Gillette Rocket, the refined DE.

Oh, no. Mixing 2 countries for one razor -- my head is spinning. Too much for me to absorb right now.

 

very cool.i wouldn't say the u.s or brit are better.i am an english guy living in canada and i collect british gillettes .my grandad was a gillette man since ww2 and would have had a few of these razors over the years.i have favorite gillettes from various countries,but most are british.it is documented on many forums that british gillettes tend to have better plating and more robust mechanisms and build qualities.i don't have a real opinion on that,i just like what i like..it is also known that england never built a gillette adjustable,and gillette canada never built a tto/rocket/one piece/superspeed type razor.

 

There are a few loss-of-plating marks on the doors of my British one-piece, and some on the handle. It's really not too bad, and I'm not sure I want to drop 60 clams to get it re-plated.

I would say it is slightly better built than the American one, but without the 2 to compare, I wouldn't notice much difference, except for the telescoping TTO knob/handle.
I think that telescoping effect is pretty cool, but had I been used to things the other way around, I'd probably think the American non-moving-up-and-down knob was cool.

 

yes their were 6 brit flare tips in total in 3 colors. from 1955 ish to 1962
early years were flare tip superspeed like the u.s ones,1958 later were flare tip rocket(telescoping handle)

 

one could find a mint one here in canada for under $ 60 american.don't bother replating it.

 

Thanks

 

I'm confused again -- I tried to do some searches, but finding the negative of something is difficult. In this case, "not made in England". My British one-piece doesn't say "Made in England" on the bottom of the baseplate. All I could find was people speculating why not, but no definitive conclusions.

 

please post a pic if possible,i will look into it.

 

Thanks. Here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/175913659389

 

very cool.it's possible that it's a french market razor,or german made.either way quite unique.maybe @romsitsa would know.

 

Thanks. I'm still scratching my head on why he let it go for $10 shipped. At first I thought he didn't know about razors, but I see he has others for sale, and they ain't exactly cheap. He seemed to think the plating loss was a big negative -- maybe he's right, but it was not a biggie for me at 10 smackeroos.

I was looking at eBay today for British razors, and there were a few like mine, and then I noticed they said "Made in England", which mine did not.
They are not insanely expensive, but several times more than $10.

 

without knowing what it really was he may have opted to let it go cheap and let someone else figure it out.especially with plate loss.
did you look on ebay.ca or ebay.uk? the closer to home they get the cheaper they get also..

 

I set location to North America when I search. I know there is eBay for other countries, but I assumed Canada shared the U.S. one. I think, but I could be wrong, that if a seller using a non-U.S. version of eBay sets their listing to ship to the U.S., then it will show up on the U.S. eBay. I always see plenty of listings for things for non-U.S. countries -- then I remember to set the location.

Shipping from other continents will be expensive, and then you need to worry about customs. Ali is the exception, and I've gotten things from China in a little over a week, and never had to pay extra duty fees.

 

i buy from ebay england and ebay france,they ship to canada,never paid any fees.when i buy from the states the $ exchange is awful and the shipping charges expensive.even deals are rarely worth it,but this has been only in the last 2 years..lots has changed..

 

Even without duty fees, shipping from other continents make it not so worthwhile for me. The stuff I don't have already usually goes for big bucks, too.
I still don't know how the Ali sellers do it -- shipping is usually free or just a few bucks. And when I bought from "Sweden", as I mentioned from RBC's eBay site or their own site, it turned out to be shipped from my own state! And shipping was free! But that was just blades.

 

For comparison sake, I shaved with my 1956 American red flare tip this morning.

I found it just a bit smoother than the British neutral-colored one-piece. I didn't notice much difference, if any, from the American neutral-colored flare tip.
The blade I used was transferred directly from the British one.

Differences among the 3 razors in question are slight enough that I'd almost attribute it to a combination of manufacturing tolerances and (ab)use over the years.

I don't have any measuring tools precise enough for gap and exposure measurements. Is there that much difference in gap among the trios? Is it documented anywhere? I'm from the school of thought that exposure means more than gap when assessing aggressiveness.

 

RAZOR MODEL
GAP inches -mm
Black Bottom Dial 0.010 0.254
$1.95 "Fatboy" Adjustable 0.015 0.381
Executive Adjustable 0.015 0.381
Nickel 1-9 Toggle Adjustable 0.015 0.381
Slim Adjustable 0.015 0.381
Gold 1-9 Toggle Adjustable 0.020 0.508
$2.49 "Red Dot" Fatboy Adjustable 0.020 0.508
Light "Blue Tip" Super Speed 0.020 0.508
Regular "Flare Tip" Super Speed 0.025 0.635
Heavy "Red Tip" Super Speed 0.030 0.762
1-9 Bottom Dial .038 0.965

 

Blade gaps, ranked by gap size
thousandths of an inch millimeters Razor weight, grams
5.5 .14mm Fatip Piccolo (Mk 2) (URL) 73.64 (URL)
8 .20mm Rockwell 6S @ R1 113
10 .25mm Above the Tie (ATT) with M-1 base plate Kronos/Titan ~ 109g ... Atlas ~ 98g
11 .28mm
12 .30mm
13 .33mm
14 .35mm Rockwell 6S @ R2 113
15 .38mm Merkur Progress 570 @ 1
16 .41mm
17 .43mm Gillette Adj Black handle @ 1 Long Handle, 67
18 .46mm
19 .48mm GEM 1912
Rockwell 6S @ R3 113
.49mm Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements (PAA) Double Open Comb (DOC) Satin (URL) 55.79 (URL)
20 .51mm Ming Sui
21 .53mm Gem Micromatic
Gillette New Improved Tuckaway
Schick Krona
22 .56mm Gillette Adjustable @ 1
Gillette New Norfolk
Gillette TECH Fat Handle, 48
Merkur Classic
Weishi
Merkur Progress 570 @ 2
23 .58mm Above the Tie (ATT) with R-1 base plate Kronos/Titan ~ 109g ... Atlas ~ 98g
Gillette NEW Ball-end, 54; square end, 51
Gillette Super Speed 1954 - 1968 (Regular) 58
Gillette Super Speed 1956 58
Gillette Super Speed (Blue Tip) 45
.59mm Gillette Tech, April–June 1957 (C-2) (URL) 58.90 (URL)
24 .61mm Gem G-Bar
Gillette Adjustable @ 2
Feather Popular
Rockwell 6S @ R4 113
Weber 3 Piece Stainless w/ DLC Head 91
25 .64mm Gillette Aristocrat (US) late 1940s, 69
Gillette Knack 43
Gillette Ranger Tech
Gillette Super Speed (black handle) 46
Gillette Super Speed (late 1940s) 54
Merkur HD Long Handle (38C)
Wilkinson Croma
Schick Injector Type L
Merkur 23C
26 .66mm Bic Disposable (orange handle)
Gillette Adjustable @ 3
Gillette Aristocrat (UK)
27 .67mm Gillette FH Tech Canada 1932 (Triangular) 48
.68mm Bevel (URL) 88.65 (URL)
.69mm Rockwell 6S @ R5 113
28 .70mm Gillette Rocket HD (UK) 72
.71mm Edwin Jagger (EJ) Kelvin with DE89 Head (URL) 59.16 (URL)
Merkur HD (34C) 78
Merkur Progress 570 @ 3
29 .73mm Gillette SS Red Tip (USA) 70
.74mm Feather AS-D2
.74mm Gillette Adjustable @ 4
30 .76mm Mühle R89 / Edwin Jagger DE89L 73
.77mm Dorco PL602 (URL) 12.03 (URL)
31 .79mm Feather Portable
Rockwell 6S @ R6 113
32 .81mm Gillette Adjustable @ 5
Bic Metal
Gillette Super Speed Red Tip (UK)
32 .82mm Weber PH/Bulldog stainless steel (see Note) 91
33 .84mm Merkur Progress 570 @ 4
34 .86mm
35 .89mm Gillette Adjustable @ 6
36 .91mm Above the Tie (ATT) with H-1 base plate Kronos/Titan = 109g ... Atlas = 98g
37 .94mm Merkur Progress 570 @ 5
38 .97mm Gillette Adjustable @ 7
39 .99mm
40 1.02mm Executive Shaving Braveheart
41 1.04mm Gillette Adjustable @ 8
Gillette Adjustable (black handle) @ 9
42 1.07mm
43 1.09mm Lord L6 44.5
44 1.12mm Merkur Futur @ 1 120
45 1.14mm Gillette Adjustable @ 9
47 1.19mm Merkur Futur @ 2 120
53 1.35mm Merkur Futur @ 3 120
58 1.47mm Merkur Futur @ 4 120
63 1.60mm Merkur Futur @ 5 120
65 1.65mm Merkur Futur @ 6 120
69 1.75mm Merkur Futur @ 6 .5 120
? Butterscotch Schick Injector 31
? Lux 56
? Stahly Live-Blade 164
? Gillette Super Speed 1953 56
? Gillette Super Speed 1952 42
? Gillette Super Speed 1959 55

 

Thanks.

Assuming all 3 have the same exposure more or less, that does not seem to me to be that big of a jump for each step. My empirical results so far seem to verify that, for my face, and for my whiskers.

I think I will try my American blue tip tomorrow morning - haven't used that one in a while. I should notice a difference coming from a red tip today.

 

My shave this morning with my 1958 American blue tip was great. The Silver Star blade used for the shave was transferred directly from my American red tip from yesterday's shave.

I will preface the following by saying that among the British neutral-colored-flare-tip one-piece with the telescoping TTO handle (aka British flare-tip Rocket), and the American trio flare-tips, I could use any of them every day and be happy. I didn't notice a huge difference during the shave, or post-shave. The results were pretty much the same, with the same amount of work.

Considering that I went from the red tip to the blue tip on consecutive days, I expected to notice a significant difference. I did not. I think after shaving with all 4 withing the last few days, the only slight discernable difference can be felt, for me, going against the grain. And it is not that much of a difference.

This little experiment solidified, for me, that I do like mild razors the best -- if they are decently efficient. It is worth noting that even the blue tip has positive exposure.

If I had to choose only 1 from the 4 to use going forward everyday, I might actually choose the blue tip, but the American neutral would be very close.
Right now, I would rank them from my most-preferred to least as: American blue tip, American neutral tip (virtually tied for 1st place), American Red Tip, British flare-tip Rocket.

I did like all of them, and the British Rocket is a great razor.

One other thing I was thinking about -- I hadn't used any Gillette Super Speeds lately, so I'm also wondering if as a group they take some getting used to -- although even my shaves earlier this week were good. I might spend the next week rotating among them again, unless I get bored. We'll see. I also might mix in my notched NDC Milord, notched NDC "regular" SS, and notched NDC gold Aristocrat. The first two are supposed to be exactly the same except for the plating, and the latter should be the same except for the beefier handle. I think the only one I've used in the past is the regular SS. As I've said before, I believe you need more than one or two shaves with each razor to do a better comparison.

I don't think anyone could go wrong using any vintage Gillette Super Speed, going as far back as their first solid-bar TTOs in the early 40s. (I also have a 1941 Ranger Tech.)

Aside from collectibility and slightly better build quality, I don't think that I'm missing much by not having any more British-made TTOs. I will keep an eye out for them when the price is right, however.