Schick Krona Questions

[Maxime D.]

Here's 2 other pictures that I found while investigating.

Firstly we have a booklet with the code M-64-132 which (If I'm right) would indicate that a 1964.

PS: I just noticed that the knob of this Krona seems shorter.

The other picture show a guarantee behind a Krona package ''Not Good After 1 Aug 1966''

 

[mblakele]

That coupon expiring 1966-08-01 is a great find! Is that for one of your Kronas? Which markings does it have?

The knob difference could be good way to identify unpackaged razors, too. Can you measure a couple of knobs to show the difference?

Does the M-64 instruction booklet say anything specific to the Krona razor? I see the picture of the blade and the lather can, but what I can see of the instructions seem to be generic shaving tips. Could they have printed up a stock of those well before the Krona razor was in production? Or does it have a nice illustration of the Krona razor on the other side?

I know I may seem to be very picky about evidence like this. Sorry about that, and I suppose we will not be able to clear up every mystery. But I enjoy trying.

 

[Maxime D.]

That coupon expiring 1966-08-01 is a great find! Is that for one of your Kronas? Which markings does it have?

The knob difference could be good way to identify unpackaged razors, too. Can you measure a couple of knobs to show the difference?

Does the M-64 instruction booklet say anything specific to the Krona razor? I see the picture of the blade and the lather can, but what I can see of the instructions seem to be generic shaving tips. Could they have printed up a stock of those well before the Krona razor was in production? Or does it have a nice illustration of the Krona razor on the other side?

I know I may seem to be very picky about evidence like this. Sorry about that, and I suppose we will not be able to clear up every mystery. But I enjoy trying.

Negative, these are pictures from 'completed' ebay listings. I'm effraid I cannot give more informations but I'll keep scrolling the internet to find more informations.

Here's a new picture that I found on this thread, we can see a grey Eversharp version, a Gold Krona and a rugular one. You can clearly see the subtil variation long knob vs short knob.

 

[ShavinBacon]

Finally something I can help with. I took pictures of my 2 sided pamphlet which is the same as the one Maxime showed. In fact, my set is the one he showed earlier except that mine came with a 5 blade pack slightly different than those in his picture. That being said, I can positively date the blades to at least October 1965 (ad). Now, obviously, they may not be original to the set however it was pristine when I found it in an old antique store and there are least 3 blades (if not more) left in the pack. If anything, the original owner used one or two blades and put it away and I have no reason not to believe they aren't original to this set. And yes, I think your revised theory makes sense. I think I missed that earlier. Sorry.

 

[ShavinBacon]

Sorry for bad iPad pics. It just now struck me that they were selling their new DE razor yet pushing their "Hot Lather" Shave Cream for the best possible shaves. Kind of the juxtaposition of old and new. Just made me chuckle.

I just realized something that may be important. It's obviously a nice illustration of a Schick Krona and how to use one however NOWHERE in the pamphlet does it refer to it as a Schick Krona razor. It is simply a Schick double edge razor. If this was preproduction or test marketing, maybe they hadn't settled on a name for the razor yet? The guarantee on the back of that box with the return guarantee coupon doesn't say it either. Maybe they named it in 1967 when they finally decided to advertise it. Hmmmmm.

 

[mblakele]

Great stuff, gents. As corroboration for a 1964 date, that booklet also shows a Kuhnl-style blade pack: http://www.google.com/patents/US3126091 filed 1962-03-22, issued 1964-03-24. Schick introduced their coated stainless steel DE blades in 1963, along with ASR/Personna, both following Wilkinson. Gillette was last to join the party, even though Gillette ended up holding the earliest patent on the PTFE coating process. All that means that the booklet could not be much earlier, and the style of the 1964 ads seems to match up: http://books.google.com/books?id=lI...CiwLpyIHIDg&ved=0CEwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&f=false for example, Ebony 1964-07.

The Krona vs Schick point is an interesting one: it seems like they experimented with the brand from about 1960-???, but abandoned it sometime after the Warner-Lambert acquisition. It was not simply a vehicle for coated stainless technology: the original 1960 Krona blades were carbon steel. As I understand it Eversharp never really liked Schick as a brand, which might have had something to do with all that.

 

[Bling2Ming]

I own one of the Eversharp variants, the details of which follow.

Member: Bling2Ming
Brand : Eversharp
Knob : Metal/nickle with eagle logo on bottom
Doors : Plain nickle no stamping
Baseplate: Right side "Eversharp" stamped, Left side Eagle logo stamped
Code Top Row: 4-2
Code Bottom Row: 6-M
Letter A stamped on the blade bed.

 

[mblakele]

Time to carry the table over to this page. I also took a few minutes to edit the Schick_Krona wiki page to reflect what I think we have learned. Please let me know where I got it wrong.

Member!!Brand!!Knob!!Doors!!Baseplate!!Code – Top Row (Left-to-Right)!!Code - Bottom Row (Left-to-Right)!!Weight (g)!!Case/Packaging/Notes
|Schick||black, raised triangle logo||Schick - Schick||SCHICK - MADE IN U.S.A.||3-3||9-M||38||Yellow plastic case. "O" under center bar. One-ply design.
|Schick||black||Schick - (blank)||PATENTS PENDING||4-2||3-M||?||
|Schick||metallic, painted/printed triangle logo||(blank)||Triangle logo on right, MADE/IN/U.S.A. on left||3-2||6-M||50||"A" under center bar.
|Schick||black||Schick - Schick||SCHICK - MADE IN U.S.A.||2-2||5-M||?||NOS in package: bar code, yellow plastic case, and Plus Platinum blades.
|Schick||black||SCHICK - KRONA||SCHICK - MADE IN U.S.A. / PATENTS PENDING||2-3||1-M||38||-
|Schick||metallic||(blank)||SCHICK - MADE IN U.S.A.||1-2||6-M||52||-
|Schick||metallic||?||?||1-2||M-5||?||Opposite order for "M-5". Packaging copyright 1965. Two-ply design.
|Eversharp||metallic, eagle logo||(blank)||eagle logo - EVERSHARP||4-2||6-M||?||Two-ply design.
|Schick||metallic gold, triangle logo||(blank)||?||1-2||M-5||SCHICK - MADE IN U.S.A.||Yellow plastic case. Two-ply design.
|Schick||metallic||?||?||1-2||M-5||?||Opposite order for "M-5". Packaging copyright 1965.
|Schick||metallic||(blank)||Triangle logo on left, MADE/IN/U.S.A. on right||1-2||M-5||55||Opposite order for "M-5". Packaging copyright 1965. "Printed in USA M-64-132".
|Schick||black||Schick - Schick||SCHICK - MADE IN U.S.A.||2-2||4-M||?||"A" under center bar.
|Schick||black, raised triangle logo||Schick® - Schick||SCHICK - MADE IN U.S.A. / PATENTS PENDING||3-3||1-M||?||No letter under center bar.
| Eversharp ||metallic, eagle logo||(blank)||eagle logo - EVERSHARP||4-2||6-M||50||"A" under center bar. Two-ply design.

The bottom picture of this new Eversharp looks much different than my 3-3/9-M does. I suspect mine is a product of US3376637 , filed 1967-02-27, issued 1968-04-09. So that might place the Eversharp pre-1967.

View attachment 363039

In the design from the 1967 patents, the center bar slots into another piece of metal. The Eversharp looks like the two-ply center-bar design that most Gillette TTOs use. Here is one drawing from the patent, but click through for more.

 

[CGW409]

Here's 2 other pictures that I found while investigating.

Firstly we have a booklet with the code M-64-132 which (If I'm right) would indicate that a 1964.

PS: I just noticed that the knob of this Krona seems shorter.

The other picture show a guarantee behind a Krona package ''Not Good After 1 Aug 1966''

Now this is interesting,at the shop my Krona had a live blade in it that I asked the clerk if she had any old paper to wrap the blade in before tossing and the graphics on the blade were a near match for that blade dispenser.

 

[mblakele]

Now this is interesting,at the shop my Krona had a live blade in it that I asked the clerk if she had any old paper to wrap the blade in before tossing and the graphics on the blade were a near match for that blade dispenser.

There are a few different Krona blades, and I think they mostly have similar markings. If you have the blade handy, look carefully at the text in or near the triangle logo. The ones in that dispenser probably read "Stainless Krona Edge", like the dispenser does. That should be right for ca. 1963-66, and "Krona Plus" should be in the same era. If they read "Krona Comfort Edge" or "Krona Chrome" then I think they are no earlier than 1966.

I am not sure when the Krona blades finally went out of production. Maybe ca. 1970 when Warner-Lambert took over the brand? Around the same time they lost an FTC case for deceptive advertising of the Krona Chrome blades, and management might have decided to kill the brand.

 

[Bling2Ming]

I forgot to weigh the Eversharp yesterday so I'm posting to correct that now. 50g on the nose, sans blade, using digital kitchen scales.

 

[mblakele]

No more Krona owners out there?

If anyone with a "PATENTS PENDING" model is still following this thread: which baseplate style do you have? In the photos below, are they more like the Eversharp, or more like the Schick? Or some third design?

View attachment 363039

 

[Maxime D.]

I've received a new Krona by the mail, this one is a short knob.
I've compared them and here are the results
-------------------
Short Knob Krona
-------------------
Lenght of the razor 103mm
Lenght of the Knob 15mm
Weight: 56.5 grams

Note: there was a case with the razor and it was punched 1965 under. Also the doors are blank.

------------------
Long Knob Krona
------------------
Lenght of the razor 104mm
Lenght of the Knob 18mm
Weight: 51.5 grams

 

[Bling2Ming]

This is all getting very interesting. I've been re-reading this thread from the beginning and looking at the image of GDCarringtons Early 1-2 M-5 Schick Krona he posted earlier in this thread, it looks to have a double center bar similar to my Eversharp.

 

[ShavinBacon]

This is all getting very interesting. I've been re-reading this thread from the beginning and looking at the image of GDCarringtons Early 1-2 M-5 Schick Krona he posted earlier in this thread, it looks to have a double center bar similar to my Eversharp.

I have the same razor GDCarrington has and yes, it has a double center bar.

 

[mblakele]

I think both of the photos posted by Maxime D. show that earlier center bar design, too. It is pretty easy to spot in profile, once you know what to look for. It seems like the short-knob, 55-g design was first, then the knob got a little longer and the razor lost a few grams, but the head did not change much. Then the head changed, probably ca. 1967 - and maybe dropped to about 38-g at the same time?

So now I am curious about the "PATENTS PENDING" razors. If they have the post-1967 head then that places them nicely. If they have the pre-1967 head but the longer knob, then the longer knob might have been tied to US3299508 from 1965. Looking at the diagrams for that patent again, I notice that it was drawn with the shorter knob in the drawings. That could have changed as they put the design into production, though.

 

[Maxime D.]

I interested in how is it that it was suggested they started the production in 1959, so far we can only go back to 1964.

PS: I can confirm that both short and Long knob razor are double center bar.

 

[GDCarrington]

I have a couple of other entries.

One is an Eversharp and here is the photo with the codes.

​

The other one is a Gold Tone Krona and I will have pics of them here soon.

 

[GDCarrington]

​

 

[mblakele]

I interested in how is it that it was suggested they started the production in 1959, so far we can only go back to 1964.

PS: I can confirm that both short and Long knob razor are double center bar.

I think that 1959 date started with a simple misunderstanding in a 2008 thread: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/62630-The-Schick-Krona

I contacted Schick last week and asked what years the Krona was in production. Here was the reply.:

Thank you for contacting Schick Consumer Affairs. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us and would be happy to assist you with your inquiry.

We show that the Schick Krona was made between 1959-1965.


Thank you again for contacting Schick. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,



Elizabeth
Schick Consumer Affairs

We can have high confidence that the 1965 end date is wrong, because of razors featuring the 1967 patent design and because gents here (you, for example) have NOS packaging that includes bar codes. Bar codes would not have appeared until the mid-1970s, so we can throw out 1965 as the end date. For the start date, I found contemporary sources discussing the introduction of Schick DE razors in 1963. Schick might have started use of the Krona name in 1959 - maybe only internally or in test markets - but in 1960 it was only used for injector blades. When the Schick/Eversharp/Krona DE was advertising, it was a vehicle for DE blade sales. So it would have made little sense to introduce a DE razor before introducing DE blades. Ideally both would have appeared at the same time, but the evidence uncovered in this thread leads me to think that there were delays.

Because of all this I conclude that the question asked by Norbert Sykes was not clear enough, or Elizabeth at Schick was a little confused.