Possible Micromatic prototype on its way. What do you think?

[amishmotorboat]

I have this coming my way. Any thoughts?

The patent mention on the bottom seems to mean it doesn't precede the normal open comb micromatic, since the 1930 patent drawings clearly show that style we're all familiar with. Yet those mention a patent number, while this simply says 'patd'. There is an earlier micromatic patent from 1929. Forward thinking but no idea what the patent number would be yet? Or knew it already had one patent, and another on the way, and put the numbers on the box once they know them both? It's a puzzler.

 

[razorx]

Can't tell you a thing about it,but if that handle was nicely knurled it would make that an awfully sweet SE
Please keep us posted on how it plays out for you....

 

[retturn2blades]

It reminds me of a D9 Bulldozer .

 

[the beav]

I think you have a fairly good chance at that. If I remember correctly, GEM advertised that they spent $600K on developing the Micromatic. The mechanism looks like a regular MMOC to me, so I don't understand what the patent would be for otherwise. I'm assuming that it does have a TTO, although I don't know how it would operate otherwise. Maybe they designed the head mechanism as shown, then later sent it to the stylists for the "radio tower" deco treatment.

On the other hand, maybe this is the cheap version made for the Bolivian market.

 

[amishmotorboat]

Yes it would almost have to be TTO. I don't see any obvious places for that though. I did see one strange thing up near the neck. It seems it would be a rather unhandy place to have to hold it for opening/closing if this is where it is.

 

[UncleScott]

Great razor.
A possible pre-micromatic??? it could be. One thing you might try is a patent search. Even though it does not have a patent number, I know there are patent search engines that allow you to search in other ways also. Possibly by year or description. Maybe someone here is more familiar with how to search for patent info. You might try to Google "search for patents" to see if you can get some ideas on where to look.

 

[MacDaddy]

It's definitely an interesting one, AMB. It's worth noting, too, that it's also missing the bumps in the blade bed (see the one on the right below) that we've guessed were a later addition to the design and which are not pictured in the initial patents.

As far as the "PAT'D" goes, I'm stretching a bit here but it's possible that the Micromatic design makes use of elements that were protected from an earlier patent of ASR's that was still active at that point -- similar to the way the Gillette NEWs were marked with the older New Improved patent date from 1920. Without a date or a number it's also not a "proper" notice, but if it was a prototype that may not have been a huge deal.

 

[amishmotorboat]

Thanks Porter!
I was not aware of this difference between early and late, but now that you mention it, I've found another interesting thing.
Here I have some micromatics, you'll see the first on the left is 'dimple-less'.

What you'll also see is that the ones with dimples seem to have slidey opener thingies of approximately the same size. But the one without dimples has one significantly shorter.

The one I'm receiving also has a short button.

re: earlier patents... That first micromatic patent did mention two other patents, for the ER 1914 and 1924.

 

[Sled Dog]

Looking forward to hearing more about this one when you get it...very interesting!!

 

[amishmotorboat]

Oh my goodness.

It arrived today and it does twist to open. The bottom knurled portion turns and sends a shaft up to the head just like in a regular micromatic. That gap in the handle up at the top is the problem. It's why the shaft isn't making contact to close the head. The handle has separated there. Tapping it back down should fix it. And here's another neat part... the entire handle assembly is threaded onto the head. This is almost certainly not anyone's at-home attempt to repair a broken one. I'm convinced that this is the real deal! I'll get some pics up later tonight, as I'm quite busy today.

 

[amishmotorboat]

Yessirreeee. It works.
Here we go.


Here is a before pic. You can see the barrel has separated from the neck.

That means the little shaft inside this square hole won't come out far enough to push on anything.
Here it is fully retracted. It's disappeared inside, but after put back into place it sits about flush with the opening.

Here is the head. You can see the slidy thing the shaft pushes on.

Gently tap the thing back together, and

This nub now will reach all the way up to the slidy thing.

and now it closes like it should.

 

[amishmotorboat]

My one regret, that I didn't think of until later, is that I didn't use the opportunity of the handle being partially disassembled, to remove it completely and observe the inner workings. Though it's not that hard to guess, it would still have been neat to get some pics of that.

 

[maxman]

That's pretty sweet. I actually like that more than the regular run of the mill micromatics.

 

[amishmotorboat]

One more piece of evidence that points to this being originally made this way, and not altered by some talented machinist:

The neck on micromatics taper down evenly until it reaches that ring right above the handle.
This tapers down and then flattens out. The width of the flatter area exceeds the width of the ring on an ocmm.

 

[Wingnut]

From some of those close-up pics, you can see the tool marks of whomever made it. While we may well never know for sure, I'm voting on this being a true prototype. Great fix, BTW!

Now we're all waiting to ask... HOW DOES IT SHAVE!?

 

[the beav]

Congratulations--nice find.

 

[alex2363]

From some of those close-up pics, you can see the tool marks of whomever made it. While we may well never know for sure, I'm voting on this being a true prototype. Great fix, BTW!

Now we're all waiting to ask... HOW DOES IT SHAVE!?

Me and John is still waiting.......

 

[amishmotorboat]

My order of SE blades from amazon was refunded. Actually, both orders. I received two messages, one for each purchase, stating that my package had been returned from the post office 'damaged', and the message addressed me by someone else's name, another member here who received the same message. In other words, they were out of stock and chose to apologize for it by lying. So I still haven't had the opportunity to try this out, or another SE that I've been wanting to try.

 

[alex2363]

My order of SE blades from amazon was refunded. Actually, both orders. I received two messages, one for each purchase, stating that my package had been returned from the post office 'damaged', and the message addressed me by someone else's name, another member here who received the same message. In other words, they were out of stock and chose to apologize for it by lying. So I still haven't had the opportunity to try this out, or another SE that I've been wanting to try.

pm me your address, i send you some Pellas.