The Gillette 7 O'Clock Open Comb is spicy

Nabbed one of these in good condition recently, for not too much. Got it in and cleaned up. The baseplate looks familiar, so I grab my flat bottom Tech and the baseplate profiles are dead on. That's fine, the flat bottom is a nice shaver.

I load it up in the morning and in my bleary state it seems like the razor has a lot of blade exposure. It's just hanging out there. I start shaving and, yep, it's aggressive. I went a little hard on the ATG neck and got some weepers for the first time in forever. Perfect shave in two passes though.

UK Flat Bottoms NEWs are very nice shavers, I don't find them aggressive though. In fact, IMO they're the mildest NEWs, which doesn't mean they're not efficient shavers.

Enjoy!

Hmm. I need to look at that top cap.

I had a similar experience with my Old early in my shave career. A key point is to remember to be fully awake before shaving.

I can't be shaving at my desk at 9:15 am.

I like a really heavy handle with my English new. Not sure why.

the o'clock razor is a fine one.... Give it some time. You WILL enjoy it once you get your technique together

nuclearblast said:

UK Flat Bottoms NEWs are very nice shavers

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For my take, these razors deliver the best, most consistent shave of anything I have used to date.

Reassembled the razor this morning and no change in the performance. Maybe a mismatched top cap, but I like it this way and I'm keeping it as-is.

Caps between the New and the early flat-bottom Tech are different, certainly on the few I have. On the Tech, you'll see that the underside of the cap has two sides which meet in the middle, like an inverted V; on the New, it's simply curved. The caps are different.

eaterofdog said:

Hmm. I need to look at that top cap.

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It seems to me that a 7 O’clock would be less aggressive with an early Tech cap. The cap appears to be slightly wider and to have higher profile through its center.

pjgh said:

Caps between the New and the early flat-bottom Tech are different, certainly on the few I have. On the Tech, you'll see that the underside of the cap has two sides which meet in the middle, like an inverted V; on the New, it's simply curved. The caps are different.

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Good eye, pjgh. There is indeed a V shape to the underside of the early Tech caps.

Early Morning said:

It seems to me that a 7 O’clock would be less aggressive with an early Tech cap. The cap appears to be slightly wider and to have higher profile through its center.



Good eye, pjgh. There is indeed a V shape to the underside of the early Tech caps.

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Many NEWs have creased caps as well. US models such as LCs and SCs, and UK models such as RFBs and Flat Bottoms.

We discussed that in some other thread. "What's your favorite NEW" I think.
These caps came paired with both early and late models, so it probably doesn't mean much anyway.

I have at least a couple of UK NEWs with a creased cap, including a Flat Bottom. Now I can't remember if it's Gillette or 7 o'clock. I dont think it matters anyway, shave wise they're all the same, can't tell any difference.

I don’t doubt what you are saying Edgar, but ...

I am wondering if those caps are original because I don’t see the V shape cap on any of my News, and none of my previous News had that feature. My guess is people are inadvertently mixing parts. Edit that: it looks like I might have a bias favoring a certain cap style.

Early Morning said:

I don’t doubt what you are saying Edgar, but ...

I am wondering if those caps are original because I don’t see the V shape cap on any of my News, and none of my previous News had that feature. My guess is people are inadvertently mixing parts. Edit that: it looks like I might have a bias favoring a certain cap style.

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Mismatches? Highly unlikely.

One of my #77 has a creased cap, impossible to mismatch here.

The 7 o'clock caps don't have corner tabs, again ... no mismatch here. There was no other razors using similar caps.

There's pics in the other thread. These creased NEW caps are not mismatched.

nuclearblast said:

Mismatches? Highly unlikely.

One of my #77 has a creased cap, impossible to mismatch here.

The 7 o'clock caps don't have corner tabs, again ... no mismatch here. There was no other razors using similar caps.

There's pics in the other thread. These creased NEW caps are not mismatched.

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Thanks for the tip. I will have to go through those and check those out.

My number 44 set was sealed and it has the normal parabolic shape to it, but now I am wondering if the V shape isn't just a manufacturing quirk. I really thought this was a feature seen mostly on Techs, and that it was incorporated into the newer design intentionally.

No crease or corner tabs on my 7 O'Clock either ... or my Grom.

Here it is

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...r-favorite-Gillette-NEW?p=6845153#post6845153

I took a look. Baseplates are the same profile and top caps are same width (19.25mm), with the corner tab and crease differences as noted above. Looking very closely, I see the 7 O'Clock top cap is a little flatter on inside, which significantly increases the blade gap and exposure.

Looks like a perfectly normal Flat Bottom NEW to me.

Those flat-bottom Techs make more sense to me after reading about the manufacturing process at Isleworth. Apparently they extruded the guard plate with the right cross-section, then milled out the teeth and the channel. So it would have been pretty simple to make the Tech the same way.