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Open comb to Safety bar.

Why do you chaps think that Gillette stopped producing Open comb razors? Would cost have been the major factor?:confused:
 
Why do you chaps think that Gillette stopped producing Open comb razors? Would cost have been the major factor?:confused:

I certainly don't know but I read two plausible answers to that question in another thread a few days ago. Two things were proposed:

  1. The teeth were fragile and tended to get bent or broken if the razor was dropped. The bar was more more robust.
  2. The bar is easier to manufacture, saving machining/manufacturing costs.
 
I certainly don't know but I read two plausible answers to that question in another thread a few days ago. Two things were proposed:

  1. The teeth were fragile and tended to get bent or broken if the razor was dropped. The bar was more more robust.
  2. The bar is easier to manufacture, saving machining/manufacturing costs.

I suspect both were likely a factor.
 
Possibly a 3rd factor... they could market it as even better simply because it was different and increase their sales.... Why not, we are talking Gillette.
 
They made open comb razors for 40 years or so so they probably didn't suddenly see the light as to the fragile nature of them. More than likely it was related to lower cost and ease of manufacturing.
 
King C. Gillette was a strong proponent of the open comb design and felt it gave a better shave than the solid bar. When he left the company and new leadership took over, the open comb was abandoned.
 
They made open comb razors for 40 years or so so they probably didn't suddenly see the light as to the fragile nature of them. More than likely it was related to lower cost and ease of manufacturing.

Agreed. Just like today, the actual razors were sold cheap - compared to the blades. If I dropped my razor and bent the teeth, it wouldn't have been that hard to go buy a new, readily available replacement. I doubt Gillette was ever concerned with bent teeth. It is only today that we are worried about bet teeth in our vintage razors that we can't just replace.
 
They made open comb razors for 40 years or so so they probably didn't suddenly see the light as to the fragile nature of them. More than likely it was related to lower cost and ease of manufacturing.

It might actually be a combination of the two. The older open comb razors are substantially more robust than the newer ones. Just look at the thickness of the metal. As razors were made less and less robust the fragility of the teeh might become more of an issue.
 
They made open comb razors for 40 years or so so they probably didn't suddenly see the light as to the fragile nature of them. More than likely it was related to lower cost and ease of manufacturing.

Good point. I also tend to take this more cynical view.
 
Agreed. Just like today, the actual razors were sold cheap - compared to the blades. If I dropped my razor and bent the teeth, it wouldn't have been that hard to go buy a new, readily available replacement. I doubt Gillette was ever concerned with bent teeth. It is only today that we are worried about bet teeth in our vintage razors that we can't just replace.

Actually, Gillette was concerned about bent teeth. This was one of the featured improvements of the New Improved over the Old Types. The teeth, especially the four outer teeth, were of a much thicker, sturdier manufacture.
 
I think there is another factor that supported the manufacturing of the cheaper and sturdier closed bar razors.
When Gillette introduced the DE safety razor the shaving standard was shaving, or more likely go for a barbers shave, once a week. On saturday, the day before you went to church.
A lot of European barbers didn't do any haircuts on saturdays, just shaves. This was still the habbit till the late 1930's.
The daily shave for the common man became general practice after the 2nd WW and because of this you didn't need the teeth on your razor anymore. Using a safety bar razor on a weekly bases means that you need more time cleaning the razor in between passes than you need for the actual shave.
When you shave once a week the teeth have a real function (preventing the razor from clogging up) but when you shave every day the bar works just as well.
 
This was also around the time they started making TTOs.
They didn't make opened comb TTOs for very long and after they started making TTOs their 3 piece razor was the Tech, the bargain low cost razor.
I imagine it's cheaper to stamp out a safety bar head then an opened comb, it's a simple stamping of sheet metal while the NEW head looks to be cast or hot forged.
 
i suspect after 40 years of making open comb there's only so many NEW improvements or variations they could create to increase sales.
 
I think there is another factor that supported the manufacturing of the cheaper and sturdier closed bar razors.
When Gillette introduced the DE safety razor the shaving standard was shaving, or more likely go for a barbers shave, once a week. On saturday, the day before you went to church.
A lot of European barbers didn't do any haircuts on saturdays, just shaves. This was still the habbit till the late 1930's.
The daily shave for the common man became general practice after the 2nd WW and because of this you didn't need the teeth on your razor anymore. Using a safety bar razor on a weekly bases means that you need more time cleaning the razor in between passes than you need for the actual shave.
When you shave once a week the teeth have a real function (preventing the razor from clogging up) but when you shave every day the bar works just as well.

I thought WW2 might have had something to do with it, and it may have, but they had the Ranger Tech idea before the war, and that was the precursor to the SuperSpeed. What's the history of those British razors? They were in WW2 a couple of years before the US was.
 
I thought WW2 might have had something to do with it, and it may have, but they had the Ranger Tech idea before the war, and that was the precursor to the SuperSpeed. What's the history of those British razors? They were in WW2 a couple of years before the US was.

I don't believe WW2 in itself has anything to do with it. As far as I know the first Merkur safety bar razors appeared in the 1930's also.
What did change however was the way different social classes behaved and emancipated. The blue collar guys wanted a white collar look and one of the things was shaving daily. So, no need for teeth anymore.
Funny thing is however that the Merkur open combs are priced the same as their safety bar counterparts.
I believe it has more to do with growing markets and fashion than anything else.
 
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