs on the bottoms of the lifting arms, though, and it looks like your tabs are a little more bent outwards than on a normal wingless Aristocrat. So maybe they act as stops to the opening mechanism...?

Porter, wouldnt the rarity of this design make it a very pricey razor?

 

[elmerwood]

Porter your right. The bars on the bottom are slightly bent and if it wasn't for those reliefs in the bottom the doors wouldn't open all the way. Good catch.

 

[Krona Kruiser]

Interesting stuff. Here is my replated #15 next to another #15 that's gonna be replated for a member. There are differences as well in that mine doesn't have a butterfly notch like the other as well as the logos being different on the handles. However, both of the pictured #15's have the open cavities for the notches. I think mine is an earlier #15 like Porter mentioned.

(sorry for the shave cream scum)

 

[elmerwood]

Let's call it a No.19

 

[DrAwkward]

Porter your right. The bars on the bottom are slightly bent and if it wasn't for those reliefs in the bottom the doors wouldn't open all the way. Good catch.

I realize that I'm almost a year late to this discussion, but I have an Aristocrat that is identical in every way to the one pictured here by elmerwood. However, unlike elmerwood, I can see no functional purpose for those notches.

To confuse me even more, my razor does not look like either of the ones posted by Krona (although in one of his pics the notches seem to serve an actual purpose).

Is my razor (and elmerwood's) a variant of the 1936 silver-plated Aristocrat, a silver-plated #15, or just another 1930's British oddity?

Anyone else out there have an Aristocrat with those half-notches?

 

[Stampede]

I don't know if this adds to the confusion or not but here is the bottom of mine, which I haven't received yet but the consensus so far is that this one is a Rhodium #15.

 

[Stampede]

Anyone else notice that in elmerwood's most recent pics, the one of the top of the base plate, there seems to be a D stamped into base plate on the right of the center bar and a 1 stamped to the left?