Rare and Wonderful Cooper

[THall]

A while back, I posted pictures of a plastic Cooper (Late 30s, early 40s) trying to get more information about them. Their brass brothers are more common and these plastic (Not sure, probably not Bakelite) ones are very rare. Could not really find any information about them. I got 4 NOS boxed and put them off to the side. As you can see in the pictures, the thread is brass, but the rest of the razor is hard plastic.

So last night, I finally decided to try one and threw a Lab Blue in and went to work. The result was an easy 2 pass BBS. The kind of BBS that the razor starts to just rub against the skin of your face as in no more hair whatsoever. This greatly surprised me. I only got this as a travel razor and did not expect it to rival razors in my collection like my Timeless. It is really smooth also.

Not sure how long this would last as a daily even with that brass thread. It is very light also. Genuinely surprised here. If I had some time and a lot more money, I’d copy and market this thing in brass or stainless as Cooper is long gone.

Anyone ever use one of these?

 

[BigJ]

Really interesting razor!! Thanks for sharing!

 

[John Rose]

A while back, I posted pictures of a plastic Cooper (Late 30s, early 40s) trying to get more information about them. Their brass brothers are more common and these plastic (Not sure, probably not Bakelite) ones are very rare.

Certainly not Bakelite. Bakelite is always either black, like old phones or frying pan handles; or dark brown, like this radio:

There may be a hint of a tortoiseshell or wood burl pattern in it.

You may be thinking of Catalin (chemically related to Bakelite, but has no fillers), but white Catalin from that period would have turned to a butterscotch by now.
It may be Plaskon (a "thermoplastic chlorofluoropolymer"), or Melamine, I dunno. Both are more stable than Catalin in terms of colour fastness and resistance to shrinking.

It does look like a nice razor to shave with though. I like light handles that are not skinny, and the head's cross-section looks good.

 

[ajkel64]

Cool razor man, thanks for sharing. I like it.

 

[THall]

It’s a great little shaver, equals my GC in the 84 baseplate in shave quality, which is kind of funny. The more I look at it, the thread is probably steel rather than brass. I revisited Cooper’s metal offerings and although the 3 piece has a similar handle to this one, none of their baseplates/caps look like this one at all. The small boxes came with their blades. They are sealed but have some rust spots. Probably not worth it to even try them. What I did learn was that these were made in New York, basically next to the Brooklyn Bridge.

I got such a great shave with this razor, I’ve thought about looking into shops that could make me a CNC copy in stainless. Depending on the price, I’d have 3 made for me and my 2 sons.

The razor probably weighs the same as any plastic disposable. I think a CNC heavy copy could only be better but who knows?

I wonder if any members here have that machinery, I’m interested in trying.