Here are my “Aristocrats” Gillette Executive 1948 Aristocrat 1941 Aristocrat Aristocrat Jr. No21 Aristocrat No58 Aristocrat 1934 American Aristocrat 1936 French Silver Aristocrat 1956 Aristocrat Deluxe No66 Aristocrat President No21 Aristocrat Gold Diplomat
The #58 set is an Aristocrat Jr., not an Aristocrat. Lovely collection though. I'm impressed and a little envious. Edit: the red band in the case identifies yours as a 1956-1958 model, the very last of the Aristocrat Jr's ever made. Gillette sent them off with a bang, didn't they? I really love mine, almost better than my Aristocrats.
Yeah I remember you posting the info on the #58. Don’t let the photos fool you. Most of the gold ones have plating issues. I got the ones I can afford which means they are far from collector grade but definitely user grade.
My American '34 and British '36 were collector grade when I got them. Not so much now. It doesn't take much use to get through the gold and silver plating. I love the way they shave too much to stop using them. I'll send them out for a rhodium replate one of these days.
That's what I'm afraid of. Call me cuckoo but I plan on using my New SC for OCtober. It's mint, but I wonder how long the plating will last. I'll just try to enjoy it.
That's the spirit! My Father used to say R.I.P. "Cars are meant to be driven, Cigars are meant to be smoked, Nothing goes in the Museum life is just too short"
Even better that heavily used ones are still usable after all these years and the ones damaged can in most cases can be repaired and brought back to usable status. I don't think the majority of the modern stuff will hold up like the old razors. Outside of the stored away with little to no use razors of today I doubt most these razors will hold up especially the stainless steel razors. Stainless steel is not stainless only stainless resistant. Once you get a big enough chip even using a pickling solution to clean the surface won't keep the metal from eventually rusting away. Then you have the fact they shatter and break easily when machined instead of being stamped which makes brass even more malleable and less prone to snapping when bent. Frankly the only thing that might work like brass on the cheap is to make the razors using pot metal casting all the pieces like a vice grip is made. The problem even with that is how hard it is to machine pot metal let alone try to plate it and knowing how the Chinese operate they will coat it with some sort of toxic lacquer to smooth the surfaces.
We have aluminum as well as modern brass razors. Stainless steel if taken care if will do fine. Pot metal is crap, period.
Aluminum corrodes but it is self healing and even then over time aluminum develops micro cracks in the process and at some point the metal will fail due to stress corrosion cracking. Aluminum also will corrode and not self heal when exposed to ph's >8.5 which some soaps exceed. The brass is prone to what they call red rot (common in certain brass horn instruments due to saliva among other things) but not under shaving conditions or we'd see lots of vintage razors with this problem. So the only question the quality of the alloys used in modern razors aka how brittle, how easy do they de-zinc compared to the alloys used in vintage razors. For all we know the modern brass could be the equivalent of junk Asian steel as compared to American steel back in the day.
I have a lot of Gillettes and I will shave with all them and if I like a particular one I will use it extensively regardless of condition. Tools are meant to used anyways and a DE safety razor is a tool not just a stick to hold a blade unlike SE razors that use stiff blades. Whether you realize it or not a DE razor is in essence a deflecting beam torque wrench (with the blade being the deflecting beam) though not as calibrated.
You are quite correct to say that stainless is not truly "rust-proof," but that is why good manufacturers pre-oxidize it after machining, a process called passivation. I've yet to see a chipped stainless steel razor. And it doesn't shatter or break easily while machining, unless a person is not using coolant or is using cheap Chinese bits. (Edit: or running the machine too fast). Brass on the other hand, does get brittle the more it is worked, and also as it ages, which is why 99% of old type handles have cracks. The ID of the tube was too small when they fit them together, and eventually they stress cracked...even NOS razors that were never used. Zinc isn't hard to machine either, or plate, but it must be done soon after manufacture, before the zinc oxidizes, otherwise the plating won't hold up. Zinc is brittle though, which is why zinc three piece razors tend to snap off their threads if they get dropped on a hard surface.
Oh, I do more than welding. I also do machining, but I wouldn't call myself a professional machinist, occasional chef, and fearsome keyboard warrior. (I only use my powers for good, mostly). My father was a machinist for 35 years. He worked in the aerospace industry. Growing up, he was always showing me how to do cool things in the machine shop. I probably should have gone to school for that, but instead decided to be a welder. Beats the heck out of retail, which I did for a few years.