It is not a Club either though from what I understand now that I am researching this one out further is Club and Hospital were made by the same company. The head is branded and the slots are triangular. Mine has oval slots.
Here are 2 Hospitals, the problem here is they both have protruding shoulders through the base plate this one doesn't. Handle does match but that is it. With that said I'd need to see an example with the matching base plate and lack of shoulders on the cap. It is possible this still is a Hospital brand razor pending further investigation.
Well unless the cap and/or plate has been changed it's not the Berkeley or Krect Spiral Curve those have noticeable differences. It could very well be the Hospital or Club. I see them pop up on the bay from time to time. But due to the erroneous brand names, it's hard to find the correct pictures in google. Actually here is a good example of the Hospital I just found on etsy. This one is not adjustable and the head/plate looks more like a Star/Tech. But did Hospital Brand also make an adjustable and Google just is not returning photos?? Aand while searching I found this one as well, a Doehler-Jarvis adjustable so the Rabbit Hole deepens... It seems most are either different enough, or branded. But how many of what variants were not branded? Also if most Coopers were branded, why (if a Cooper) was this one not?
Doehler-Jarvis is affiliated with Hospital and Club from what I understand. Their parent company was National Lead. Doehler-Jarvis did metal smelting and die casting. https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/any-informations-about-this-razor-available.100142/ I'll agree that is probably the same razor as the Doehler-Jarvis but not necessarily the same brand. The more pertinent question then would be did Cooper really make this razor or was it an OEM agreement with Doehler-Jarvis. My guess is Doehler-Jarvis was the manufacturer for all 3. Next would be was Cooper and Hospital separate companies from Doehler-Jarvis or ultimately brands or divisions of the same conglomerate.
Actually Hospital Brand razors along with Club were brands of Century Laboratories of Newark, NJ. They went out of business around 1968. Unless they were a division of National Lead then they would have been another OEM customer for Doehler-Jarvis then. Either way I think it is fair to say the smelter was the manufacturer regardless of how they were affiliated.
Also how did Berkeley tie in? The handle and plate/with shim on the Berkeley is identical to that of the Doehler-Jarvis and Cooper. Only difference seems to be the caps. I know that Berkeley took it a step further using the shim idea on a 'Two Piece' style design, here.
Looks like Berkeley was made by a separate company from Century Laboratories so the question would be who came up with the original design? I can't find anything linking Consolidated Razor Blade Company to Century Laboratories except both companies residing in NJ. I doubt Doehler-Jarvis did anything more than manufacturing the designs. As far a Cooper goes unless the design was patent protected or through confidential agreements with Doehler-Javris anyone could have offered Doehler-Jarvis enough money to make an OEM version and depending how scrupulous Doehler-Jarvis was they would have either used the other tooling / molds outright or made some minor modifications depending who owned said tooling and dies. Other option is Cooper refined existing designs and this is their refined design and Doehler-Jarvis manufactured it for them and also put out a version with their own branding. My personal experience with manfacturing in this case is the plant unless you get them to sign non-compete agreements will market their own versions of your product once it starts selling well enough and then screw you over by increasing the production price to force you out of the picture if they can or if they have enough cash and you are small enough buy you out once the brand is established if some bigger competitor doesn't do so first.
I found some more info in the book; A Safety Razor Compendium, by Robert K. Waits. I don't have the complete book, just what is available in Google books. It seems they were made in this order: 1933 Club (non-adjustable) 1933 and/or 1944 Hospital (similar to Club) (not able to view full page) 1935 Krect Spiral (first variation) 1937 Berkeley Custom Shaver ('Two Piece' adjustable) 1944 Cooper (adjustable) 1946 Berkeley Shave Selector (adjustable) 1946? Doehler-Jarvis (adjustable) (not able to view full page) ~ This page referenced advertising. So I think the general shape/design came from Club in the early 30s. The Shim idea came from Berkeley in the late 30s. Then the two ideas/designs were combined in the 40s by (maybe) Cooper, and seem to have been used to advertise blades. Oddly the Cooper was in packaging made to sell Kant Rust blades, maybe a name change or another blade made by Cooper, maybe why they did not Brand the Razor... I'm guessing that the ones made in the 40s were all made under one roof only difference being the Cap or packaging oriented toward the blade being sold with it. Most were from the Newark/Jersey City/New York City area so probably these merged by the mid 40s?
I'm not sure the 1933 date is meant to or should be applied to the Club razor (rather than just blades). Design elements of the Club razor look an awful lot like the Pre War Tech which wasn't on shelves until '39. Now it's possible that Gillette decided to copy things like the shape of the drain holes from the Club but I'm more inclined to think it went the other way.
The Club Razor looks an awful lot more like a Star Mo. 100 plate/cap. So maybe Gillette and Star stole it from Club....
Well there's no question the Star makes its appearance after the Tech for what that's worth (not earlier than '41 when Silver Star blades were introduced, '46 by some references). When Waits Compendium sources are not referenced I take their dating with huge grains of salt. In this case as I said the reference to trademark first use could be read as specific to blades with razor following in '42 or whatever.
After going through all this I am going with this is still a Cooper as originally identified by @mrchick using Waits Safety Razor Compendium. Sold as a Cooper for sure, made by maybe. That is my story and I am sticking to it unless someone can show me a Hospital example that is identical including the adjustment and lack of branding. Taking one piece and extrapolating all the razors had to be that razor is not valid if said piece is not patent protected or trademarked somehow. You can't make that case for the handle. The adjuster maybe but more research is needed on that.
SOTD January 24th Stirling Mentholated Pre-Shave Soap EDRIO #13 Cooper MonoBilt #1 Gillette Nacet (4) Wild West Brushworks Jungle Ebonite W/ Maggard Mixed knot (26mm, Frigate Class) B&M Night Music soap and AS Stirling Glacial Unscented PSB
That is cool you found a branded Cooper. If nothing else that answers if Cooper made a branded version. After going through all this I am convinced that those handles for sure were made most likely by Doehler Jarvis regardless the brand. They show up with too many companies' razors that are in no way connected by ownership.
The handles are not identical but certainly seem sourced from the same place. I'll do a couple comparison shaves , Club and Pre-war Tech, Cooper and Fatip Gentile.
The tell in this case is the arrow on the handle that is too ornate for all them to be copying each other. That is something that was part of a mold or die. There would have been a boatload of lawsuits over that if they copied each other's molds and dies since that stuff tends to be proprietary. The only realistic answer is they were all sourcing the handle from the same manufacturer.
