That is a wonderful find Tom. Looks great! Perhaps why ASR did not continue down this path was because they were more than likely seeing diminishing returns on the SE market versus their DE market at the time (Personna) and Injector market (Personna/PAL). ASR may have simply decided that a more costly variant razor would not sway enough new users from other companies DE and Injector markets or would cannibalize sales from their other divisions.
The patent application for this razor can be seen HERE It's interesting that he was also working on a way to adjust the length of the handle according to the description in the application. I don't believe this prototype had that capability, at least I haven't found it and I've tried. Gary, you're probably right. It would've been competing against the Gillette 195/Fat Boy and the Slim, which probably looked pretty bleak to the bean counters at ASR.
GEM is Personna now? Maybe send them an email with some photos - who knows, there may be someone there that knows...or...will be interested in that razor A lot of companies have internal collections of all products ever made.
GEM was a brand name under American Safety Razor that also owned the brand names of Personna, PAL, and Burma Shave from the mid 1960s. ASR (Personna) went into bankruptcy and was purchased by Energizer/Schick. http://www.stltoday.com/business/article_27c1b05e-d312-11df-af81-0017a4a78c22.html Personna has been slowly being moving toward industrial and medical blades since the buyout. They are not out of the shaving business, but they are putting more emphasis into market expansion of industrial and medical blades.
Old thread but worthy of a resurrection! An awesome find, that adjustable GEM prototype! And if you see this, hope you're doing well Tom! It's been a long time!
That’s very kind of you! I’m doing well, took a bit of a break from shaving forums for a while, with other interests I was spread pretty thin but I retired in February so I’ve got more time and have been getting back into it a little more. That razor was a really cool find!
Tom there is another Proto type adjustable that was designed by @twhite (Tom White) that was circulating around and I believe most enjoyed using it. Have some great shaves!
