Is there any way to ID a year of manufacture on an old-style Gillette from the serial number?
I picked one up for a couple of dollars at an antique store a few weeks ago and just finished polishing up the head (just a little dull looking, actually the head looks unused) and gluing the top and bottom parts back into the cracked (in 2 spots) handle and did a shave with it this morning... (The handle was another matter... completely black with oxidation.)
I was very impressed with the shave. I thought Old Styles were supposed to be aggressive, and I generally do not like aggressive DE razors (HATE my Merkur 34) but I throughly enjoyed the shave and ended up with no irritation at all, and BBS except my neck where I don't go ATG with ANY razor... And this was even with a Gillette green 7 O'clock blade that I had laying around. 12+ hours later and I'm still nearly BBS on the sides of my face and under my jaws.
This was the first time I had ever used an open comb razor and took it slow and easy, but the results were phenomenal.
I tried to see if there was any dates on the case lining, but it's awfully worn, about the only thing I can make out on the case is Gillette and Old Style.
I picked one up for a couple of dollars at an antique store a few weeks ago and just finished polishing up the head (just a little dull looking, actually the head looks unused) and gluing the top and bottom parts back into the cracked (in 2 spots) handle and did a shave with it this morning... (The handle was another matter... completely black with oxidation.)
I was very impressed with the shave. I thought Old Styles were supposed to be aggressive, and I generally do not like aggressive DE razors (HATE my Merkur 34) but I throughly enjoyed the shave and ended up with no irritation at all, and BBS except my neck where I don't go ATG with ANY razor... And this was even with a Gillette green 7 O'clock blade that I had laying around. 12+ hours later and I'm still nearly BBS on the sides of my face and under my jaws.
This was the first time I had ever used an open comb razor and took it slow and easy, but the results were phenomenal.
I tried to see if there was any dates on the case lining, but it's awfully worn, about the only thing I can make out on the case is Gillette and Old Style.