Help with a NEW cap style question?

I just picked up a Red & Black NEW today that had a style of cap that I've never seen before, so I thought I'd see what you guys think. Krumholz mentions (p. 199) two alternate styles of American NEW caps that were made in 1931, "the Year of Confounding," the #148 short-bar cap and the #154 two-bar cap.

The short-bar cap has turned up recently in this thread, and the two-bar cap is pictured in Krumholz on page 212. The cap that came on this R&B doesn't look like either. I've shown it here next to a British-made NEW that has the same style cap as the American two-bar. Apologies that I haven't cleaned either one up yet.



It looks more like the later British-made Gillette and 7 O'clock style NEWs with the tiny little cap studs, but I've never seen those on an American NEW before. Has anyone else?

You got that British New head, my friend. They are same. But I wonder that which razor of yours have that head?

This was just your standard, run-of-the-mill American-made Red & Black NEW that it came on. The overall finish and condition of the three pieces is the same, as far as I can tell, so I wouldn't think someone just swapped a cap in from a British NEW, though I suppose it's possible. But even a grotty British NEW would sell for more than I paid for this R&B, so I doubt that's what's happened here.

Here is a another style that is kind of similar but with offset bars and no tabs.



I vaguely recall seeing your gold cap with a short comb new head at one time, but I may be mistaken.
If I find the post I will post a link. Could it be a gold Tech cap?

xillion said:

Here is a another style that is kind of similar but with offset bars and no tabs.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's the sort of cap I was talking about above. Thanks for the picture.

xillion said:

Could it be a gold Tech cap?

Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I tried a couple of different Techs that I had handy here (one pre-WWII and one post-WWII NDC ball-end), and while the caps are basically interchangeable they're both very slightly shorter than the NEW guard plate (like 1/32"). And this cap fits but overhangs the Tech guard plate by the same amount, but it fits the NEW guard plate exactly.