U.S.GEM razor. 11/16th inch 3/4 Hollow U.S.GEM, that is all that is on the razor. No other info that I can find on it, on the internet. Not a lot out there, that I can see. I looked up the history of GEM, who did make Straights from 1903-1907, before making Safety Razors. Anyone care to add to this razors history? What I have might be wrong.
All I can contribute is that I have a "The Gem" razor by McCoy & Co of New York, but it is clearly much older. I guestimate it to be mid 19th. It is a barber notch wedge and, as Glenn would say, it is wicked sharp. It also holds an edge amazingly long. I used it for a week without stropping, as a test of edge endurance, and it only just began to tug slightly. It and my Klas just keep going and going and going... I don't know if there is any connection between a model offered 40-50 years earlier and a marquee name later. Here are pictures of mine: Sent from my LGUS992 using Tapatalk
The closest I could find was perhaps they were "Gem Cutlery Co." , and produced Straight Razors from 1903-1907. Then changed their format to producing Safety Razors and GEM blades. Then again, I could be wrong.
All I can add is the Gem Cutlery company was founded in 1898 by Jerry Reichard with financial backing by Mary Zinn. They produced safety wedge blade style razors out of the gate with the Zinn Gem first 1898. As far as them producing straight razors I don't know right now.
From what I can find it shows Gem Cutlery only made safety razors sold as single razors or in sets. If that straight was made by Gem Cutlery prior to 1919 my guess it would be called a Gem not U.S. Gem since that was their known brand name and it would have the Gem Cutlery Company marked somewhere on the razor like they did with their safeties. My guess is this is some 3rd party using a name close to but not the same as the Gem name since it was a known well distributed brand to lift sales by getting the consumers to confuse it with the real thing.
That's a very good point, BBS. The early 20th century was rife with companies doing just that, naming their knockoff products very similarly to competitors in order to capitalize on the other company's popularity. Copyright laws tended to be enforced only when copyright holders vigorously pursued litigation. If they didn't have the resources for a legal battle, then the imitators more or less got away with it. You can see it in advertising, where they would say phrases like "often imitated, never duplicated" or "make sure to look for the xx which shows you have a genuine xx and not some cheap imitation". I think there is far better proactive enforcement now, where I think one needs only point out a potential copyright infringement to bring the authorities. My other big collection focus, fountain pens, had a lot of the same stuff. Shaeffer became well known for suing the pants off anybody that tried to copy their designs, and in reply Parker got that way too. The two biggest pen makers duked it out with each other over aesthetic designs and internal works, and along the way, laid waste to many knockoff companies. Interestingly, some of the better made knockoffs have held up fairly well, and their much smaller production numbers from getting shut down have made them almost as valuable as the real deals they were copying. I have one such example of a Liberty Pen Co of New York giant red hard rubber pen that is a clear imitation of the Parker Duofold, which was arguably the most well known and sought after pen of the early twenties. I think Liberty was able to get away with it somewhat because they made their imitations later, late 20's into the 30's, when the big boys were moving into more streamlined designs and no longer cared. A good condition Parker Duofold can be pretty easily had for around $100-300. My Liberty, of which most of us in the pen community have only seen a couple examples, including mine which is in pristine condition, could easily fetch just as much with the right collector who is interested in such niche pens. Even among dilletantes just looking for a nice pen, I could still see it fetching at least $100. Hard rubber pens in working condition are valuable even when they aren't in pretty shape. Sent from my LGUS992 using Tapatalk
There were 2 name changes but they sold safety razors right from the begining in 1898. Here is an ad from 1898 for the Gem razor. They came onto the market around November of 1898 maybe a month or 2 earlier. In 1900 they switch the design to the new Gem razor in the US. This design was sold until 1904. They had other designs during this time frame but these are the 2 most common ones. Reader's digest version. The principal in this timeline is Jerry Reichard who worked for Kampfe Bros for 20 something years before leaving and starting Gem Cutlery Company in 1898 with the financial backing of Mary Zinn. In 1903 Jerry Reichard leaves Gem Cutlery and forms the Reichard & Scheuber Manufacturing Company with August Schueber. That name doesn't long being renamed to the Yankee Company in 1903. In 1905 the Yankee Razor company is renamed to Ever Ready. 1906 is the first of 2 name changes. In 1906 Ever Ready and Gem Cutlery merge and the parent company is renamed American Safety Razor Company. The 2nd name change happens in 1919 when they merge with Kampfe Bros. maker of Star brand razors and become American Safety Razor Corporation.
Or multiple companies using the same name even if not at the same time. Case and point is there was this upstart razor company that is completely unrelated to Gem or Ever Ready who was also called American Safety Razor Company that was formed in 1901. They used the name until 1904 before renaming the company after it's founder King Camp Gillette.
Enigma would be a good name. Although, a few razors had me calling them other names when I was honing them.
