Safety Razor Of the Week, 11/23–11/29 The Gillette Toggle Adjustable

This week I would like to take a look at and discuss another of the unique shavers to the wet shaving world, the Gillette Toggle Adjustable.




The Gillette Toggle Adjustable hit the shaving scene in 1958 as a limited regional test. The patent was first brought about by Meyer J. Shnitzler, Brookline, Edward Michael Lewiecki, Hingham, and Joesph Muros, Newtonville, Mass assignors to Gillette Company, Boston, Mass. A corparation of Delaware. Application November 1, 1955, Serial No. 544,226.
It re-appeared again in 1960 in the third and forth quarter for the Christmas season and then it was to be made no more. The Toggle came in the familiar hard case as well as the lesser known soft case or pouch.




The Toggle is 4” in length Gold plated and weights in at 3.1 oz. It as a flip open head design, bottom tip of handle works as a lever to pull tight a metal shaft which runs up the inside of the handle and pulls the head doors closed.

The Toggle adjustable was designed so that the shaver could adjust the razor i.e blade edge exposure to their own beard conditions. The thought behind this was as follows;
1,2, and 3 where designed for people with the lightest of beards and tender skin
4,5 and 6 where said to be for folks with average skin and beard and used by the majority of shavers
7,8 and 9 was thought to be for the shaver with the most dense, hard-to-shave beards.

Here is a close-up look at the rare 1958 prototype that sports the red dot and the digits 1 through 5 only.




Most all of the Gillette razors came with an instruction booklet. Here is a photo from the 1960 set. As shown in our very own WIKI page.









Information and pictures have been collected from various sources including the net, (mr razors page), Thank you Achim. The Complete Gillette Collectors Handbook, By Phillip L. Krumholz, The B&B Wiki and my personal thoughts and opinions (which may not be a reflection of the management).



Any and all information about this razor is more than welcomed.


Back to Safety Razor of the Week.

Nice Ray! Thanks! I still need to get one of these. Scott should post pictures of his. It is pretty!

Thanks for the info and pics, Ray.

I've always wanted to see a Toggle up close. Not sure about trying one - adjustables and me don't seem to go together too well.

Nice work, as always.

Here is my nickel plated Toggle date code F4. (These are the only pics I have on me at the moment)

Thank you Scott. I knew I forgot to mention the Nickel one. These are very few and far between.

Ray, that´s a great post again. Here is the nickel Toggle from 1960:

Wow.. Thanks again for this weekly thread. The toggle looks even more tempting now.

I notice in the pictures of Mr. Razor's nickle toggle that the adjustment knob has a wider section between 9 and 1. I think I see the same thing in socttydoint's nickle toggle. However, I haven't seen this in other toggles or in other models. Is this unique to just the nickle toggle?

Etoyoc_Rebmos said:

I notice in the pictures of Mr. Razor's nickle toggle that the adjustment knob has a wider section between 9 and 1. I think I see the same thing in socttydoint's nickle toggle. However, I haven't seen this in other toggles or in other models. Is this unique to just the nickle toggle?

Click to expand...

You can seen this wider section on the 195 Fatboy too:

nice review Ray, question other then the closing mechanism do these shave any different then a fatboy or are the basically the same other then that?

mr-razor said:

You can seen this wider section on the 195 Fatboy too:

Click to expand...

Ah yes... I guess I just had not noticed that on those. I suppose it is an easy enough thing to overlook in a picture. I had to look twice to see it in the pictures.

I just sold my toggle to SableDog, who should be receiving it mid-week. That'll allow him to participate in the 'Toggle Week'.

I really liked shaving with the toggle, but felt it was time to pass it along to another B&B'er. If you have the opportunity to acquire one for shaving, you should do so, as they are just wonderful shavers.

-- John Gehman

Looking forward to it, too!

I'll update here--I plan for it to be my next shave!

Hi All,

I have a sort of unusual Toggle, but sadly I can't post any pics. This one's a gold version, dated D1, which makes it a very early model I believe. The numbers are 1-9, but no red dot on the handle.

These things are definitely a different shaver than my fatboy......the weight somehow makes it more aggressive, which is interesting.

Anyway, just thought I'd share this.
Martin

Another fantastic post Ray. Those toggles are beautiful.

I had my 1st Toggle shave today and it was good (with special guests Tabac, BBE brush, Swede Gillette, Thayers Rose, and 1805 aftershave balm--That's a combination to be thankful for )!


It's been a long time since I've used my Fatboy, so a comparison is difficult but I'm thinking it feels like a longer handled fatboy. The balance and weight are very nice and blade access is very cool! I'm pretty sure it's a keeper.

Just got one in the mail today from ebay. I like this razor, it has been someone's favorite as it has a lot of the gold worn off the doors, but is obviously been well cared for. I can't wait to try it tomorrow!

It seems to me that all toggles have those red dots and the red stripes. Is that true? So is the way one differentiates between the prototype and the 1960's version by checking how many adjustment dials it has?

...just to point out that the toggle was available for sale in 1957, see advert-

Fabulous. Thank you guys for all of the incredible pics and comments.

Excellent post Ray! If you ever decide you need to part with one of your NOS sets be sure to let me know! For some reason this is on the short list of must haves for my collection!