Seriously, Have you damaged your Vintage Gillette by dropping it?

nemo said:

I don't drop my razors but I've bought and seen plenty of Gillettes that have -- and show the damage from it.

Why do you think there are so many threads about uneven blade gap on Fatboys, Slims, etc?

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Yes, I have bought and been given some of those razors as well. But I still haven't seen or heard a first hand account of damage that came from simply dropping the razor. I just fixed up a Slim and then sent it to Captain Murphy which came off a scrap metal hauler headed for oblivion. And it is now the best shaving adjustable I own or have ever used. And it was in a horrible condition with the head bent upwards about 20-25 degrees when looking at it from the front. The doors were jammed open and the holes in the safety guard were bent closed.
But about an hour of bending and 45 minutes of soaking and a quick trip to have the blade gap and door fitment adjusted fixed the problems.
The razor only has a couple of small spots of plate damage after all that, so I must say that in my experience these razors are built better than almost any razors ever made.

i just don't see how many new razors could be repaired like this old Slim was repaired.

I've dropped a few with no ill effects.

I just got a very poorly rhodium plated fat boy that appears to have been dropped into a cage full of angry gorillas. Does that count? The TTO knob is deformed on the bottom and the bottom plate appears to have been dug at by a halfwit with a metal file. The adjuster also makes three full revolutions instead of one.

The knob really baffles me as it is an F2 with a threaded cap. Why they had to reef on it that bad to open it up is beyond me.

At least the Sheraton in the lot, which is what I was really after, is in good shape.

I'm going to see if the good Captain has some spare time to mess with it. If not he can have it for parts.

I've dropped my Gillettes (TTO and 3 piece) a few times accidentally; no damage that I am aware of.

I've dropped a blue tip SS in the sink a couple of times, once on the linoleum floor. No damage I could detect.

Hi,

I will say that I have seen many photos, on this site alone (not to mention certain auction sites) of Open Comb razors with bent corner teeth which had to have become bent due to dropping.

Then there are many more of torqued Safety Bars. So, damage from dropping does occur. Probably from landing on the floor.

Stan

dionesius3 said:

But were they damaged so that they would not shave and could not be fixed?
i have been trying to find first hand accounts of dropping a vintage Gillette razor and it causing such damage as to make the razor unusable and un repairble.

I have been looking for several days both here and other sites and forums and I haven't found a single example.
i have found some that damage the teeth on an open comb, but that is almost always repairable. And I have found a few that the door pops off a TTO razor. Again that may be beyond the abilities of some but not really that hard to fix.

i suppose if you dropped one just right from say shoulder height you might begin to do some serious damage, but from counter top to floor shouldn't cause much if any damage.

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Some of the vintage Gillette designs went to war. I think they can take being dropped.

I'm sure that there have been more than a few that have been damaged by dropping. Damaged beyond repair? I've never heard of it, but I think it has likely happened a few times. Just thinking about the sheer numbers of these razors out there says that the odds are really good, IMO.
But, and this is just my opinion, they are build a lot better than most modern razors, until you start looking at the higher priced stainless steel offerings.
I have a lot of old Gillettes, the majority of which are TTO. That's what I started on in the Seventies, and that is my preference. The Super Speeds and other non adjustable TTOs in my opinion are way more durable than the adjustables. They are a lot lighter in weight, for one, and have less moving parts in the head assembly. I've dropped my SS before, and I don't even bat an eye when it happens.
In contrast, I have dropped my Slim a couple of times. If it lands right, say on a corner of the head, I can see the weight of that razor causing a lot more damage. So I cringe each time, and examine the razor very closely. So far, there have been no problems.
But even if it sustains damage, the softer, more malleable brass that the TTOs are made from lends itself to being bent carefully back into place. Unlike the NEWs, Old Types, and modern cast metal razors, which have a tendency to just snap off.
People post often about the modern cast razors breaking. I don't believe it has much to do with the alloy that is used, but more to do with the fact that it is a casting. Although I have never seen a thread about the threaded portion of a NEW or Old Type snapping off of the head after being dropped, like a lot of the zamak razor threads we see, I'd be willing to bet that has happened to at least a few of the cast vintage stuff as well.
For my money, I prefer vintage Gillettes TTOs over anything out there. MHO.

I dropped my on the carpet but I have nice soft floor mats in the bath room so I not hurt any of mine.

i put a tech head on an MR5 handle which is very heavy. My daughter picked it up and it slipped out of her hands and hit the floor. The threads from the tech broke off inside the handle. sigh.

Yup but the teeth were still fine.

This thread gives me hope for the pair of fat boys I have incoming

jrydman said:

i put a tech head on an MR5 handle which is very heavy. My daughter picked it up and it slipped out of her hands and hit the floor. The threads from the tech broke off inside the handle. sigh.

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What year Tech head was it?
This may turn out to be one that fits the criteria I set in the first post!
If the Tech head was not one of the latter Zamak heads that is...

Just out of curiosity, what is it you're driving towards here? I don't think even Forrest Gump would try to argue over build quality between vintage, and modern Zamak...

Where are those photos of the gillette slants?

Never really sure how those razors got so mangled, but it seems to happen. Probably improper long term storage?

JaredB said:

Just out of curiosity, what is it you're driving towards here? I don't think even Forrest Gump would try to argue over build quality between vintage, and modern Zamak...

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And honestly, I didn't notice your title when I used Forrest Gump for an example.

Well, I am trying to find a true first hand account of a Vintage Gillette razor being damaged beyond repair by a fall. You hear NUMEROUS stories of that occurring with modern razors of both Zamak and Stainless Steel varieties, but other than an open comb bending a tooth or a TTO losing a door, both of which are easily fixable, I can't find one credible example of it happening to a brass razor.

I think there was more than one reason why brass was chosen to be the material for DE razors to be made of, I think the designer knew that it was the ideal material with just the right mix of strength and flexibility. It seems to me to be the superior material for a razor to be made of.

The oldest metal items we find are Razors and Swords and chisels made of brass, bronze, copper. Many of them are found with the cutting edge still capable of cutting.

Any way, I am just curious as to whether or not the members here can come up with any plausible examples of a Vintage DE razor being damaged beyond use by a fall.

Here you go.

Knock on wood, never had that issue.

I knocked my travel tech (aluminum, not brass) off of the bathroom counter and the threads snapped of the head like the picture above. I was able to remove them from the handle easily, but no luck repairing it.

nemo said:

I don't drop my razors but I've bought and seen plenty of Gillettes that have -- and show the damage from it.

Why do you think there are so many threads about uneven blade gap on Fatboys, Slims, etc?

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i have an X3 SuperSpeed somebody dropped it years ago. Maybe a hard drop and hit a corner directly. Blade gap is crooked.

Gillette Tech? You have to drop it a few stories. To bend or tweak it.