The Gillette long handle Tuckaway?

[elmerwood]

Good Friday everyone,

Just thought I'd share what my mom picked up for me at her antiques store on Wednesday.When I opened the case I immediately realized that this razor had a longer handle than a normal Tuckaway and had a different collar at the top. I looked further and there are no patent markings on the barrel either. So I went over to google and searched "long handle Tuckaway" and found this thread talking about. So apparently there are a few of these out there. All the cased ones from what I've seen have been found in the red and black case so it may be safe to say that this might be the original case it came in. I thought it was neat and wanted to share since the last thread was from 2007! If anyone has any other information about these goofballs please share. I think one of these in silver would have been cool.

 

[elmerwood]

better pictures hopefully

 

[mblakele]

Interesting that the head appears to have all the NEW patents, placing it no earlier than May 1932. Did our friends in Boston find a stash of New Improved (EDIT: or NEW Deluxe Belmont or Criterion) handle parts, hidden in some dark corner of the plant, and decide to use them up?

 

[MacDaddy]

Did our friends in Boston find a stash of New Improved (EDIT: or NEW Deluxe Belmont or Criterion) handle parts, hidden in some dark corner of the plant, and decide to use them up?

Just me extrapolating here, but I'd guess that these were a push to use up NEW DeLuxe parts. These seem to be found fairly often with NEW DeLuxe heads, too, and if you look at the handle parts you've got the bottom end from a Tuckaway-style handle (still being used in the NEW DeLuxe sets like the Norfolk and Lady Gillette), the handle tube from a standard-style NEW DeLuxe (Criterion/Belmont), and the flat-shouldered neck from a NEW DeLuxe Red & Black.

It seems like the Red & Black set wasn't sold differently by Gillette whether it had a standard or DeLuxe headed razor in it -- whatever was in it, it was still just the "Forty-nine Cent Special." So they could very well have just been grab-bagging whatever parts they could fit together into those sets to use them all up.

 

[TheEye]

have the same long handle tuckaway/norfolk razor with bar handle and tuckaway ending

 

[MacDaddy]

have the same long handle tuckaway/norfolk razor with bar handle and tuckaway ending

Very interesting... That looks more like a cut-down Big Boy handle tube to me.

 

[TheEye]

Very interesting... That looks more like a cut-down Big Boy handle tube to me.

yes you are right, it is

 

[tri33]

Thanks for sharing Elmerwood, that is a very interesting razor!

 

[Joezamboni]

Makes me wonder how many people Gillette employed at their manufacturing facilities that grabbed a few old parts during the depression and just made themselves a razor.

 

[72plymsatellite]

do me a favor Justin, stop buying rare things i dont have. very cool find though

 

[DrAwkward]

I think I have a long handle Tuckaway NEW De Luxe (with 15mm head).

FWIW ...



Apparently, the 1930s were chaos in Gillette land.

 

[alex2363]

Very interesting... That looks more like a cut-down Big Boy handle tube to me.

Porter, are you saying cut down Big Boy handle, but not at the end tip? Because i can't find any Big Boy with that end tip.

 

[alex2363]

I think I have a long handle Tuckaway NEW De Luxe (with 15mm head).

FWIW ...

View attachment 350381
View attachment 350409
Apparently, the 1930s were chaos in Gillette land.

I made those statements before i even read the history of Gillette. The 1930's Gillette was taken over by AutoStrop's Geisman in a merger and he brought his own team as he got rid of Gillette's prior team due to mismanagement. I guess that most of this chaos may be a result of this unexpected reversal of fortune for the Gillette company.

 

[alex2363]

Interesting that the head appears to have all the NEW patents, placing it no earlier than May 1932. Did our friends in Boston find a stash of New Improved (EDIT: or NEW Deluxe Belmont or Criterion) handle parts, hidden in some dark corner of the plant, and decide to use them up?

Just me extrapolating here, but I'd guess that these were a push to use up NEW DeLuxe parts. These seem to be found fairly often with NEW DeLuxe heads, too, and if you look at the handle parts you've got the bottom end from a Tuckaway-style handle (still being used in the NEW DeLuxe sets like the Norfolk and Lady Gillette), the handle tube from a standard-style NEW DeLuxe (Criterion/Belmont), and the flat-shouldered neck from a NEW DeLuxe Red & Black.

It seems like the Red & Black set wasn't sold differently by Gillette whether it had a standard or DeLuxe headed razor in it -- whatever was in it, it was still just the "Forty-nine Cent Special." So they could very well have just been grab-bagging whatever parts they could fit together into those sets to use them all up.

It seems that Gillette always did that. Can i ask a question, maybe you or Porter can answer. Wouldn't adding different patented parts to a different razor model make the patent claims on a particular razor obsolete, such as in this case?

I figure that the patent claims had their own definition for each part of the razor, then all of sudden you see these parts being added to another model that had a claim part number that belonged to another razor. Such as a Big Boy handle and a Tuck-away style end tip handle part being put together to make a different model. Their has to be some kind of accountability for Gillette before these decisions are made to make these off the wall models.

 

[alex2363]

do me a favor Justin, stop buying rare things i dont have. very cool find though

Then we wont have any fun trying to unravel the mysteries.

 

[72plymsatellite]

Then we wont have any fun trying to unravel the mysteries.

very true

 

[mblakele]

Wouldn't adding different patented parts to a different razor model make the patent claims on a particular razor obsolete, such as in this case?

I figure that the patent claims had their own definition for each part of the razor, then all of sudden you see these parts being added to another model that had a claim part number that belonged to another razor. Such as a Big Boy handle and a Tuck-away style end tip handle part being put together to make a different model. Their has to be some kind of accountability for Gillette before these decisions are made to make these off the wall models.

Without claiming any legal expertise, I think there was be little danger of that. For example the three NEW patents covered specific aspects of the guard, cap, and blade. A different handle would not change the features of the cap, guard, or blade. Even those parts have a wide scope for variation within the patents. After all the 1929 court decision found that the NEW design infringed on the http://www.google.com/patents/US1658435 Gaisman Probak patent, which means that the same patent covered design features of two rather different-looking razors. That same patent later became the REISSUE patent on the NEW guard plate, part of a family of three patents that seem to cover the Probak, Goodwill, NEW, and NEW Deluxe designs.

 

[americanarmsdealer]

Also, it's been 80 years, so I tend to wonder how many of these mismatches happened AFTER they left the factory? Except that so many of them have perfectly matching finishes between the head and the handle. Just thought I'd throw some more conjecture into the discussion to stir the confusion pot!