Razor blade date coding

[IronHammer]

I received my boxed NEW in the mail today! Woohoo! It even still has the single NEW blade that shipped with it. The tissue has some tearing but it is complete. Boy, the box is just outstanding. I will post pictures tonight when I get home.

Now, to date this razor I am wondering if anybody can tell me what year does a blade date code of A2 indicate?

Thanks!

 

[amishmotorboat]

I believe that's 1930

 

[IronHammer]

I believe that's 1930

Would I be correct in assuming that the '2' indicates second quarter like the razors do? I have tried to find reliable charts I can use to date old blades but I couldn't find anything.

 

[mr-razor]

Would I be correct in assuming that the '2' indicates second quarter like the razors do? I have tried to find reliable charts I can use to date old blades but I couldn't find anything.

Here you can see a A1 from 1930. More blades are on my blades section.

 

[IronHammer]

Thanks, Achim. The 'A' on my blade looks kind of strange. It almost looks like the style of 'A' you would see on old architectural drawings. I will try to get pics up tonight.

On a relate note, does anybody have any suggestion on how best to preserve the instruction tissue that came with the razor? It seems very fragile and is pretty wrinkled. I sure don't want to stuff it all back into the box!
I was thinking of mounting on acid-free paper in a frame. Ideas?

 

[IronHammer]

Aha! I get it now. The razors weren't always date coded, but the blades almost always were. The razors followed the same scheme as the blade coding. So, A is the date code for 1930,1955 and 1980 regardless whether it's a razor or blade. Do I have that right?

 

[mr-razor]

You are right. I´ve look to the blade in my set and it´s a A2 too

 

[IronHammer]

I took some pictures, but my camera (Kodak) only does auto-focus. I can't find a way to do manual focus. It's a real pain trying to get it to focus right, especially for up-close shots. So I am going to borrow somebody elses camera tomorrow to get better photos.

If you still want to look at what I have taken so far, here is a gallery of the photos from tonight. You can see on the photos of the blade what appears to be an 'A' but it is shaped strangely.

 

[IronHammer]

I showed this to somebody I work with. He thought the box must be a reproduction or a fake because it looks too new! I was stunned at just how new the box looks. It really does look like it was made last week.

Has anybody every heard of reproductions out there of old Gillette products like the greenbox NEW??!

 

[mr-razor]

I showed this to somebody I work with. He thought the box must be a reproduction or a fake because it looks too new! I was stunned at just how new the box looks. It really does look like it was made last week.

Has anybody every heard of reproductions out there of old Gillette products like the greenbox NEW??!

no, but my set is NOS too. I think that´s are leftover from closed stores.