I picked this up at an estate sale today. No patents or serial #’s. Says” Gillette and made in USA” on base plate. Top cap & base plate say “36” on them(prototype ID?). Top cap and handle are brass the base plate is plated it seems or varnished brass. I spoke with Matt from razor emporium and he said he has never seen anything like it & said it’s a prototype. Should be late 1920’s. Short of looking for patents for dates anyone seen anything like it. Any idea?
Super rare Gillette found.
- Thread starter StubbleMeetsSteel
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I'm anxious to hear what the shave is like on the cobbled up side.
Of course you will be giving it a go, right? Interesting razor, congrats.
Of course you will be giving it a go, right? Interesting razor, congrats.
congrats on the find
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Thanks I am excited to try to find out more about it. I reached out to the auction company. They are reaching out to the sellers for me for any info they can find.
Congrats!!
Very neat find! That top cap sure looks weird on one side. Curious to read what you find out about it.
36⁰ blade angle perhaps. Great find, wish it were mine!
let me know if like to know more information on it I did have some family members back in the day ended up working for Gillette or Pfizer at the time around the 60s or so too I know my grandpa had a chrome toggle nos set somewhere I saw as a kid and his gold and not to sure I've ran across a set of the lithograph double ring
Matt knows the person in charge of the Gillette Shaving Archives. I would ask Matt for his email and send the Gillette Archiver your pictures. Who knows...Gillette may want the razor back, and offer you a reasonable fortune for it!
I agree with Matt, that you have scored a one of a kind Gillette prototype razor. Possibly, this was taken home by a Gillette designer/engineer, if the design was rejected due to poor performance or the marketing department did not like it. It is very unusual, since Gillette did not market many dual baseplate razors (open and closed comb). Also, the closed side has a very unusual top cap ridge, which I have never seen. Wow! Thanks for sharing with our community.
I agree with Matt, that you have scored a one of a kind Gillette prototype razor. Possibly, this was taken home by a Gillette designer/engineer, if the design was rejected due to poor performance or the marketing department did not like it. It is very unusual, since Gillette did not market many dual baseplate razors (open and closed comb). Also, the closed side has a very unusual top cap ridge, which I have never seen. Wow! Thanks for sharing with our community.
Interesting specimen!
Seems like a shorter experimental version of the 'Big Fellow'
Seems like a shorter experimental version of the 'Big Fellow'
That's a rare find indeed. great score!
I had no idea they were experimenting with safety bars in New Improveds. It was still years before they would show up in the Tech.
It almost looks like one side has been 'blanked off' and won't cut to me (to ensure all the testers use the same side for consistency?)
Stick a blade in a give it a go!
Stick a blade in a give it a go!
That's what I thought, the comb wasn't cut and cap was altered to block use.
I think you're right. I couldn't tell from the angle, but it does look like some kind of blocking device instead of a safety bar.
Ron R
I survived a lathey foreman
Looks like a proto type for sure, not sure what they where resting for with one top cap side altered with the round bar stock silver soldered on. Thinking of a single edge razor possibly??
Gillette had in-house testing areas for their proto types and they still use it on new variant cartridge razors.
Gillette had in-house testing areas for their proto types and they still use it on new variant cartridge razors.
Very cool!
Has anyone tried to pare another handle with these or Frankenrazored them?
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