Found this at the fleamarket this morning. I know it's a GEM, but other than that I'm clueless. Only paid $2 for it(for that price I couldn't leave it). Posted over in "The Haul" and got one very helpful reply(/sarc/), so I figured to try here.
It is a GEM Featherweight. They are really nice middle of the road on aggression. You have a very clean example. Use it and you will not be disappointed. Tom Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Yup, those Featherweight Gems are amazing. They are so light it is deceptive. You hardly notice it's shaving, except for the feedback. I bet it gives you a good shave right off the bat. Enjoy!
Is there any way to figure the date range on this razor? Other than what was on the inside there were no markings.
Not a specific year but we do know those, called the GEM Feather Weight, were made in the 1950s and were eventually replaced when the GEM Push Button hit the market in 1958. This particular model, the Feather Weight, came in two common "colors" - You could get one that was cream/ivory color handle with nickel plated head or you could get one that was cream/ivory color handle with gold plated head and a small gold plated area on the bottom of the handle on the front side. There's also three rarer handle colors that I've seen - dark chocolate brown handle, dark grey handle and yellow handle. That's my limited knowledge on this SE razor. @HoosierTrooper is the king of SE razors.
Once I got into SE shaving, I woke up to that realization too! @RetLEO-07 , the world of SE shaving is amazing and, with all of the fine SEs made, you'll question all of the hubbub around DEs.
I'll give it a fair shot. But I do like my NEW SC and SA-109. So now I'll have one more tool in the toolbox.
I've always held the Feather Weight in high regard because it's my birth year/era SE, 1956. To the best of my knowledge it was only the second model that ASR gave an official name to, the first being the Micromatic, and it started their use of mostly plastic handles. Here's three of mine that are examples of some of the different versions that where made. It's interesting that the bar guards are slight y different as well. The version on the left has horizontal lines, the grey/dark green handled one is smooth and the fancy gold one on the right has vertical grooves. I really don't know why they had different patterns. Mickey Mantle was in several ads for the FW, like this one. Guys like to bust on "canned goo" but as you can see it's been around a long time. I'd love to find one of those sets in a dusty old antique store sometime!
Actually, IAmTheJody pretty well nailed the time frame down on them so he should get the credit for that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
