So, this is the last razor of the lot I bought that I finally got around to cleaning up a bit.
It's a Gillette Sheraton, as seen in the photo below as the 3rd razor from the right:


I've really had a lot of fun going through the lot and ended up getting some great keepers for me - and created a GrabBox containing some of the razors from the lot. So much fun I'm thinking of trying to buy another razor lot of 10+ razors and do something similar (and bore you all with photos of how they clean up ).

A little bit about the Gillette Sheraton razor:
Produced for only three years (1937-1939) it is very similar in appearance to the Senator - with the only difference being that the Sheraton sports a golden plating where the Senator has a more humble nickel plating.
It's a medium-weight razor at 54grams and has a relatively small handle - it was also the last of the OC TTO razors made by Gillette.
People often comment on how mild it is for being an OC razor and that it's capable of producing some outstanding shaves - some argue because of its Long Comb design.

Back then, it could be had for 98 cents:


Since this razor was made during the "NDC years" of 1930-1949 its year of manufacture can't be narrowed down further than to the three years ('37-'39) when it was in production.

Anyway, here's some photos:

Pre-Clean photos:






Cleaning:
30 mins soaking in water with some mild detergent,
1 mins of scrubbing bubbles
30 mins of polishing with Hagerty's polish.

It came out ok - obviously far from 'new' - and it does have a bit of a sloppy TTO knob that I might attempt a DIY fix for (as seen on Youtube).





Eh...oops...forgot to rinse of some of that purple Hagerty's here




All in all an improvement was achieved - albeit not as significant as I might had hoped for

Can't wait to take it for a spin.

Coming soon to a SoS thread near you.

Nice. The head turned aout better than I thought it would.

It's funny the top of the head is almost always what ends up being the lost cause for me. This razor, for some reason, proved to be the opposite where the head cleaned up great but there are still some stuff I couldn't get off the handle. Go figure
As I look at the top of the head right now it's almost flawless.

Nicely done!

It's a good looking razor! I do like the Sheratons and Senators.

I love the way these old razors come back. They just want to be taken care of. Beautiful.

Good work. As we discussed elsewhere, since this one has the loose end issue you might want to go the full route and have it replated and completely restored including the repair to the loose end. Then it will truly become a show stopper.

If I like how it shaves - taking it for a spin Monday morning - that is absolutely a possibility since the only challenges it seems to have, apart from the TTO knob needing to be tightened, are cosmetic. I do like how it looks...can't wait to see how it performs.

I may have the '41 Ranger Tech and the Sheraton replated this coming year....time will tell

Next up on my razor-clean-up-spree are the two Single Ring Gillettes...I've dreaded doing them as I don't want to mess them up...but will have to give it a try next week when I'm numbed by Xmas food and drinks

Looks solid. Get a replate and you have an investment there! I paid more for my senator than you would have in this razor plus the replate... and the Sheraton is the more sought after of the two if i am not mistaken. I guess that is the upside of razor collecting. If you are reasonably informed with your buying (ie, no $100+ Fat Boys in average condition), you can get your money back. And even make a profit if you are a shrewd buyer. I think this counts as shrewd. Razors are one of the very few things I have collected over the years that seem to hold value. Usually when you part with a collection you just have to resign yourself to the fact that you will lose a healthy chunk of the investment. Or at least that had been my experience since eBay has exploded. It wasn't so bad before then. EBay unfortunately has shown us that 'rare' doesn't mean what we thought it did in most cases.

I might do a replate if I can find someone in the US, not razoremporium, that can replate it in the way/plating it originally was given by maybe any 'gold' plating is the same?

I cannot remember who it right this second, I am sure someone knows and can chime in, but one of the platers out there claims that they plate using the old Gillette specs. And that their replates are done in house, in the USA. Gimme a minute to figure it out. I used to have it bookmarked, but I recently got rid of my iPad in favor of a Kindle fire, so I lost that info.

I think Chris at Razorplate.com will be able to do that in Gold and make it look great.

He describes the process in the link below.

http://www.razorplate.com/p/process.html

Nice looking razor. Having read so many good things of Chris, I am thinking of sending him one of mine to replate.

Very nice!

Use Chris for sure. He emailed me very cordially when I asked about plating stuff and sent probably 5 emails back and forth. He didn't have to do that but that's the kind of guy he is. Really nice, and does great replates.

Looks really cool.

One of my dream razors! Looks great! I'd get it replated though because it's such a cool razor. I am actively looking for an open comb TTO like this.

And, to just close the loop - from acquisition, through cleaning - to impressions after finally having shaved with it:

I did two passes as I almost always do with any razor - WTG and ATG.
The Sheraton did deliver a very, very "near BBS"-result. No nicks or cuts. Quite honestly a great result.

But, for some reason, and I don't know why, I didn't quite enjoy shaving with it and I can't for all what it's worth put my finger on it....
Maybe it's the smaller handle...maybe it's the way the head felt against my face, maybe the way the OC left rather unusually, to me, well-defined 'rake marks' in the lather. Or maybe I just had a distracted holiday morning. No idea but I do feel that I need more time with it as so far it wouldn't be a razor I'd reach for very often even though it looks all purty.

In contrast: The Gillette Ranger Tech and Gillette Fatboy razors I also just got..and only ever used once so far...are both razors I can't wait to get back to...so maybe there was something odd about the Sheraton. We'll see.

Thanks for following along in my clean-up-the-razor-lot-adventure. I promise this was the last one

Looks great. Good work.

Well, I'm sorry to hear it wasn't as satisfying as you were hoping. I might be able to be convinced to take it off your hands for a nominal fee... I wouldn't charge you much... since you're a friend.