The Yankee safety razor

[fmlondon]

I am finding it extremely difficult to find information on this Ever Ready prototype. As I understand it, the founder of Gem (who also worked for the Kampfe brothers for 23 years), left to found the Yankee safety razor company in 1903. The name was short-lived, as, in either 1904 or 1905, it became the Ever Ready. From what I have gathered, it looks as if their first model was a wedge blade variety (English steel). However, by the time the name had changed, it was using the standard SE blades (the first ever?), called Yankee blades.

Does anyone know how many Yankee models were built (not including later versions, decades later)? Am I right in saying that the first one was a wedge blade model? If so, when was the idea for making it into the first modern SE razor implemented?

 

[MacDaddy]

Jeremiah Reichard is who you're thinking of. He originally worked for the Kampfe brothers and left to start the Gem Cutlery Company with the Zinns and August Scheuber. He and Scheuber then split off again to start Reichard & Scheuber Manufacturing, making the Yankee (briefly) and later Ever-Ready brands.

I have seen a small handful of "Yankee" branded razor designs. Some appear to be precursors to or contemporaries of the early Ever-Ready hinged-front lather catchers, but others look more like later ASR designs, so I assume that they continued to use the Yankee brand even after the main shift to the Ever-Ready brand, and possibly even beyond the reorganization as ASR.

Here's an ad from The Strand from 1903, where R&S seem to have been basically giving the finger to Gem, calling their razor "the 'Yankee' Gem."

 

[Sled Dog]

Sorry but you know about as much history of Yankee as I do...
Here is a pic of my Yankee, you can see it is similar in design to a couple of early Gems that I have

 

[fmlondon]

Thank you gentlemen. The Yankee looks awesome. The ad seems to indicate that it was a wedge blade razor in 1903. Is there an ad for 1904 showing it as a wedge or SE blade razor?