Saw another odd item for sale

[wbw0126]

Any of you guys seen one of these before? I just saw it for sale (Wayyy too expensive, even for a rarity). But indeed a pretty cool item.

Prototype SS 1959?

.....Sorry for the small pictures......I couldn't make them bigger

 

[Oldguy]

He had it for sale a couple weeks ago or so. It was not bin but an auction with a super high reserve. I know i bid way high and couldn't break through the reserve not met. I've never seen or heard of one. Maybe Guido knows. Maybe it's somebody's frankenrazor.

Len

 

[AsylumGuido]

Any of you guys seen one of these before? I just saw it for sale (Wayyy too expensive, even for a rarity). But indeed a pretty cool item.

Prototype SS 1959?

.....Sorry for the small pictures......I couldn't make them bigger

Could you PM me the actual URL so I can see better sized pictures?

 

[AsylumGuido]

This one has me stumped. I cannot see how it would be a frankenrazor since the guard is part of the base plate and the base plate is perfectly consistent with a 50's style Super Speed. 1959 was the transition year between the 50's and 60's style Super Speeds.

 

[tgarza]

wierd.

 

[rodd]

The first time it was listed bidding went to $90.97, but reserve was not met. I have no idea what the story is on it, but I wanted it, but not that bad.

 

[AsylumGuido]

The first time it was listed bidding went to $90.97, but reserve was not met. I have no idea what the story is on it, but I wanted it, but not that bad.

I figured you had spec'ed it out, Rodd. Do you have any guesses beyond it being a true prototype?

 

[**Bingo_Bob**]

wow this is crazy! It is also missing the long slots one usually sees on these to let the foam through:

 

[heirkb]

Saw it once. Then forgot about it, cause I knew it'd cost way too much.

 

[rodd]

I figured you had spec'ed it out, Rodd. Do you have any guesses beyond it being a true prototype?

I don't have any good guesses.
I was trying to come up with ideas though. It looks unfinished to me. Almost like it was not plated. The little grooves in it could have been like the grooves in a safety bar, but they don't look as uniform for some reason.

My guess is based on very little information, so should not be taken too seriously...

Gillette thought about changing head design, people were missing the open combs, this gave part of the benefit (lather being able to go through to the blade, while still allowing the strength and cheaper production of their safety bar razors. Apparently this did not catch on, or maybe the shave is lousy.

Also noticed the stamp patterns on the bottom, kind of reminds me of English stamping, but it is Made in USA. Strange one, whatever it is.

 

[Hoos]

Don't see why it couldn't be a prototype for an open-comb/safety bar hybrid SS. Pretty much for the same reasons Rodd gave.

Though the endcaps seem odd to me. Larger than usual, maybe?

It's an interesting design. Wonder how it shaves.

 

[rainman]

A closed comb superspeed. Has to cost a fortune.

 

[DirtyDave]

That close comb is a first for me. My guess is that design would add cost Gillette did not want to absorb and dropped it. Razors are marketed to sell blades and my guess is they estimated it would not do enough to spur sales.

I could also be completely wrong.

 

[Jwolf24601]

You guys don't think someone cut a comb into a standard superspeed?

 

[AsylumGuido]

You guys don't think someone cut a comb into a standard superspeed?

Yes ... and no. The standard Super Speed has a slotted safety bar. There would be no metal to cut a comb into. This had to have been produced from a pre-manufactured piece. I would imagine a Gillette engineer would have taken a standard untooled Super Speed base plate and had it tooled in this fashion as a prototype. I expect that this was a manual "one off" type undertaking as it would have been extremely expensive to set the automated machinery up to make these cuts. That said, I would also expect that more than one of these would have been produced, but not many more.

If this is the scenario the razor would easily be worth a great deal of money to right right type of collectors.