My first vintage Gillette

[With The Grain]

came today and here it is after ive cleaned it up a bit, pretty excited about it:

 

[With The Grain]

edit- had posted something about additional cleaning but ive decided not to bother. any idea what year SS i might have on my hands?

 

[Kyle]

Congrats on the new razor. It looks nice.

There is a way to tell the date of production based on the numbers/letters which appear on the underside of the head. The address for the website/s that contain the code cipher escapes me right now, but I am sure that one of our other members will be able to recall it.

Be sure to let us now how it shaves and possibly write up a review.

 

[DoubleE]

Congrats on the new razor. It looks nice.

There is a way to tell the date of production based on the numbers/letters which appear on the underside of the head. The address for the website/s that contain the code cipher escapes me right now, but I am sure that one of our other members will be able to recall it.
Be sure to let us now how it shaves and possibly write up a review.

Here it is. Great razor!!

 

[Kyle]

Thanks, Jerry. I recently cleaned up my "favorites" and managed to delete this link (adding it back right now).

 

[With The Grain]

ive cleaned it up pretty darn good and im still having trouble seeing any lettering or numbering besides "REG US" in the upper left, "PAT OFF" in the upper right, a gillette logo in the lower left and "made in USA" in the lower right. ill go grab a magnifying glass and see if i can see if ive been missing something.
that said ill shave with it for a week or two straight and if no one has posted a SS review still, ill happily share my thoughts.

thanks for the link

 

[Kyle]

James,

Check out that link that Jerry posted. There is a section that talks about razors without any markings and what time period/s that they were produced.

 

[With The Grain]

James,

Check out that link that Jerry posted. There is a section that talks about razors without any markings and what time period/s that they were produced.

thanks, i must have missed that as i eagerly skipped right down to the years of 40's -early 50's.

 

[With The Grain]

so if im reading this right "There were no razor serial numbers from 1931 until 1951." and on the chart at date 1931 it reads "B
No more razor serial #'s to 1951" and yet, afterward every year continues to be assigned a letter in order so that 1932 = C, 1933 = D.... 1950 = V. yet these letters dont actually appear on the razors?

im thinking this either confirms i have a pre 1951 SS and there is no way to identify an exact year or im still pretty lost.

 

[TomH]

Hi James,

...congrats, your "new" razor looks great...

It's a Super-Speed, isn't it???

I've bought my two Gillettes (one Super-Speed and one Adj.Long Handle) from an ebay seller named mr-razor and they came all in good condition, so, James, enjoy the using...

Regards

Thomas

P.S.: Jipiieh, now I'm a really "Member", that was my 30th post, feel great now...

 

[DoubleE]

James:

You're correct, it's made between 1948 and 1950 or 51 I believe. I don't know if you can determine the exact year however. Great razor, and I hope you enjoy it.

 

[With The Grain]

well it may appear now that i dont even have a superspeed, a couple nice guys over at SMF seem to agree it is a: 'Ranger Tech' - marketed for the Christmas season of 1941 and had a short production run because of the war - never made post war.

it's suppossed to be a bit more aggressive than the superspeed, maybe not as good of a shaver. time will tell i guess

 

[With The Grain]

couldnt wait anymore, had to use it... and now ive cut myself for the first time ever with a DE lol! ive cut myself with my dovo 6/8 but never with my HD. It's totally my fault though, it seemed to be a fair amount less aggresive than my HD on the first pass and i guess i started getting careless after that, thinking it just didnt have a chance at getting me, well once it came to the chin for the final pass, i got bit, nothing big probably 1/8" and i cant even see it anymore but it bleed a bit and the styptic pencil felt great on it .
now in retrospect i started getting a bit wild and antsy becuase it wasnt taking the hair away as quick as my HD and even had a slight pull feel (brand new merkur blade in) seemingly that makes sense as it's a more tame razor than the HD. for the next shave i think im going to swap in a feather, show the razor more respect and see how it goes .

 

[soulshine]

now you have me nervous.

s~s

 

[DoubleE]

well it may appear now that i dont even have a superspeed, a couple nice guys over at SMF seem to agree it is a: 'Ranger Tech' - marketed for the Christmas season of 1941 and had a short production run because of the war - never made post war.

it's suppossed to be a bit more aggressive than the superspeed, maybe not as good of a shaver. time will tell i guess

James:

When I saw the handle, it looked a little different than the typical SS. I've never seen one just like it and wondered what the differences between the rangers and the SS were. Nice looking razor none the less.

 

[With The Grain]

yeah it cleaned up pretty good, i gather theyre fairly rare, funny soulshine and I stumble upon them at the same moment. on that note, soulshine, i wouldnt be scared of the razor, the cut i got was totally my fault and zipping around my face thinking the smaller blade exposure couldnt cut me unless i got really crazy with my technique (i did). let me know what you think of your first shave with it and what blade you toss in it; like i said i felt a little pull with a merkur(that i dont usaully feel), so combined with the lesser blade exposure im thinking feathers are the ticket for this guy, but dont hold me to it as i havent tried it yet. perhaps after a week or two we'll put together a review for this razor.

PS yours looks great, love the box and you paid a lot less than i did!

 

[With The Grain]

jerry, dont quote me on this becuase im beyond a newb at identifying razors but i think a difference in the rangers and superspeeds is also in the razor bar within the head that holds the blade, the ends on the rangers look like T's (better seen in soul' picture, than my fuzzy one), i could be wrong but i think the superspeeds are just a straight line bar, maybe someone with a superspeed can check the head on theirs and clarify if im right or totally wrong.

 

[soulshine]

i was going to use a merkur in it tomorrow AM but will probably go with the personna instead.

one morning, when i was a kid learning to shave, i thought someone was opening up the bathroom door and turned my head just as i was making a pass on my chin. i slashed my chin open but good that day. that was when dad showed me how to use a styptic pencil.

s~s

 

[With The Grain]

US personna(would you believe i havent tried either personna yet )? ill try a feather tomorrow night if i have enough growth! it did give me a very close shave, the only knock was the slight pulling and the cut that i got for being silly with it.

I'm still jealous you have the box and too boot youve got the story of a previous owner(one can only imagine), very interesting stuff all around.

 

[soulshine]

it could have been the new blade OR the nancy boy i tried for the first time OR the slow & cautious shave i took this AM but this is the best friggin' shave ever had. perhaps it was a combination of the three? i didn't feel anything...(1) N-S pass & (1) S-N pass and it was mission complete.

s~s