Two confusing Techs

Discussion in 'Safety Razors' started by John Ruschmeyer, Sep 6, 2018.

  1. John Ruschmeyer

    John Ruschmeyer Well-Known Member

    In and amongst my razors and bits are two Gillette Tech baseplates, a pre-War US and an early post-War NDC, which confuse me somewhat. Both seem to be missing almost all of their plating, leaving a copper-colored metal with varying amounts of grey areas. Based on residual plating in the crevices, it appears that both originally had a Gold wash.

    Initially, I assumed that the baseplates were Red Brass based on the color and that the grey areas were some kind of reaction with a harsh chemical. It turns out, however, that both are magnetic which leads me to assume that they are Steel and received a Copper (?) plating prior to the Gold wash.

    What's confusing me is where these two fit in the overall timeline. The use of Steel indicates a WWII-era razor which makes sense for the pre-War, except for one thing... Why would Gillette make a Gold Tech during wartime? This particular razor came with a Brass cap which was missing all plating and a Bakelite handle.

    The post-War confuses me in a different way. It came with a Contract Tech handle (ball-end with fullers) which had been stripped to bare metal. I'll assume, for the sake of argument, that it was a '46 as that would have been the first year with the post-War baseplate and leftover Contract Tech handles. But why would it have had a Steel baseplate rather than a Brass one? Would Gillette still have been using up leftover Steel allotments?

    Opinions welcome... IMG_0232.JPG IMG_0231.JPG
     
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  2. jmudrick

    jmudrick Type A Man

    FWIW, posted on another forum

    "During the war, a complete mixed bag. The ball ends came in brass and painted steel. The heavy handles (which have always weighed the same as the ball end version), were painted brass. The fluted ball end versions were painted or plated Zamak. Many of the painted heads of all types were steel or brass, or mixed between top and bottom cap. I have also seen the bakelite versions with steel or plated brass heads, and bakelite heads. I seems to me that the all bakelite versions were the most common in the service issue sets.

    For the first few years up to 1950, some of this mixed bag persisted. "
     
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  3. John Ruschmeyer

    John Ruschmeyer Well-Known Member

    Okay, so about what I should have figured. Then, of course, there are the razors like this:
    [​IMG]
    Gold, but obviously produced under contract to the Government. This was probably what my pre-War one looked like in another era.
     
    DrStrange, gorgo2, Jorvaljr and 2 others like this.

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