Raised Flat Bottom family reunion

Welcome to the Raised Flat Bottom (RFB) family reunion!
Unfortunately, not everyone is here yet. Only six members have shown up out of at least nine or ten. Perhaps other B&Bers can help round up the absent cousins.
As some of you know, I love the RFB razors and consider them to be among the greatest shaving tools ever made.

From left to right: fat handle Rotbart (72g), ordinary Rotbart (57g), 7 O'Clock SC (57g), UK NEW LC (52g), #77/#88 (56g), and NEW Richwood (72g). The weights are approximate.
I believe that the RFB baseplate originated with Rotbart and was then adopted by 7 O'Clock and Gillette-UK. By the time these razors were being made, Gillette owned both Rotbart and 7 O'Clock. The first RFBs appeared in the early 1930's and they were still being made in the mid-late 1940's.
Some RFBs have notches in the corners of the baseplate and some do not. The Rotbart and 7 O'Clock teeth are also a tiny bit thinner than the NEW teeth.


Mr. Razor (Achim) has a few interesting variants.
Here is a #77 with corner notches
http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/The NEW/1933 NEW No77 Set England.JPG
This #77, like mine, has no corner notches
http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/The NEW/1933 green cased No77 England.JPG
English NEW with capital "I" centering pins
http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/The NEW/1930s British NEW.jpg
German #88 set
http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/The NEW/1934 No88 German Set.JPG
Finally, the only solid bar RFB, a NEW-Tech hybrid
http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/Tech/1939 Tech Hybrid England from Richard Snyder.jpg

The RFB family reunion has begun. Time to celebrate!

Please post pictures of your own RFB family members and feel free to add to or correct any of this information.

Wow ... what a beautiful collection of raised flat bottoms there! Great post, these posts about the NEWs have become my favorite!
I only have one of those, I humbly present my #77:


Thanks for sharing Dr. ... now I'll just look at your razors again and ...

Nice collection! I only have one variant, the British Tech Hybrid. I used it today paired with a UFO Colibri handle and a Polsilver SI blade for a very nice Father's Day shave.

taco8slo said:

Nice collection! I only have one variant, the British Tech Hybrid. I used it today paired with a UFO Colibri handle and a Polsilver SI blade for a very nice Father's Day shave.

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Of all the ones I don't have, this is the one I most want to acquire. Unfortunately, they are very hard to find.

nuclearblast said:

Wow ... what a beautiful collection of raised flat bottoms there! Great post, these posts about the NEWs have become my favorite!
I only have one of those, I humbly present my #77:
View attachment 461532

Thanks for sharing Dr. ... now I'll just look at your razors again and ...

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Very nice. I think the #77 was my first RFB (gateway drug). It is a wonderful shaver.

Oh yeah, I don't really care for SB razors, but wouldn't mind having one of those Hybrid Techs, beautiful razor, Erik!

I call her Madam, here formally dressed:


Here more casual with a UFO Colibri handle:

The #77 is a very appealing razor. DrAwkward, that fat handle Rotbart and New Richwood are especially nice!

taco8slo said:

The #77 is a very appealing razor. DrAwkward, that fat handle Rotbart and New Richwood are especially nice!

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Thanks. I must say that those are my favorites because they are so heavy. However, I don't shave with them very often because I want to keep them in decent condition.
The ordinary UK NEW RFB, paired with a Weber bulldog handle, is the razor that get the most time in the shaving rotation out of my my entire collection of vintage Gillettes. It is first by a very wide margin ...

Erik and Bosse, fantastic looking razors.

For now, I'll be humbly (read enviously) watching from the outskirts of your very photogenic family reunion.
Now, on to the hunt for a NEW LC head of my own!

Let me add my cousins to this reunion. I thought I had 4 and spent a frantic 20 minutes searching for the missing razor, only to be reminded by my wife that I passed it on to someone on the forum. I think she knew the whole time and just enjoyed pointing out that I should be a bit more organized. Point taken and, by the way imatabor, you owe me 20 minutes of my life back.


So, here we have the short comb 7 O'clock RFB on the left, the RFB with fang tab corners center and a normal RFB on the right. Notice the 7 O'clock sits a bit lower than the other 2, due to the comb length. Also, the 7 O'clock's handle is attached, so I can't use it with a heavier handle. It provides a very nice shave actually and I would happily use it most days, but a heavy handle and a RFB are hard to beat. For me, only beaten by the English Goodwill.

taco8slo said:

Nice collection! I only have one variant, the British Tech Hybrid. I used it today paired with a UFO Colibri handle and a Polsilver SI blade for a very nice Father's Day shave.

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I am also on the lookout for one of these. They don't come up often and I understand they are all rhodium plated. Lovely.

nuclearblast said:

Oh yeah, I don't really care for SB razors, but wouldn't mind having one of those Hybrid Techs, beautiful razor, Erik!

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You're not the only one. The only hybrid Tech I've seen so far for sale or up for bid was going for $100+

Jeff_H said:

by the way imatabor, you owe me 20 minutes of my life back

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Are you kidding! The hours you have caused me in searching out these gems. The hours that you have encouraged (enabled) the love of these English lovelies.
20 minute...... I laugh in your direction

Jeff_H said:

RFB with fang tab corners

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Jeff, excuse my ignorance, but what is a "fang tab corner" ?

Beautiful Family photos here!

Thanks for sharing.

GBinOZ said:

Jeff, excuse my ignorance, but what is a "fang tab corner" ?

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No need for apologies, and I don't know if that's what it's actually called. It's just a cap with exaggerated corner tabs. Here's a pic of mine, and a pic of a "normal" corner tab, for comparison.

Thanks Jeff. Always something to learn on this forum.

Cheers, George

Here are my 2 RFBs



This No 88 I acquired from France.




This is the 1941 New with Tech Handle which I acquired in Portugal. It is shown on the Mr Razor site here:
http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/The NEW/1941 (L2 on blade) NEW with Tech handle England.JPG

Cheers, George

GBinOZ said:

Here are my 2 RFBs

View attachment 461774

This No 88 I acquired from France.


View attachment 461775

This is the 1941 New with Tech Handle which I acquired in Portugal. It is shown on the Mr Razor site here:
http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/The%20NEW/1941%20(L2%20on%20blade)%20NEW%20with%20Tech%20handle%20England.JPG

Cheers, George

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Beautiful! Does your French 88 have corner tabs?