Comprehensive guide to the Gillette Aristocrat Junior razors

Just picked this up today. Aluminum, gold plated and made in England. No case with it though. Its a lighter colour gold than any Gillette I have seen though. Slightly rounded bottom.

 

Hi, I thought those were called an HD 500 paper clip Rocket? I'm probably wrong though. I'm wrong a lot lately. Whatever they call it, I bet it shaves great.

 

Oh, could be I will look it up thanks. I hadn't heard of the HD 500 paper clip Rocket before or that these came in aluminum. It is 29-30g.

 

Thats it, I now know what case to look for as well. Thanks.

 

Here is an excerpt from the Rocket thread referenced in the beginning of this thread-

#9: Paperclip or LD (light duty) Rocket; this is an all aluminum HDRocket except for the post, side platesand silo doors. It is much like thealuminum Rocket above, #1. Thisversion is more common and has anickname of the “Paperclip”, because itis said to be as light as…I’m sure you can guess. Stamped patent pending inthe blade tray, weighs in at 34 grams.


#10: Gold aluminum LD; this is muchlike the LD above except for the obvious gold color and the aluminum silo doors. These were anodized gold I believe and aren’t plated. Very light, both the LD Rocket’s are said to weigh less than an ounce. Marked the same as the LD and at 29 grams this is the second lightest Rocket.C

http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/gillette-rocket-the-refined-de.8590/

 

Thanks, I will check this thread out. Its is #10 from this description because it is all aluminum and 29g.

 

#58 with 694093 pat number, loop in case , no visual II marking.

 

Here is the difference between the No 51 and No 53 Aristocrat Jr sets.
From The Chemist and Druggist Volume 151 (23 Apr. 1949) pg 31

https://archive.org/details/b19974760M3770/page/30?q=gillette+regent

According to the ad, in 1949 the 53 set came with a silver finished Aristocrat Jr and the 51 set came with a nickel plated Aristocrat Jr.

 

I have noticed this difference in the Ebay auctions and wondered why the difference.
So there are various grades of Junior Aristocrat? Very interesting.
Does this mean that ALL #53 sets were silver finished?
What is a silver finish? (Chrome?)

Might this help those buying a Junior to spot if the razor has been switched with a std nickel Rocket/Superspeed.

 

interesting Ad. Thanks for sharing!

 

After looking at this ad which was run in 1949 and 1950 in England I am going to walk back the silver plate as the difference between the no 51 and no 53 sets.

If you read the description for these Aristocrat sets the no 16 is " highly polished" and the no 22 is " heavily plated". I interpret that to be the the no 16 has a satin mirror like finish and the no 22 a flat matte like finish. Same plating different finish and that is most likely what is being referred to for the no 51 and no 53 Aristocrat Jr sets.

Ad from the Manchester Observer Dec. 4th 1949

 

The #16 and #22 are Aristocrats. The Junior Aristocrats are a different beast.

 

That is not the point a satin or matte type finish is what is relevant here whether the plating is nickel or rhodium plate to achieve that type of finish is the same process.

 

In the ad, it is referring to the case, not the razor.
That said, as i understand it
"Highly polished" is a high quality nickel plated razor (like the #58) and "heavily plated" is either rhodium or silver depending on the era.

 

Foot meet mouth, it is referring to the case. It is not always easy to read the small print on these.

 

Well here is an ad that makes case for the razors being different besides the cases.


Besides the obvious case differences the more expensive one is heavily rhodium plated and the less expensive than plain old rhodium plated one. To me that refers to if not finish then whether one is thin plated or thick plated i.e. micron thickness of plating. Now back to the Aristocrat Jr razors. Unless I am mistaken Gillette stopped silver plating razors in the 30s so in this case silver finish should mean a special type of nickel plating called nickel silver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_silver

So it is not whether the Aristocrat Jr razors were nickel plated or not but the type of plating besides the cases they were sold in.

Here are some examples of what a Nickel Silver also referred to as German Silver finish would look like.
https://leisure.onehowto.com/article/how-to-clean-nickel-silver-413.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Willem_Lenssinck_-_Formula_I_Racing_Horse.jpg

 

Here is what nickel silver plating which has no silver in it looks like.

Here is my Popular which the handle portion is nickel silver while the collar and head are standard nickel plate next to a Schick B1 which is silver plated. They look similar have the same type of sheen to them. The only way to tell them apart is to shine a bright light on them. Silver is much more reflective.


Now here is another side by side with the Popular, B1 and 46 Ranger Tech which is standard nickel plate.


If the 2nd gen Aristocrat Jr razor looks like the Popular it belongs in a No 53 set made in at least 1949 and 1950.

If it looks like that Ranger Tech then it belongs in a No 51 set made in at least 1949 and 1950.