The Gillette Double Ring (1903-1906)
(1905 Gillette Double Ring Photo Courtesy of mr-razor, Thank you Achim)
(1905 Gillette Double Ring Photo Courtesy of mr-razor, Thank you Achim)
For week number one I decided to take a look at the Gillette Double Ring safety razor.
The decision was simple, first Gillette, my first collected razor and the first post. Makes sense to me.
The Gillette Double Ring is a beautiful razor and it was produced from 1903 through the middle of 1906 when the Single Ring was introduced. It is known as a three-piece open-comb old type razor.
At the time the razor sold for $3.00 when the average weekly wage was only $15.00. Pretty amazing considering what some of us pay these days for this piece of history. Gillette sold 51 of these razors in the first year and sales quickly jumped to an astonishing 90,000 the next.
The Double Ring came in its own case which was made of wood and covered in black leather. The inside of the case was covered in velvet. In the case one would find two cardboard blade boxes, one with Shape printed on it and the other with Dull. There was also an instruction booklet tucked behind a ribbon on the inside cover bearing the Gillette name.
The 1903 Double Ring did not have any date/serial code on the razor and was known as model #100.
Date/serial coding started in 1904 with #1 and end with the last known code of 770424. The code on these razors can be found stamped on the inner handle also known as the knob or tightening tube.
On the handle, the lower band you will find one of two stampings, "Pat. appl. for" on the early razors or "Pat. Nov. 15.04" on he later models.
The razor had a cap with a threaded stem and two studs that aligned with the three holes in the blade. The threaded stem on the cap engaged the inner handle. Rotating the end of the handle clamped the guard, the blade, and the cap together in a neat sandwich. A slight twist of the handle could expose more or less of the blade edge as the cap squeezed the flexible blade against the guard.
If you plan to try out your double ring make sure that the blade is snug. These razors were designed to use the older Gillette blades, which were thicker than todays modern blades. Some folks say that a blade can be shimmed however I have not had any problems with mine.
Shaving with this razor was quite an experience. The shave was rather aggressive compared to the later open-comb models such as the New. It was not as comfortable nor did I get a really clean shave (at least not a BBS shave) however it was passable.
All in all this Gillette Double Ring is one awesome razor to have in your collection.
Back to Saftey Razor Of The Week.
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