Please forgive me if I have overlooked a simple resource list of the metals used in various razors. Does anyone know what metal(s) was/were used in the Gillette New Type? Thanks!
Gillette New metal (base and plate)
- Thread starter oxford1833
- Start date
I've seen copper top caps, and the base plate and handle may be either copper or brass.
Yellow brass and red brass.
The NEW's were all brass. Handles, base plates and caps. Gillette used different colors of brass, although I'm unsure why. I'm not a metalurgist, but I've read that different elements added to brass contributed to their different colors and I think hardness. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
However, we've all seen the heads of NEW's stripped down and they do look like copper, but they have a higher metal content, not sure which one, that makes them appear that way, but they were in fact brass. I wish I had saved the thread that talked about all of this. It was really informative.
Solid copper would be far to soft as I understand it to be adequate for the razor parts. I hope someone comes along that can fill in the details that I am unable to.
However, we've all seen the heads of NEW's stripped down and they do look like copper, but they have a higher metal content, not sure which one, that makes them appear that way, but they were in fact brass. I wish I had saved the thread that talked about all of this. It was really informative.
Solid copper would be far to soft as I understand it to be adequate for the razor parts. I hope someone comes along that can fill in the details that I am unable to.
Any brass contains a little copper. The more it has, the redder it looks: just like gold and rose gold. Red brass can be around 85% copper, but it needs some zinc or tin, or both, to have the right properties. That said I do not know exactly why Gillette chose red brass for the cap and yellow brass for the rest of the razor. Maybe something to do with the manufacturing process? Red brass ought to be a little easier to cast.
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