I don't think it is a copper cap so much as a copper-colored-brass cap. Brass is an alloy of both copper and zinc; the different ratios of the two elements (along with other elements, depending on intended use) create the different colors we see under the plating. Tom
I have both too. The Bar handle one I have is an SC. My favorite and so smooth. I added some shot to the handle (for heft) and sealed with silicone putty. My Ball End is a LC. Also very smooth. Mine also had a small crack which I fixed and added some weight also. In this case I used a small steel cylinder I found at the hardware store - see below. Also added just a tad bit more heft which prefer. Both excellent shavers and for me shave pretty much identical.
I may have shown this picture before, but it features about half of my NEWs (yes, I have a problem) in various configurations: Long Comb, Short Comb, 15mm Deluxe, 17mm Deluxe, RFB, and a couple of different Long Comb Goodwills. Most of them are on after-market handles, and all of them are great shavers (although, I like the Goodwills least). Tom
I have a couple of New razors and each of them have different patent marks stamped on the head. You can't get an exact date but you may be able to narrow it down somewhat by the patent dates -- because the application for the patents took time to process and weren't stamped on the razor until after they were awarded. So early razors had no patent numbers, middle ones had one or two patents, later ones had three and four patent numbers. With that logic your razor looks earlier because of the 'Other Pat Pend' mark. Also I believe that in general the long combs came before the shorts.
The Reissue number on the underside of RyX's NEW was a result of the Summer of '32 merger between Gillette and Probak, so his razor is from sometime after that. I believe the LC and the SC appeared almost concurrently.
Its possible the long and short combs came out at the same time even though they didn't market them differently. Gillette had a lot of mergers at that time and the Otto Roth razors are similar to the Long Combs. Here are my examples, from left to right: - the first is a short comb with three patent numbers on the bottom row and reissue patent on the top row. It has a larger neck where the handle meets the head. - in the middle is another short comb with two patent numbers on the bottom and the same reissue numbers on the top row. - last is a long comb with no patents at all. Only marks are the Gillette diamond and Made in USA.
I've got a NEW Short Comb with the bar handle circa 1932-1940. Love it. After I'm done with my current Focus blade auditions for my SA-109 I'm going to do one for my NEW. Enjoy the shaves with those great looking razors Don't give up on the EJ though. I have one and like it a lot. It is going to be in my rotation along with the NEW and the SA. I use Shark's in it and they work great. YMMV.
I'm of the opinion that the new razor, with either comb length, is the BEST 3 piece razor ever. I consistently get near BBS shaves with either my LC or SC. They are very efficient yet pretty darn mild. The only blade that I've found that doesn't work well is the Shark - of course I've not found any razor that works with that blade for me. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
I have not seen any cracks in the bar handles. It is the ball end handles that are notorious for cracks.
That's because the ball end and the threaded end are force pushed and friction fitted at the time of manufacture. The barrel of the handle has pressure and stress on it at both ends from day one. It's a miracle they don't all get cracks, and it's a miracle they don't crack earlier, say in the first 25 years. But then, Gillette didn't really design or intend the razors to last "forever." There's little profit in that noble concept.
There's a thread I put forth about the handles Gillette used and the reason for cracking. Since then, my father (engineer) looked closer at them, and made some observations. The main observation is that back then, they knew about stress fractures, but probably didn't have quite the engineering mathematics behind determining the metal stress. The other is that NOW, they don't make the fittings parallel. (He discussed the fitting he worked on for a ball valve handle - less than half an inch thick, but was going to turn a valve over a foot across with insane tolerances) What they would do is leave the tube as it was, but make so that the mating (interference/friction) point of the ends (threaded knob, end knob) would mate with the brass tube _away_ from the end of the tube. Cracks like that _always_ form from the metal edge. If you remove the stress from the metal edge, the brass itself would be able to withstand the hoop stress of the fitting. So, if someone wanted, they could make identical razors to the OLD, NEW, and even Tech fat handle that should never show the cracks that Gillette had. The carbon rods that I'm grinding/cutting to fit the parts will be similar. I'm going to make sure that the outside portion is not actively touching anything but the base of the knob, but the INSIDE will have the stress points. (I'll try to draw some diagrams, scan, and post them later) If it helps, as I posted, my father posited that Gillette didn't really have engineers. They had designers. (and mechanics). That would explain the issues they had with quality control, and later, trying to produce acceptable stainless steel blades. Otto Roth razors are identical to LC NEW, other than some handle patterning. I have an Otto Roth overstrike, and it's identical to the other two LC NEW in head and handle diameter.
To add on a separate note - I just touched on it. Any handle that has a separate insert can crack. I have a LC NEW Common Bar handle (with a Tech head) that has a massive crack in it where the threaded knob is inserted into the handle. Most of the Fat Handle techs have the SAME insert as the Common Bar handle. The OLD style handle has TWO stress inserts - the ball knob, and the threaded knob.
That is what I thought...and I just "won" a New LC Bar Handle on e-bay for $16 plus $4 for shipping. I didn't see any cracks in his pics, but we'll see. I've never purchased a vintage razor before.
