Greetings, fine people of Badger&Blade!
It has been an absolute joy of mine to compile the resources, gain an understanding, and essentially take history apart, one piece at a time
With the start of my disassembly/reassembly thread featuring the Gillette "fatboy" came a lot of questions, comments, and recommendations from the great people on this forum. These questions consisted of common mechanical issues, cleaning procedures, recommended materials, maintenance tips, etc. I sure got a kick out of lending my amateur advice and recommendations on everything and I still do! But the questions and focus started to shift...."Well Captain, what else can you do?" With this came the Slim disassembly/reassembly thread followed by the Super Adjustable, and superspeeds. Things were going great! I was steadily repairing, cleaning, and restoring razors for the members here, allowing these ladies and gentlemen to once again use the fine shaving tools that were made years ago.
Well, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone came to me with a very unique request, yes, to attempt the disassembly of the true Gillette "195" prototype. @GlennConti came to me with a worn-out, tired, no date code (NDC) Bottom-dial. I gladly accepted the challenge that Glenn gave me and we started on the project. Rather than getting into detail on that, you can read up on it here.
Essentially, Gillette's contracted inventors never intended on these mechanical shaving tools being disassembled and then reassembled. This posed some complications for me...where does one start? Well, I started with research on previous attempts and I found a ton of old threads where people talked about the disassembly of the fatboy and some were somewhat successful while others ended up destroying parts of the razor and were left with chunks of nickel plated brass. Now, I would not be where I am at today without the past attempts, successes, and failures of those who went before me so my hat is off to those gentlemen! This was all fine and dandy for the fatboy design but when it came to the rest of Gillette's razors, information on disassembly was scarce, especially for the prototypes!
This forced me to somewhat pioneer the disassembly process for the bottom-dial and subsequent mechanical razors. I am not trying to take full credit for anything here, so if someone has made a successful bottom-dial or toggle disassembly thread before, please correct me
For me, the disassembly process started with the original inventor's drawings of the razors showing cutaway views, sectional views, etc. I then paired those drawings with the Patent information itself which gave detailed information on the arrangement of all the parts involved how they worked and so on. These drawings weren't the easiest to interpret so I found myself studying them for hours and reading the patent information over and over again, a very laborious effort if you ask me. It was all for a good cause however! I feel as though gaining a thorough and I mean THOROUGH understanding of these razors is the key to a successful disassembly/reassembly. Before I even thought about taking tools to these things, I wanted to know how each part worked and how they were related to all of the other parts. The long hours of research, staring, and re-reading paid off. I successfully disassembled one of Gillette's prototype razors using basically one tool
The simple design of the bottom-dial continues to amaze me and I really enjoy taking them apart...the few that I have been able to do.
This brings me to what this thread is all about, the Gillette "Toggle". As far as I understand, this razor is also somewhat of a rarity that was only in production for a few years, like the date-coded 1-9 bottom dial and "red-dot fatboy", but I could be wrong on that. At any rate, I do not think that they made as many toggles, bottom-dials, or red-dots as they did "regular fatboys". Of course, there is a wealth of information on the Gillette razors both here and the rest of the internet; I personally enjoy the "Razor Archive" website. The Toggle is sometimes referred to as the Pinnacle of Gillette's innovation with its very tight clearances, knurling, and plating finish but this is debatable
After a little break in the prototype madness, I received a PM from one of our members here, @tukyou (Paul). He inquired about my interest to do a restoration on his 1-9 bottom-dial which I gladly welcomed! He also had a regular fatboy that he wanted fixed up so he included that in the box as well. It didn't stop there however! He asked me if I would be interested in attempting the disassembly of his gold D1 Toggle that had a seized adjuster knob. Out of pure confidence and past successes, I said yes. Well, the package showed up and it all started...the photography, homework, and careful planning to attempt disassembly. Of course, I didn't jump right into disassembly. I wanted to get the razor working first without taking it apart. I gave the toggle what many here refer to as the "best treatment," that is, a couple good long hot soaks in water and dish soap
sometimes this is all an old razor needs to restore functionality and original beauty. After I did this many times (about 30!) the toggle freed right up but it was still a little stiff. I contacted Paul and gave him the news and asked him how he wanted me to proceed, to which he replied: "Full steam ahead Captain!"
Now, I had already been studying the guts out of those toggle drawings so I knew what I was up against and to say the least, the Toggle is much more complicated than any other of Gillette's designs. There are actually a few different designs and drawings out there of the toggle or "quick-opening safety razor" so I had to make sure I was studying the right drawing. After getting the warm and fuzzy on the design, I took the toggle to my workshop and began. I will kick off the photos with the "before shots" so everyone can see how badly this thing was plugged up. Here we go!
It has been an absolute joy of mine to compile the resources, gain an understanding, and essentially take history apart, one piece at a time
With the start of my disassembly/reassembly thread featuring the Gillette "fatboy" came a lot of questions, comments, and recommendations from the great people on this forum. These questions consisted of common mechanical issues, cleaning procedures, recommended materials, maintenance tips, etc. I sure got a kick out of lending my amateur advice and recommendations on everything and I still do! But the questions and focus started to shift...."Well Captain, what else can you do?" With this came the Slim disassembly/reassembly thread followed by the Super Adjustable, and superspeeds. Things were going great! I was steadily repairing, cleaning, and restoring razors for the members here, allowing these ladies and gentlemen to once again use the fine shaving tools that were made years ago. Well, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone came to me with a very unique request, yes, to attempt the disassembly of the true Gillette "195" prototype. @GlennConti came to me with a worn-out, tired, no date code (NDC) Bottom-dial. I gladly accepted the challenge that Glenn gave me and we started on the project. Rather than getting into detail on that, you can read up on it here.
Essentially, Gillette's contracted inventors never intended on these mechanical shaving tools being disassembled and then reassembled. This posed some complications for me...where does one start? Well, I started with research on previous attempts and I found a ton of old threads where people talked about the disassembly of the fatboy and some were somewhat successful while others ended up destroying parts of the razor and were left with chunks of nickel plated brass. Now, I would not be where I am at today without the past attempts, successes, and failures of those who went before me so my hat is off to those gentlemen! This was all fine and dandy for the fatboy design but when it came to the rest of Gillette's razors, information on disassembly was scarce, especially for the prototypes!
This forced me to somewhat pioneer the disassembly process for the bottom-dial and subsequent mechanical razors. I am not trying to take full credit for anything here, so if someone has made a successful bottom-dial or toggle disassembly thread before, please correct me For me, the disassembly process started with the original inventor's drawings of the razors showing cutaway views, sectional views, etc. I then paired those drawings with the Patent information itself which gave detailed information on the arrangement of all the parts involved how they worked and so on. These drawings weren't the easiest to interpret so I found myself studying them for hours and reading the patent information over and over again, a very laborious effort if you ask me. It was all for a good cause however! I feel as though gaining a thorough and I mean THOROUGH understanding of these razors is the key to a successful disassembly/reassembly. Before I even thought about taking tools to these things, I wanted to know how each part worked and how they were related to all of the other parts. The long hours of research, staring, and re-reading paid off. I successfully disassembled one of Gillette's prototype razors using basically one tool
The simple design of the bottom-dial continues to amaze me and I really enjoy taking them apart...the few that I have been able to do. This brings me to what this thread is all about, the Gillette "Toggle". As far as I understand, this razor is also somewhat of a rarity that was only in production for a few years, like the date-coded 1-9 bottom dial and "red-dot fatboy", but I could be wrong on that. At any rate, I do not think that they made as many toggles, bottom-dials, or red-dots as they did "regular fatboys". Of course, there is a wealth of information on the Gillette razors both here and the rest of the internet; I personally enjoy the "Razor Archive" website. The Toggle is sometimes referred to as the Pinnacle of Gillette's innovation with its very tight clearances, knurling, and plating finish but this is debatable
After a little break in the prototype madness, I received a PM from one of our members here, @tukyou (Paul). He inquired about my interest to do a restoration on his 1-9 bottom-dial which I gladly welcomed! He also had a regular fatboy that he wanted fixed up so he included that in the box as well. It didn't stop there however! He asked me if I would be interested in attempting the disassembly of his gold D1 Toggle that had a seized adjuster knob. Out of pure confidence and past successes, I said yes. Well, the package showed up and it all started...the photography, homework, and careful planning to attempt disassembly. Of course, I didn't jump right into disassembly. I wanted to get the razor working first without taking it apart. I gave the toggle what many here refer to as the "best treatment," that is, a couple good long hot soaks in water and dish soap
sometimes this is all an old razor needs to restore functionality and original beauty. After I did this many times (about 30!) the toggle freed right up but it was still a little stiff. I contacted Paul and gave him the news and asked him how he wanted me to proceed, to which he replied: "Full steam ahead Captain!" Now, I had already been studying the guts out of those toggle drawings so I knew what I was up against and to say the least, the Toggle is much more complicated than any other of Gillette's designs. There are actually a few different designs and drawings out there of the toggle or "quick-opening safety razor" so I had to make sure I was studying the right drawing. After getting the warm and fuzzy on the design, I took the toggle to my workshop and began. I will kick off the photos with the "before shots" so everyone can see how badly this thing was plugged up. Here we go!
Never a shortage of humor and entertainment here at Badger & Blade! I purposely held off on posting more photos until everyone could make a comment or two
a little softer than that GIF shown above anyways!
