Hey everybody, its been a while since I have last logged on, but have a question for the DE community. Went to the antique store yesterday and picked up two Gillette Open Combs that look identical, except one was in better shape than the other. The one in bad condition had a handle that was black and the cap was a tarnished copper hue. After a couple of hours with Brasso, a toothbrush, a liberal smattering of orange scented "GOOP" (an actual hand cleaner), and some Ivory dish detergent and a polishing cloth and a t shirt, I got it nice and shiny again. Except it now has a brilliant shiny copper hue. I repeated the same process with the better one but in a fraction of the time that it took for the bad one and it still retains its gold hue. Anyways, the numbers on the now copper one has one one side, PAT NOS. 1815745-1858316, and on the other side it has a reissue pat# 17567. The Gold one has the exact same numbers. Just wondering if anyone could give me a little info on them. Thanks.
Post a photograph pretty please, that will help ID the razor immediately! Failing that, go look here and see if you recognize your razor!
Please post photos. Patent numbers don't mean much. And do yourself a favor. Don't use Brasso on a razor unless you want to remove all the plating. It's an extremely harsh polish. Len
skyfox I think what you've got there is a Gillette New from the 1940s. I've got one that came to me with a fairly hopeless finish and I took it right down to the bade metal, which turned out to be a quite attractive combination of copper and brass . It tarnishes very easily though, and requires alot more upkeep than one with the finish intact. If you can maintain the original plating that's much the best option. Best Regards goshawk
Went To Mr. Razor's Site... Thanks Drew for giving me the link to Mr. Razor's site. Its on my bookmarks but I used your link. I believe my razors are the Gillette New Bostonians. The reason I believe this to be the case is that the nice one that I purchased came in a case that was identical to the Bostonian in the picture. My nice razor looks almost as good as the one in the picture, the one in bad condition now looks all shiny copper, except for the comb guard which is still Gold or Brass. Sorry for not providing pictures, my camera is about 16 years old with very poor resolution and I fear that it would be an insult to this community to try to take any picks with it. So to see what my razors look just like, including the patent numbers and the positioning of the Gillette logo in the center and not on the side, and also the "Made In The U.S.A." logo is there, go to the link that Drew provided, click on "1929" "The Gillette New" go down about halfway on the right and side and you will find it. Also, to the person who said not to use Brasso... I wish I would have read your message before I did use it. Fortunately, nothing really bad happened and I'm satisfied with the results. However, any recommendations on how to clean and polish vintage razors with Gold plating would be great. Thanks everybody for your time.
Can anyone help me figure out which model this is? It has the same serial numbers as the OP, but it came in a Regent box, with a mismatched blade box. Is there a way to tell if it's a regent, or Bostonian, or just a New with a bar handle? Thanks for any advice.
