Ikon handle made to fit Gillette New Long Comb

vferdman · Feb 19, 2013

I have grabbed an Ikon handle on BST with intention to use it on my Gillette New LC. I really love my New LC, but the original ball end handle, although cool and vintage looking, is too skinny and too light. So I got an SS Ikon handle, that I believe is a Bulldog (correct me if I am wrong). Upon initial fitting it to the New LC base plate I realized that the Ikon handle is too big at the very top where it need to fit between the ridges. It will still tighten down the head and probably work okay, but just does not look or feel right. The pressure from tightening down the head all rests on two points where the handle lands on the ridges. Ikon being a solid stainless steel handle I decide to create a bevel in the end of the handle to make it fit between the ridges. I don't have a lathe, but I do have a drill press. I chucked the handle up into the drill press with the threaded tip pointing down. I then used a flat file to take some material off the very edge of the handle tip to create a bevel and reduce the diameter of the end of the handle. The difference was a no more than 0.040", so there wasn't a lot of material to be removed. I then used fine grits of sandpaper up to 600 to remove file marks and then took my rotary tool with polishing wheel/compound to it to completely remove any signs of my modification. I ended up with an Ikon handle that works perfectly in the New now and still works in all the razors it fit before the mod. I am very happy. Will try the New with the Ikon handle tomorrow ahead of the Little Bastone (looks way aggressive).

I did not take "before" pictures, but I have just received a RazoRock Little Bastone razor from IB and that has exactly the same issue as far as the New goes. So, I took pictures of how the RazoRock handle fits on the New LC head to illustrate the problem I had with the Ikon handle.