Wantonly Destructed Gillettes

[gvw755]

So first shave tonight with the Old Type WD.

First some background - on a US forum, someone decided one day to build a manual press device that would torque the head of a Gillette Old Type. I guess it was selected because the head was thin and had pins to align the blades instead of a bar and groove like the later New, which made things easier to torque. I found an OT head and had this person do one for me. @efsk just had one done also. Almost immediately, some folks at the US forum spoke out strongly that this person was doing "wanton destruction" to a razor that was such a classic and has not been in production for over 80 years. Never mind that the production run was over a 20 year period and Gillette made millions of these razors and more have been destroyed by folks throwing them away than this person modifying them to be slants. So I decided to designate this Old Type as the WD version.

This is a comparison of the WD version (left) and the regular Old Type (right).

Tonight I shaved with the WD and tomorrow I will shave with the regular OT.

First thing I noticed with my WTG pass is that there was still significant blade feel that the OT was famous for. Not quite as significant, but about 30% of the OT and so not quite smooth either. The BIG difference I noticed at the end of the WTG pass was that it was about 60% more efficient than the OT and so the slant conversion actually did what a slant razor does - achieves a smoother and more efficient shave. The ATG pass turned out to be just as efficient and I ended up with a two pass plus very minimal touch up BBS. I think now that if Gillette had done this to the Old Type instead of giving instructions on holding the razor head at an angle, maybe more folks in the US would have been interested in slants. This would also have allowed @efsk and myself to spend more of our money looking for vintage Gillette slants instead of waiting for someone to come around with a great idea of wantonly destroying razors.

 

[gvw755]

I apologize for posting an identical picture last night in my previous post. This is the pic I meant to post:

Tonight I shaved with the unslanted OT. I found this comparison surprising because the OT was smoother than I remembered it to be.

Immediately I found that the blade feel was about the same as the WD (if not a bit less). Of course I used a blade ready to be tossed in my WD last night and a blade that had only two shaves in my OT tonight. I did a WTG and ATG with the OT and found that there needed to be minimal touch up afterwards. It was slightly more than last night, but both nights I ended up with a two pass plus touch up BBS. I declare this comparison a tie.

Tomorrow, I will use the good blade in the slanted OT and compare the shave with my Valencia, a razor that the slant version of the OT was compared to when it was created.

 

[gvw755]

So tonight was my shave off between the OT slant and the Valencia. As I was taking pics of both razors side by side last night, I noticed something significant:

The OT-WD was torqued in the opposite direction.

Of course @efsk probably noticed this immediately since he bought a prototype Merkur right out from under my nose a while back. But we are still friends.

So tonight the OT-WD took the blade of my Pocket Edition from last night with just a couple of shaves on it, and the Valencia took The blade that is about two shaves before tossing. The OT-WD took the left side of my face and the Valencia took the right side. Immediately with the WTG pass, I noticed that the blade feel of the OT-WD was still significant. More than the Pocket Edition, but not as much as the first night's shave. Similar to the first night's shave , the OT-WD was very efficient in the WTG and ATG passes. Blade feel was not as significant with the ATG pass. There was some dry touch up to do and some buffing, but overall, a two pass plus minimal touch up BBS.

The Valencia, using a blade almost ready to toss, was very smooth and had no blade feel. Efficiency was excellent and after the WTG and ATG passes, there was still some dry touch up, but not as much as the OT-WD. Tonight's winner is the Valencia! I would call it a draw except for the fact that the Valencia got a comparable shave using a duller blade.

 

[gvw755]

So after shaving with the OT-WD for a while, I wondered what difference a Thick Cap would do to the shave. I found an OT Thick Cap and immediately sent it off to the
Wanton Destroyer of Old Type Razors. Today I got back my thick cap slant (OT-TC-WD).

The OT-TC-WD is on the left with the ball end handle, and the OT-WD is on the right with the Tech Fat Handle.

There is definitely a difference between the caps on each.

First shave tonight and immediately the Thick Cap felt smoother and not as much blade feel. In fact, there was no blade feel. WTG pass went extremely well, however at the end of it, there was still a layer of fine stubble left over. ATG pass managed to take are of most of the stubble, and because the razor was not as harsh, I could do things like buff or apply a little pressure. Like with the thin cap, I ended up with a two pass plus touch up BBS.

 

[TobyC]

100 year old brass screaming in pain.

 

[TobyC]

The OLD is a fantastic shaver in it's original form, I'd rather folks used Fatip or other currently manufactured razors for modification.

 

[efsk]

My slantified Gillettes took a while to arrive in the Netherlands. First, I had to get suitable razors, then I had to get them to the man with the slantification-machinery, then they had to go to my US shippingaddress, then they had to wait until enough was there to make consolidation and shipping worthwhile, then it was December so I decided to wait until after the postaloverload of US-Elections and black friday and Christmass and all that stuff, and then, when they finally were here, they had to wait until I decided to shave with them.
First, I took my slantified Old Type for a spin, and I must say: I really like that machine. It is very effective, for me it was very easy to find and hold the correct angle, and it left me with a very pleasant very comfortable shave. This is a great razor.

 

[efsk]

I also got a slantified Tech. First time I tried it was with the same blade that had two shaves on it in the Old Type.
Horrible. Absolutely unpleasant. As if hairs were being pulled out of my face instead of being cut.
I really did not want to continue with that razor, however decided I had to give it one more chance, and so I went with the old adagio: mild razor, sharp blade: I put a Kai in it.
Now that was something else! Buttery smooth, very pleasant effective shave. Not as lasting as the Old Type slant, but a real pleasant shave, I was/am impressed!

 

[efsk]

Getting razors to the slantifier meant: purchase on ebay and have them sent there directly. This meant one dud: I bought a razor that looked good, but on arrival a tooth was dangling by a thread. Some people would throw a thing like that away, maybe keep the good parts as spare, others go to work with it.
I've not yet shaved with it, but can present you the Slantified Old Type DEvette:

 

[efsk]

I noticed something significant:

The OT-WD was torqued in the opposite direction.

You can also see that where the Valencia curves ever steeper downward, left to right, downward, the WD-Old Type has more of a weave in it: it starts reasonable flat, curves up, and then flattens again.

 

[gvw755]

I also got a slantified Tech. First time I tried it was with the same blade that had two shaves on it in the Old Type.
Horrible. Absolutely unpleasant. As if hairs were being pulled out of my face instead of being cut.
I really did not want to continue with that razor, however decided I had to give it one more chance, and so I went with the old adagio: mild razor, sharp blade: I put a Kai in it.
Now that was something else! Buttery smooth, very pleasant effective shave. Not as lasting as the Old Type slant, but a real pleasant shave, I was/am impressed!

I need to try that too since my experience with my slanted Tech was similar.