Please explain Red Tip vs. Blue Tip vs. Black Tip vs. the standard Super Speed

Hi Guys,

I've been reading the posts about red tip, blue tip, etc. etc. but can someone sum it all up in this thread.....OR.....point me in the direction of an existing thread about it?

From what I've read, the red tip is a heavier razor than the standard and is supposed to be more aggresive. The blue tip's handle is made of aluminum and should give a milder shave.
Don't know anything about the black tip.

Are the heads of these razors the same? Is the only difference in the handle weight?

Thanks......Bruno

Try reading this from our WIKI. http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/index.php/Gillette_Super_Speed

The simple answer on how they got there names is the color of paint on the TTO knob. The only two I have are a Blue Tip and a Red Tip. The Blue is way to mild for me. The Red is a nice shave. IMO it is not as aggressive as folks make it out to be.

Blue mild
SS medium
Red wild

Don't know about the earlier black tip

This wiki may help, but may be confusing to. http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/index.php/Double-Edged_Safety_Razors_Ranked_by_Aggressiveness

In a nutshell, there were several kinds of Super Speeds made over the years. The first Super Speed had no colored knob at all, the TTO (which means, twist-to-open) knob being made of the same knurled metal as the handle. Later Gillette introduced the silver flare-tip Super Speed. Next came the blue-tip and the red-tip. The blue was designed to give a milder shave and the red-tip was designed to be more aggressive for tougher beards. Many women preferred using the blue-tip until the introduction of the Lady Gillette in the 60's (the four-colored, long handled razors with those pretty stars near the head).

Hope that helps a bit. I know I should have given pictures but I it's late and my lady wants to watch Outsourced.

Cheers!

-Todd

bdev said:

Hi Guys,

I've been reading the posts about red tip, blue tip, etc. etc. but can someone sum it all up in this thread.....OR.....point me in the direction of an existing thread about it?

From what I've read, the red tip is a heavier razor than the standard and is supposed to be more aggresive. The blue tip's handle is made of aluminum and should give a milder shave.
Don't know anything about the black tip.

Are the heads of these razors the same? Is the only difference in the handle weight?

Thanks......Bruno

Click to expand...

Hi Bruno, what do you want out of the razor? Each razor user will come up with a different view on these razors. I have a fair few of them as I collect Rockets/Super Speeds. My "go to" razor is (at the moment) a Red Tip S/S, but I have just got a Red Tip Rocket...........so the verdict is out.
I can answer a few of your questions,
The black tip came between the original 40's S/S (the TTO Handle was made of plastic), The Flair Tip S/S range followed .
Yes there are differences to the heads...........and in a agreement with an earlier post the Red Tip S/S is not that agressive.........

Isn't there a tan tip too?

Dennis said:

Isn't there a tan tip too?

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Yes, I believe that these were EXTREMELY early 40's superspeeds. It is unknown how many of these razors were made, but I know they are very, very rare.

EDIT: After some research, it is believed that it is a prototype of sorts. Some else here may know more

GreekGuy said:

Yes, I believe that these were EXTREMELY early 40's superspeeds. It is unknown how many of these razors were made, but I know they are very, very rare.

EDIT: After some research, it is believed that it is a prototype of sorts. Some else here may know more

Click to expand...

have you ever seen a Tan Tip?

I have all three colored tips. The blue tip and black tip shave about the same, I haven't tried the red tip yet but the blue and red look exactly alike so I would expect them to shave the same. The black tip has a narrower and smaller handle than the red/blue tips so depending on shave technique could be milder for some people that depend on the weight of the razor more.

mr-razor said:

have you ever seen a Tan Tip?

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I haven't actually seen it. There has been discussion about it in the past, but it's entirely possible someone just painted the tip tan

mharris127 said:

I have all three colored tips. The blue tip and black tip shave about the same, I haven't tried the red tip yet but the blue and red look exactly alike so I would expect them to shave the same. The black tip has a narrower and smaller handle than the red/blue tips so depending on shave technique could be milder for some people that depend on the weight of the razor more.

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The Red Tip is definitely more aggressive than the blue tip. I have a black tip but I haven't shaved with it, so I can't comment on that

Thought I would throw a pic up so the OP can see what these all look like. Pictured below from earliest to latest:

40's style Super Speed
Black tip Super Speed
Silver (or Flare-tip) Super Speed
Blue Tip Super Speed
Red Tip Super Speed

Not shown is a sixth model that Gillette produced in the 70's to 80's. I has a black handle with a silver tip. I don't have that one yet, although it is very common.

There is no such thing as a "tan tip" Super Speed. The three variations of the Super Speeds during a period of the 1950's came in three different case colors. The Light (light blue case with matching tip on razor), the Heavy (deep red case with matching tip on razor) and the Regular (tan case with no painting on tip of razor). In Krumholz' book he refers to a tan tip, but I am sure it was a "misreference" referring to the case color, instead. (thanks to thirdeye for the pictures)

Light


Heavy


Regular

The Black Tip came out in the early '50s. There were two different handles, one steel and one aluminum. The black plastic tip will fade to gray if subjected to certain cleaners. This along with the fact that one of the early plastic cases had a gray base has led to the rumored "Gray Tip" SS . . .

Truth is, the Gray Tip left town strapped to the back of the last unicorn . . .

The lighter handle gave more balance weight to the head, with a different feel than the standard SS. The Blue and Red tips, introduced later that decade, were actually less and more aggressive (respectively) than a standard SS.

Thanks for all the replies. I learned a lot from this thread.

Scored a red tip off of evil bay last night at a good price. If it gives me a good shave, it'll be my travel razor.

http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/asylumguidos-guide-to-super-speed-identification.8461/

I keep getting outbid on blue tips on the bay so I've quit going for them. That's a nice thread about Super Speeds that that dude made. Go for it!

i got my blue tip off B&B,put it out that your looking for one and jus maybe...

bdev said:

Thanks for all the replies. I learned a lot from this thread.

Scored a red tip off of evil bay last night at a good price. If it gives me a good shave, it'll be my travel razor.

Click to expand...

Hey now, they have travel techs for that.

nortac said:

This wiki may help, but may be confusing to. http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/index.php/Double-Edged_Safety_Razors_Ranked_by_Aggressiveness

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I was wondering if the heads were the same on all the flare tips (blue, silver, red) Thanks for the link, now I know