My 'Holy Grail' Was Hiding In Plain Sight !

Back in 2007, when I joined this site, I quickly became a big fan of twisted head A.K.A. 'slant' razors. I began collecting any and all of the vintage slants available on ebay, and in the BST. It seemed like there wasn't a lot of info about them at that time, certainly nothing compared to what there is nowadays.

I ran into an ebay seller, Joe & Betty Dial, who were big time collectors for years, and are acknowledged in Philip Krumholtz's Gillette collectors guide. They had a mess of great stuff for sale and among that stuff was a cased slant marked Made In Germany that is cased in a box marked A&F Co. It was an unfamiliar slant, and I went for it.



I got into straight razor collecting and slants went to the back burner. I'd still pick up an odd one here and there, but my primary focus became straights. At some point I read that Merkur had made an open comb slant. This was new to me and as far as I knew, I'd never seen one.

Discovering the Brotherhood of Slant Shavers on this forum, just a few days ago, I went through 80 + threads late one night, and finished early the next morning. One of the posts mentioned that the A&F Co slant had been made by Merkur. I made a mental note to check mine and just got around to it this morning.

Sure enough, this 'holy grail' collectible has been in a drawer for years, and I didn't even realize that it is indeed a Merkur open comb slant !!

Cool discovery. Congrats and enjoy your new (old) treasure

Wow Very Nice ,did you shave with her ?

JimmyHAD said:

Sure enough, this 'holy grail' collectible has been in a drawer for years, and I didn't even realize that it is indeed a Merkur open comb slant !!

Click to expand...

Very cool!

Graydog said:

Wow Very Nice ,did you shave with her ?

Click to expand...

Not yet, but it is on deck for tomorrow

FYI , the "A&F Co." is (the original) Abercrombie & Fitch Co. I assume that Merkur did private label manufacturing for them just like they did for others.

Looks fierce!

GREAT. RAZOR! Thanks for the photos!

bobmsp said:

FYI , the "A&F Co." is (the original) Abercrombie & Fitch Co. I assume that Merkur did private label manufacturing for them just like they did for others.

View attachment 707482

Click to expand...

Nice detective work!

KeenDogg said:

Nice detective work!

Click to expand...

My father had (has?) an old Abercrombie & Fitch suitcase, which he called his A&F. So I had a pretty good idea that it was from Abercrombie. Took me a little bit to find a graphic with both the logo and the name, but was glad to find this one.

A vintage OC Slant......That is Very interesting.

Thank you for sharing your Beautiful razor!

Highspeedlane said:

Looks fierce!

Click to expand...

Ha, I see what you did there

Jimmy, congrats to your find! These open comb slants from Merkur with all their rebrandings are hard to find. I have one with the Merkur branding and read somewhere here that these were also sold under a brand named Corrado or Colorado.

I cannot see it on the pic, is that a double slant or is the angle as steep as on the current production Merkur slants? A&F had one double open comb slant in production but a 'normal' open comb slant from A&F is something new to me.

Oel said:

Jimmy, congrats to your find! These open comb slants from Merkur with all their rebrandings are hard to find. I have one with the Merkur branding and read somewhere here that these were also sold under a brand named Corrado or Colorado.

I cannot see it on the pic, is that a double slant or is the angle as steep as on the current production Merkur slants? A&F had one double open comb slant in production but a 'normal' open comb slant from A&F is something new to me.

Click to expand...

Ok, I found the old threat, it was also sold under the Corrado brand:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/412897-OC-Slant?p=6456850&highlight=#post6456850

Good looking razor.

Oel said:

Jimmy, congrats to your find! These open comb slants from Merkur with all their rebrandings are hard to find. I have one with the Merkur branding and read somewhere here that these were also sold under a brand named Corrado or Colorado.

I cannot see it on the pic, is that a double slant or is the angle as steep as on the current production Merkur slants? A&F had one double open comb slant in production but a 'normal' open comb slant from A&F is something new to me.

Click to expand...

Thanks Oel. It is as steep as the current, but not as steep (I think) as a Merkur 36, which I've only seen in photos. Hoping to see a 36 up close and personal before too long. Also thanks for the link to the 'Corrado' thread. So much to learn with these things. Keeps life interesting.

What a beautiful and historic slant you have there Jimmy! I think it was also cool that you obviously had some dealings with Joe and Betty Dial as you mentioned they have assisted many Gillette biographers and historians. Real collectors of Americana. Talking to Robert Doyle years ago on the phone he asked me if I had ever met the Dials and I told him I had not. The personal aspect of this "hobby" is quite amazing as we all find out sooner or later. MORE photos of it when you get a chance. The association with the famous outfitter A F & Co. is super special as well. Seems if we hang around long enough everything comes full circle.

JimmyHAD,

I suspect you already own a Merkur No. 36. The Merkur No. 36 has the Gillette clone handle und is a 3-piece razor. Except for that the head is identical compared to current production Merkur No. 37 and 39 slanthammer. Btw. the Merkur No. 36 came with a scalloped top cap and earlier models had the plain top cap.

I cannot see it correctly, but I think the golden Merkur razor is a 3-piece no. 36 on the left side on the bottom of the picture you posted here:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/506961-Hoffritz-Slant-Find

Marvelous OC Merkurslant.