Were almost all Gillettes plated brass? During what production periods, and/or with what models was this the case ? What about "modern" safeties ... anyone know what's under the plating? I know that one manufacturer (Ikon?) advertises solid stainless. Sorry if these are noob questions, but I'm a noob here , and noobs want to know.
There aren't a lot of stainless steel vintage razors that I know of. For the most part, vintage and modern razors are nickel over brass. Or, in the case of modern razors, some times chrome over brass. Some razors had fancier coatings. A lot of gillette razors are lacquer over gold over nickel over brass. Some are rhodium over nickel over brass. I've ever heard of some that are silver plated over brass (actually, I have one, it's a single-ring old type). Some vintage razors are just pure brass with no coating, like the gold colored GEM micromatics.
Yes, mostly plated brass, or zamac, (not sure I am spelling that right) or even copper. Platings I can recall off the top of my head are nickel, silver, gold, chrome, and rhodium.
Some exceptions to all brass for the classic Gillettes. Copper caps on some of the old three piece models like the "New". Visible when the plating wears off. Aluminum handles on some models, like some of the Techs. There were also some plastic handled Techs. With the Black Tip Super Speeds apparently some had aluminum handles and others actually had stainless steel handles. Plastic parts on some of the really late models, like Super Adjustables from the 1980s. For modern DE razors, I think that most of the Merkurs are supposed to be Zamac, but that's just from reading what other people say around these forums, and I can't document it. It supposedly lasts well enough, but is more prone to pitting if plating wears off. I don't know about Edwin Jagger, Muhle, or other brands, but I'd guess that the less expensive it is, the less likely to be brass. Besides the iKons, larger companies that make all stainless steel razors are Feather (Japan) and Pils (Germany). They all are fairly expensive.
Also the early TTO gold plated razors, like the Milord and the Senator, were gold over nickel over brass. The gold wore off pretty easily. Len
