Gillette Red and Black New cleaning.

I picked up a New on ebay. What would be the best way to clean this up. I am mostly looking to clean the parts the went green. Or should I just hit it with the hot water and scrubbing bubbles and call it good? Never owned a DE razor like this before and am excited to give it a try. (Also the pictures are from the ebay listing as the razor has yet to arrive)

Brasso, never dull, or another metal polish will get all the green off. If you're afraid of taking any plating off, there are gentler things out there.
Then you'll want to sterilize in some alcohol or barbicide.
Congrats on the purchase!

Scrubbing Bubbles bath cleaner is good also. Get the kind without ammonia. That, some elbow grease, a good toothbrush and some toothpicks will fix you up.

It looks to still have some plating. So yes a gentler approach will be used. I see that there is not a date code is there another way to date these razors?

I think I see all three patents. Lacking a case or other original material, probably the best we can do is ca. 1932-40.

By the way unless you have the case it may not be from a red-black set. The same razor also appeared in the Bostonian case, and in the blue-gold sets, among others. Generically the razor is usually called a Gillette_NEW_Bar_Handle, and I think yours is the long-comb variant.

mblakele said:

I think I see all three patents. Lacking a case or other original material, probably the best we can do is ca. 1932-40.

By the way unless you have the case it may not be from a red-black set. The same razor also appeared in the Bostonian case, and in the blue-gold sets, among others. Generically the razor is usually called a Gillette_NEW_Bar_Handle, and I think yours is the long-comb variant.

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Thank you for that info. It does not come with a case and I was just going off of the description from the seller. As long as it shaves good I will be happy

From what I see, it appears to be a short comb NEW. And, I think you'll find it shaves just wonderfully. I prefer the short comb over the long comb. YMMV of course.

Go gently on the cleaning if you want to preserve the remaining plating. It was quite thin from the beginning. Or you could go for the gusto and remove the plating and have a raw head. Hunt around. You'll be able to find photos of both plated and stripped. Either way, I expect you'll enjoy the shaves it provides.

mblakele said:

I think I see all three patents. Lacking a case or other original material, probably the best we can do is ca. 1932-40.

By the way unless you have the case it may not be from a red-black set. The same razor also appeared in the Bostonian case, and in the blue-gold sets, among others. Generically the razor is usually called a Gillette_NEW_Bar_Handle, and I think yours is the long-comb variant.

Click to expand...

Great observations as always