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Safety Razor of the Month, March 2015 - Gillette NEW

Following straight out of last month's look at the New Improved Gillette, today is the 85th anniversary of Gillette's full-market launch of their NEW blade and razor with large ad placements in major magazines and newspapers. So what better way to commemorate it than taking a look back at the razor that came in possibly more variations than any other generation of razor that Gillette ever made.

I've been looking to see if I could find one of the original ad spreads that Gillette used back on March 6, 1930, and I'm not 100% sure that I've nailed one yet. This one below is certainly one of their very early placements, but I haven't yet been able to verify that it was their first.

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I believe this is also one of the early ads:

$1930s-Gillette-double-edged-safety-razor-advertisement-2.gif

85 years of superb shaves, that's really something! I only wish they were still this cheap ...

$new-gillettres-at-flagg-drug-21-august-1930.jpg

:w00t:
 
Happy 85th Birthday to the NEW!

I guess I will shave all month with my flat-bottom Made in England NEW, with a BRW handle.

Just like last month... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and....

 
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I guess I will shave all month with my flat-bottom Made in England NEW, with a BRW handle.

Just like last month... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and the month before that... and....

So that means those Deluxes need a good home where they'll actually get used? :tongue_sm Just kidding Mike, those are all very nice examples!



And today, to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the NEW ...

$CAM02497.jpg


2 1/2 passes, easy BBS! It's too easy when the tool holding the blade is one of the best shavers ever made.
 
Happy birthday to the NEW!!! I absolutely love my LC NEW and my Goodwill! For me it Doesn't get any better than those!
 
These are great ads, guys. Thanks for the history lesson.

Checking prices, the "50 box" with 100 edges for $5 would be $69.97 in 2015 dollars, or $1.40 per blade!

That would make a 100 pack $140. A far cry from the 100 Gillette silver Blues that we can buy today for $23 or Astra SP's for $10.
 
Great ad, Achim. Is the 1930-01-01 date from the "Printed in USA" at the bottom of the first image? It looks like "1-4-30" to me, which I would take to mean 1930-01-04 or 4 January 1930. But the type is very small and it could be "1-1-30". Probably just the hyphen that makes the "1" look a bit like a "4".

I like the circular design with the six NEW features, too.

  • New blade resists rust.
  • No projecting posts to dull blade edges.
  • Reinforced corners prevent damage.
  • Cut-out corners prevent "razor pull".
  • New guard channel gives full shaving clearance.
  • New shape guard teeth meet skin smoothly.

Was this rust-resisting blade the Kro-Man, or something else? I think the Kroman was regarded as very expensive at the time, and was not a success. By 1932 it had been withdrawn from the market.

McKibben wrote that: The Kroman blade, so-called because it was made with chromium and manganese alloyed with the usual carbon steel, was scheduled to sell for $1.50 for a package of 10, up from the usual $1 a pack, and to be wrapped in orange paper to distinguish it from the traditional package in green. King Gillette thought the idea was farfetched and did not hesitate to say so, sarcastically suggesting to Fahey that the blade ought to be gold-plated to justify its high price and the cost of making it. The Kroman blade was difficult to produce, and though it lasted longer than blades made from carbon steel, it proved less comfortable for users and did not give as smooth a shave as its lesser-priced cousins.
 
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Great ad, Achim. Is the 1930-01-01 date from the "Printed in USA" at the bottom of the first image? It looks like "1-4-30" to me, which I would take to mean 1930-01-04 or 4 January 1930. But the type is very small and it could be "1-1-30". Probably just the hyphen that makes the "1" look a bit like a "4".

...

$1930-01-01 Booklet The New Gillette Blade-01.jpg
 
That's a really cool booklet, Achim. Did that come with the other display illustrations you posted there, too? The booklet looks like the sort that Gillette would have given to retailers to have in their stores, with that blank place on the cover for them to print or stamp their address. That makes sense that those would have been prepared and distributed ahead of a big national advertising push. If that whole set came together, then that might have been Gillette's "launch kit" for their retailers.

Was this rust-resisting blade the Kro-Man, or something else?

It wasn't the DeLuxe Kro-Man blade they were talking about there. The standard NEW blade was marketed as being made with "new processed steel" that resisted rust. That's why they told you that you no longer needed to take your razor apart to wipe the blade dry, and could instead leave it in the razor with the head twisted to make a prop:

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It wasn't the DeLuxe Kro-Man blade they were talking about there. The standard NEW blade was marketed as being made with "new processed steel" that resisted rust.

I wondered about that, given the green labels. This is the first time my attention has been drawn to the "new processed steel" and I am curious about the science of it. Is that on topic for this thread?

Or maybe it was just advertising? I could use more convincing on many of the advertised advantages of the NEW. Happily these questions only increase my enjoyment of the NEW and its history.
 
As a reformed Gillette Atra cartridge shaver who later dabbled with several 'butterfly' models (Gillette's Fat Boy, Thin Boy, Red, Black & Blue), I've been shaving exclusively with my New (w/ Platinums/Personnas) for about 5 years now.

I've found its precision & elegant simplicity to be unmatched by any other razor I've tried.
 
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