Schick Krona Questions

The original was patented in 1968 but filed in 1965.



Filed in 1965.

Wait What ? This think actually exist :O Humm Eversharp Double Edge Adjustable Razor aka Krona Adjustable

Maxime D. said:

Wait What ? This think actually exist ? HOLY MOLY !

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I forgot all about this until the image was brought up and it took me some time to find it.



http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/235254-This-is-not-a-Krona

Stealth on top of that ? The adjuster shrink inside the handle :O

GDCarrington said:

The original was patented in 1968 but filed in 1965.

View attachment 362380

Filed in 1965.

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Thanks for remembering about that thread. That latest patent http://google.com/patents/US3363313 was filed 1965-12-20 - after the two adjustable patents I cited. The December patent filing might be evidence that Schick had not quite given up on the adjustable idea by December 1965, but that adjustable - a prototype? - looks like the US3302284 design.

• US3302284: filed 1965-04-14, issued 1967-02-07. Bottom-dial adjuster, not used for the Krona.
• US3293745: filed 1965-07-21, issued 1966-12-27. Adjustment mechanism using TTO knob, not used for the Krona.

Apparently US3363313 did not show up in my searches because Google has the assignee down as "Ever" instead of Eversharp. Anyway the innovation seems to be the side guard, not the adjuster: "SAFETY RAZOR WITH SIDE WIPER". I believe it is part 13 in this diagram:



The inventor, Kuhnl, also designed the Schick-style blade packs.

GDCarrington said:

My Metal Knob Krona is marked as follows:

Top Row L-R

1-2

Bottom Row L-R

M-5

The case states the following:

Schick Safety Razor Company
Division of Eversharp, Inc.
Milford, Conn. ©1965

Instruction Sheet reveals no year of manufacture or printing.

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This is mine exactly with no stamping on the brushed metal doors. My case has a green and white plastic base with the translucent top. My base plate has the triangle logo with Schick in it on the left and Made in the USA on the right. My scale says it weighs about 55 grams but this is not on a digital scale so it could be a few grams less.

Looking at my instruction sheet at the very bottom it says "Printed in USA M-64-132".

1964? Maybe they printed the instructions in late 1964 for the 1965 razors? I don't know. Just thought I would throw my 2 cents in especially concerning the M-5. Hope it helps.

I found this




I noticed the M-66-413 at the right bottom of the packaging.

Thanks for the new data, gents. I guess it will be easier if I carry the table over to this page.


I am not 100% sure that the M-64 or M-66 means 1964 or 1966, but it is a good working theory.

Right now the earliest print image we have found for a Krona was in 1966. There are several Schick print ads from 1964, but they tend to show razors that look older or a bit generic, compared to what Gillette sold at the time: http://books.google.com/books?id=BH...RiQKE6YD4DA&ved=0CEwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&f=false for example, from Ebony January 1964. The razor looks like 40s Super Speed or maybe a 30s or UK Aristocrat - very little like a Krona. By May 1965 the print ads showed no razor at all, just a DE blade: http://books.google.com/books?id=NN...digKuoIHoBg&ved=0CFAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&f=false is Ebony again. In April 1966 we see images of the Krona as we know it: http://books.google.com/books?id=kU...digKuoIHoBg&ved=0CEwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&f=false shows yet another Ebony ad.

So around 1960 Schick started advertising and selling DE blades under the Krona name. Around 1965 Schick seems to have dropped images of Gillette-ish razors, perhaps because they were working on their own holder but were not yet sure what it would look like. By early 1966 they felt ready to advertise - but it is still unclear whether the actual razors ran ahead of the print ads, or behind them.

It must have been very frustrating for the Schick engineers, especially Kuhnl. He kept coming up with new designs for an adjustable DE, and other improvements too. There was probably a bit of Gillette envy in the engineering department. But I think management probably reminded him that they were giving the Krona razor away for free, to promote the Krona blades. So adding any complexity to the razor was out of the picture: instead the engineers had to redesign it so it was simpler and cheaper to make.

Maxime D., thanks for the reminder about Eversharp. Can you spot any codes under the head of that razor?

I keep forgetting to include Eversharp when I search for Schick. LIFE 1963-08-09 shows another Krona DE blade ad with a non-Krona razor. Ads from 1963-64 make a point of mentioning that the new coated stainless Krona blades fit "all double-edge razors", but they never seem to mention or show the Krona razor. Anyway that Eversharp packaging seems to mesh well with the 1968 Schick "free razor" promotion in LIFE: http://books.google.com/books?id=KlQEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA23&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false. Possibly that promotion spanned a few years.

My Krona -- black plastic TTO knob, not the earlier metal. It says "Schick" on top of the Silo the doors.
Underside of the head has, on the left, "2" on top, "4" on bottom Right side "2" and "M". So, in the above chart, 2-2, 4-M.
Under that, it says "Schick Made in U.S.A." Opening the silo doors, looking down, next to (not underneath) the center bar, there's an "A".
No gram scale, so no idea how much it weighs.

I'd love to know more about it, too. But that's all I got!

My google foo sucks but searching for a razor on a different computer I came across this 1965 catalog that clearly mentions a double edge razor while talking about all things Schick. Food for thought.

I did some research yesterday, comparing NOS Schick packages. I noticed that on some of them you can read ex: M-65-314, T67-56. On some of these packages you can also read Copyright 1965 or 1967 or 1970 and everytime the copyright year match the first number. I saw some packages without the copyright year but with this 'date code', however I don't think it's related to what is punched under the kronas head.

Also, every package branded 'Warner-Lambert' mean it's 1969+, since Eversharp sold Schick in 1969.

ShavinBacon said:

My google foo sucks but searching for a razor on a different computer I came across this 1965 catalog that clearly mentions a double edge razor while talking about all things Schick. Food for thought.

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Thanks: that was http://books.google.com/books?id=jElPAAAAYAAJ right? I am getting increasingly wary of the dates attached to Google books, so I like to verify them with a cover date or something. Snippet view makes that difficult, as I recounted in a post about a collection of Consumer Bulletin annuals: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...Not-Wipe-Blade!-Why-Not?p=5394019#post5394019. The date claimed by google books was 1960-61, but the actual content apparently went up to 1968. I figured that out by searching for various years and looking at the snippet text. Using the same technique here shows snippets of page footers for "December 1965", which gives me more confidence in the date.

But I am still a bit skeptical, because of the missing razor in print ads in the same period. Maybe the razor was on sale in time for Christmas 1965, but either there were no new print ads for it, or we have missed them. Or it could mean that these 1965 CSA ads for supermarket managers preceded availability by a few months: the ad says "ask your Schick salesman".

With that in mind I remembered about the google newspaper archive, and found http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...J&pg=4983,3450868&dq=schick+double-edge&hl=en from a Maine paper, the Lewiston Daily Sun, dated 1966-03-31. The ad shows a free trial of Krona Comfort Edge blades with the new Krona logo. There is a generic-looking razor illustration at the bottom, but I cannot convince myself that it is supposed to be a Krona. The offer ended 2 April, which fits with that April 1966 display in Ebony.

A similar ad ran in Tuscaloosa News, 1966-03-05: http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAAIBAJ&pg=6060,858423&dq=schick+krona&hl=en. Again it features the Krona Comfort Edge as a new improved blade. The razor at the bottom looks to be the same, but this time it is a little clearer: it could be a Krona, or maybe not. Either way it is not featured as a new product, but what do you think?

Maxime D. said:

I did some research yesterday, comparing NOS Schick packages. I noticed that on some of them you can read ex: M-65-314, T67-56. On some of these packages you can also read Copyright 1965 or 1967 or 1970 and everytime the copyright year match the first number. I saw some packages without the copyright year but with this 'date code', however I don't think it's related to what is punched under the kronas head.

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Thanks! We also have the report from ShavinBacon about a 1965 copyright with a printing code M-64-132, but we can say that they generally match up.

Maxime D. said:

Also, every package branded 'Warner-Lambert' mean it's 1969+, since Eversharp sold Schick in 1969.

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The Eveready site http://www.shaving.com/us/shaving-history.shtml says 1970. From what I can tell it was announced in 1969, but often those corporate deals take a while to complete. I would like to get more history into the wiki page for Schick, too.

Based on what we have seen so far, I think these statements about the Krona razor are verifiable:

• May have been test-marketed as early as 1964 (printing codes)
• Was mentioned in wholesale channels and may have been available during the 1965 Christmas season (CSA ad)
• Appeared in advertising as early as April 1966 - or possibly March (newspaper and magazine ads)
• Advertised as the 'new Schick "Krona"' in October 1968 (magazine ads)

I would like to find two Kronas where one has features of the 1967 patents and the other does not. We know those 1967 patent numbers appeared on mid-1970s packaging, and we think that no earlier Eversharp patents were used in mass-market Schick DE razors. For example this might appear if someone could compare a "PATENTS PENDING" Krona with one that has 1965 copyright dates. Among other changes, I would expect the center bar to change from two layers of metal in the older razor to one layer in the newer.

If we had an example of a patent-related design change like that, we could place those "PATENTS PENDING" examples pretty closely to 1967-68. We might also speculate that the early Krona razors were a little more expensive to make than Eversharp felt comfortable with, so they were not promoted until after the 1967 redesign. That would explain the dearth of print mentions until 1966-68.

Member: John Pseudonym
Brand : Schick
Knob : black plastic with raised Schick triangle logo on solid bottom
Doors : SCHICK (R) - SCHICK
Baseplate: SCHICK - MADE IN U.S.A. / PATENTS PENDING
Code Top Row: 3-3
Code Bottom Row:1-M
Weight: ?
Case/Packaging Notes: Can't find any A.

Hope this helps! This is such an interesting thread!

I've got 1 plastic-knobbed Krona, and one metal. I'll try to remember to check any markings tonight and report back on them. FWIW, the plastic knob would be my desert island razor.

I think those with the copyright who doesnt match the first number were produced late in that year, I've see Tech 1965 with the date 1966 behind the package.

John Pseudonym said:

Member: John Pseudonym
Brand : Schick
Knob : black plastic with raised Schick triangle logo on solid bottom
Doors : SCHICK (R) - SCHICK
Baseplate: SCHICK - MADE IN U.S.A. / PATENTS PENDING
Code Top Row: 3-3
Code Bottom Row:1-M
Weight: ?
Case/Packaging Notes: Can't find any A.

Hope this helps! This is such an interesting thread!

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Added, thanks. That makes three patent pending razors. Even that period seems to feature multiple door markings, but so far all have black knobs.

We need more data: who else has a Krona?

I was imprecise in my first post (or just wrong) about placement of the 4 code numbers/letter -- since edited. The top row markings are 2-2, bottom markings 4-M.

Opening up the silo doors and looking down to the top of the baseplate, "A" is to the right of the center post, not underneath.

Sorry for creating any confusion in the chart!

It seems like the Krona was sold in Japan as the Schick D-80.

Maxime, thanks for sharing that. That is really cool.

Mblakele, as I said before, my google foo is weak and you have obviously done much more research in to this than I have so I will defer to your judgement on most of this. However, I will respectfully disagree with you on your original theory that these razors didn't come out till 1967 or so. Based on what is listed on my case (1965), they had to be out by then. I think we are right on the two digit number being the year and I think they printed my instructions in late 1964. Why else would they have gone to the trouble to make a nice plastic case just to hold on to it for 2 years before they introduced the razor? And it seems like they quickly got away from the case and just went to cardboard packaging. Maybe these plastic cased ones were the early test ones.

It was their first foray into a DE razor. Maybe they didn't want to advertise much until they got all the wrinkles ironed out. That would have been an expensive mistake to launch a major new DE razor campaign only to have something wrong with the razor or the QC and have the customers turn on you in droves. Like I said, just my musings. What do you think?

wagstaff said:

I was imprecise in my first post (or just wrong) about placement of the 4 code numbers/letter -- since edited. The top row markings are 2-2, bottom markings 4-M.

Opening up the silo doors and looking down to the top of the baseplate, "A" is to the right of the center post, not underneath.

Sorry for creating any confusion in the chart!

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Table updated. I think the language on the "A" is close enough as it stands: it sounds just like the "O" on mine. Sometimes folks call that area the "blade bed" too.

ShavinBacon said:

Mblakele, as I said before, my google foo is weak and you have obviously done much more research in to this than I have so I will defer to your judgement on most of this. However, I will respectfully disagree with you on your original theory that these razors didn't come out till 1967 or so. Based on what is listed on my case (1965), they had to be out by then. I think we are right on the two digit number being the year and I think they printed my instructions in late 1964. Why else would they have gone to the trouble to make a nice plastic case just to hold on to it for 2 years before they introduced the razor? And it seems like they quickly got away from the case and just went to cardboard packaging. Maybe these plastic cased ones were the early test ones.

It was their first foray into a DE razor. Maybe they didn't want to advertise much until they got all the wrinkles ironed out. That would have been an expensive mistake to launch a major new DE razor campaign only to have something wrong with the razor or the QC and have the customers turn on you in droves. Like I said, just my musings. What do you think?

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I think we agree more than we disagree, which makes me happy. Did you read what I wrote yesterday about possible test-marketing in 1964, and limited marketing in 1965? The story of the early Krona is beginning to remind me of the fits and starts of Gillette Toggle production....

Anyway it seems fairly clear that the 1959 date in the wiki is based on a misunderstanding of some kind, probably with the 1960 introduction of the Krona injector blades. The farthest we have been able to push back any hint of Krona razor production is 1964. But what about the end of production? We know it was around ca. 1975 because of NOS packaging with bar codes. But by then Schick was selling cartridge razors too, correct? When did they stop making Krona razors?