Gillette Tech/NEW 3-piece frankenrazor overhaul (pics)

I bought an (for me) unknown vintage Gillette the other day for just $4. I tried to ID it in this topic (with success):
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...te-razor-ID-please-(pics-included)?highlight=

Now i went to work on it and this is the resulting topic:



Paid $4 for this grooming set in leather case. It doesn't feel that hygienic to me to use it but love the looks. In the small tin cans there is a 'vulkanisiert' travel brush and shaving soap in the other. Besides the price I was curious of the little gem in the middle: the safety razor.

















Mmmm, looks less nice... It seems to be a Gillette Tech (head) with a Gillette NEW handle. The last one looks brass or copper? Gold plated? Anyone an idea of aging and materials of both head and handle? And it's a frankenrazor. Or does this version exist? Check the neck below the head. Black.

What i did:

- Wash with ordinary kitchen sink soap
- Boil (outside) in water/vinegar mixture (a bit agressive but i wanted it to be clean).
- fresh water to clean it
- use a 50ct toothbrush with Macclean toothpaste en go! Wow.. that worked.
- rinse again with water
- Polish with Silvo with a t-shirt
- 'unpolish' with a clean piece of t-shirt
- used a microfiber cloth to finish it off.


Resulting in:















Check the neck again. Shiny!
And where is the yellowish shine? No brass? Of gone is the plating? Any clues?
Inside the handle is still not so nice.


Curious for more info on this piece!

Now time to load a Derby in it and try my 3 day beard.

Looks awesome, sweet clean up!

Yet another reason to not use vinegar, but an excellent job at restoration!
-- Chet

Very special indeed. Nice work.

Very nice. Is the handle light or heavy? Similar to ball-end?

thx!

handle is pretty light. Overall the combi is much lighter than my thick chromed EJ DE89L.

I shaved with a Derby blade with this Tech. It's true what they say; very mild and forgiving razor. WTG/XTG passes went perfect. A bit too mild for my wishes but alas.
And than the Icarus moment... It was so forgiving I went all in with ATG. Face ok, but my neck... I felt it as soon as I loosened my technique but continued. Pressed to hard tot get close to the skin too. Result; bloody mess in my neck and used a lot of alum (aluin) to stop the bleeding. Lesson learned; even with this kind of razors; keep kalm!

Question; you guys have any clue about the age of this combi? Are we talking 30s? 40? 50s?

jazzper said:

Question; you guys have any clue about the age of this combi? Are we talking 30s? 40? 50s?

Click to expand...

The head looks like a 50's era British Tech. The handle is from a WWII British Service Set as seen below.

jazzper said:

thx!

handle is pretty light. Overall the combi is much lighter than my thick chromed EJ DE89L.

I shaved with a Derby blade with this Tech. It's true what they say; very mild and forgiving razor. WTG/XTG passes went perfect. A bit too mild for my wishes but alas.
And than the Icarus moment... It was so forgiving I went all in with ATG. Face ok, but my neck... I felt it as soon as I loosened my technique but continued. Pressed to hard tot get close to the skin too. Result; bloody mess in my neck and used a lot of alum (aluin) to stop the bleeding. Lesson learned; even with this kind of razors; keep kalm!

Question; you guys have any clue about the age of this combi? Are we talking 30s? 40? 50s?

Click to expand...

You need to try an Astra or an Israeli Personna instead of a Derby. You may get better results. Derby has a dubious reputation, some love them some no so much. I like them in my Super Speeds but outside of that, they're finicky and tend to give me random weepers. My neck is a problem area as well. Before I go a full ATG I go a slanted ATG (between XTG and ATG) and it reduces enough stubble to give a comfortable ATG pass. However, the blade and amount lathered for the last pass has a big influence on how well the last shaving pass goes. Good luck.