Wanton destruction

[Tanuki]

Short vacation at the Oregon coast. Germans would have queued up back in the day to get this travel razor:

slantified Thick Cap Old Type, four piece in a baby case:

I feel that I am getting the Torqued by Tom well in hand. The sTCOT is an easier shaver, but I'm looking forward to a couple leisurely travel shaves to take more of its measure. The slantified Tuckaway will probably do a blade feel focused side-by-side with my PBOCS before Slantember wanes away.

I have seen plenty of these four piece, cased travel razors. German handles and cases, often with Made in USA Old Type heads. Sometimes they sport German OT knockoff heads. But I've never seen a slanted four piece. Wanton destruction fixed that.

 

[PLANofMAN]

Next project:

I'll be receiving the new die base next week from @twhite and will commence testing to figure out the best way to slant Gillette TTO razors. I suspect it won't be as straightforward as the Old Types and Techs.

 

[‘Bout Time]

Did I read in here somewhere that New Type heads are too thick to slantify? Or am I making that up ......

 

[romsitsa]

Next project:
View attachment 1166924
I'll be receiving the new die base next week from @twhite and will commence testing to figure out the best way to slant Gillette TTO razors. I suspect it won't be as straightforward as the Old Types and Techs.

I'll be more than suprised if this will work in one go, so watching with interest.

 

[twhite]

I'll be more than suprised if this will work in one go, so watching with interest.

I am sitting on the edge of my seat. I cannot wait for the results. I am sure there will be some more that will need to be done.

I REALLY HOPE it works. I want a slant Red Tip.

 

[PLANofMAN]

I'll be more than surprised if this will work in one go, so watching with interest.

Yeah, I'll be shocked if this works right out of the gate. I know the baseplate can be slanted correctly already, since it shares the tech baseplate. The biggest problem, as I see it, is that there will be little wiggle room for error. With the old type, if it gets over-bent, it's easy enough to straighten back out for another go. The Techs are less forgiving. The top cap can be straightened a bit, but the baseplate is a one and done. I have fixed an over-bent tech baseplate. It took about 4 hours and at the end of it, I had a mechanically solid shaver. A good re-plater might even be able to get most of the dents and dings out someday.

In the absolute worst case scenario, the doors will be removed, the baseplate slanted, and then the doors will be individually slanted in their own little die, and re-installed. Hopefully it won't come to that.

 

[romsitsa]

Compared to any three piece the "top cap" of tto-s consists of both doors, end connectors and center bar. What I don't see, right now, how can all those components be bent to the same degree, without getting out of alignement.
The most suspect part is the center bar, which will be twisted and angled at the same time.

 

[Tanuki]

I'll be receiving the new die base next week from @twhite and will commence testing to figure out the best way to slant Gillette TTO razors. I suspect it won't be as straightforward as the Old Types and Techs.

Looks like a moonshot from my perspective! You two are on a much faster track than the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo programs. Good luck!

 

[PLANofMAN]

Compared to any three piece the "top cap" of tto-s consists of both doors, end connectors and center bar. What I don't see, right now, how can all those components be bent to the same degree, without getting out of alignment.
The most suspect part is the center bar, which will be twisted and angled at the same time.

That's the only part I'm absolutely not worried about. The center bar will not move, twist, etc.
That section of the razor is not put under pressure at all. The center line of the razor is the only part that is not affected by the slanting process, and is the only reason this has a chance of working. All of the pressure during slantification is placed about a millimeter from the edge of the baseplate and top cap.

The end connectors will twist to follow the baseplate twist, and the end caps will probably pop off and have to be brazed back on.

My biggest concern is whether the hinge tabs are strong enough to hold the doors in place during the slanting process, and what is going to happen to the doors along the razor's center line. I'm probably going to play it safe and stick a piece of duct tape over the door/center bar area to try to hold everything in alignment.

Blade loading and removal is another concern of mine, but I'll just have to wait and see how that turns out.

Edit: the end connectors might be an issue, since they are connected to the center bar. They need to twist, but not deform the center bar, otherwise the TTO mechanism won't work. It will be much less of a problem on a 60's style super speed, where the end connectors are separate pieces, than on a razor like a No. 58 Aristocrat Jr., where it's all one piece.

 

[Old Hippie]

Refreshments ready...

You may proceed.

O.H.

 

[PLANofMAN]

Did I read in here somewhere that New Type heads are too thick to slantify? Or am I making that up ......

The New and the New Improved can be slanted, but because the razor design relies on clamping pressure all along the edge, it's very difficult to get the slant even between the top cap and bottom base plate.

To compound this problem, Gillette switched to a much harder brass for the New and New Improved, which doesn't make things easier on me at all.

To sum up, it's not easy to do, and takes way too long to do it. I slanted one Tuckaway as a favor for a local shave den member. I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out, even though he was.

I may revisit them at some point, but it's not a high priority thing for me to work on right now.

 

[twhite]

Compared to any three piece the "top cap" of tto-s consists of both doors, end connectors and center bar. What I don't see, right now, how can all those components be bent to the same degree, without getting out of alignement.
The most suspect part is the center bar, which will be twisted and angled at the same time.

Edit: I did not see @PLANofMAN above post until I posted. Please only concern yourself with my last paragraph. It is of the utmost importance.





The way that these dies are designed. The twist is from the centerline. So the center bar will incur minimal twist. As it is down the center. What I envision is the end caps popping off. Easy fix. Then most likely slight tweaking to the doors where the connect to the lifter.

Mind you that is what I see in my demented minds eye.

It very well explode causing a tear in the shaving time continuum. Where by all Gillette’s will instantaneously become non existent. Thereby putting SE razors at the pinnacle of shaving. Where they should be in my humble opinion.

 

[PLANofMAN]

Edit: I did not see @PLANofMAN above post until I posted. Please only concern yourself with my last paragraph. It is of the utmost importance.

The way that these dies are designed. The twist is from the centerline. So the center bar will incur minimal twist. As it is down the center. What I envision is the end caps popping off. Easy fix. Then most likely slight tweaking to the doors where the connect to the lifter.

Mind you that is what I see in my demented minds eye.

It very well could explode causing a tear in the shaving time continuum. Whereby all Gillette’s will instantaneously become non-existent. Thereby putting SE razors at the pinnacle of shaving. Where they should be in my humble opinion.

Funny you should say that. I dug out my micromatic collection the other day and shaved with my bullet tip micromatic yesterday for the first time in years. G-Bar is up for today's shave. It's probably been 5 years since I've used a Gem razor. They are nice shavers, wish there were more blade choices, but the ones readily available are pretty good.

 

[PLANofMAN]

Not 100% successful on the first go, but eh...close enough. Far better than I expected, actually. Tom is making some inserts to go inside the head to help keep the doors even at the center bar. No binding or other issues. Blade loading was easy, I don't know why I worried. Will try again when I receive the inserts.