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Gillette Tech

Hellas

Blade Whisperer
As the "bread and butter" razor from Gillette, which was built from 1938 on - and I believe is still available in India with a plastic handle - the Tech cannot not be missing here either:

What should one actually write about the Tech? As far as I know, only the head geometry of the Tech was always almost simmilar even not identical. The head was also, as far as I know, always made of coated (I'm not sure if always only nickel or gold plated) zinc die-cast, but with the most different handles, of aluminum, plastic, or brass. The head of the Tech is even today still copied by some Chinese and Indian manufacturers (sometimes better sometimes worse).

The Tech shaves very gently. For comparison with "modern" razors one can compare it with the Feather AS-D2 (which is basically nothing more than a model based on the Tech in terms of head geometry), whereby I consider the Gillette Tech as more close. You can get very thorough with the Tech, even if - with me - not the most lasting shaves:

Here's my tech, sometime from the 1950s - 1960s, because it's not marketed with a heavy "ball end" brass grip:

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Later, around 1961, the Tech was very often only available with an aluminium handle, in different versions. These two are from the 1970s:

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Tech? Did you mention Gillette Tech? I just happen to have five of my favorite, which I will post later. I owned about 10 at different times, because they were either too mild or duplicates. For now, I will show my latest Tech acquisition, complete with mismatched case and me eating soups and stews for two weeks.

Gillette Hybrid Tech - Made in England and is a cross between the Raised Flat Bottom and the Flat Bottom Tech.

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My five remaining Techs. Actually two are the same type.

First from the left is a gold replated Triangle Slot Tech that had the tube on the handle seriously cracked. I had the remaining parts replated and put a carbon fiber tube as the handle.

Second from the left is what a normal Triangle Slot Tech should look like (or at least the version called the Fat Handle). The triangle slot Techs were the most aggressive of all Techs, which actually made them efficient shavers.

Middle one with the plastic handle is my birth year/quarter Tech (X4). The reason why it had a plastic handle is because in 1952, there was a thing called the Korean Conflict going on in the world and most brass was taken to make bullet casing. This is also the only Tech I own that shaves like a Tech should shave like, which is on the mild side needing three complete passes to get a good shave.

Fourth from the left is a Made in England Flat Bottom Tech, which was similar to the Flat Bottom New. This was a very efficient shaver. Not as efficient as the triangle slots, but a much smoother shaver.

Last one is the Hybrid Tech as pictured in the previous post. This was similar to the Raised Flat Bottom New, and considered by many to be the Holy Grail of Techs because of it's scarcity and the owner of one will have the best shaves of any razor forever. Someone told me that the shave of it is very similar to matching the top cap of a Triangle Slot Tech with the base of a Flat Bottom. I tried it and found the shave to be almost identical to the Hybrid Tech. Also, while a very good shaver, there are other razors, both vintage and modern, that shave as well or better. Still, this one stays in my possession only because it took two years and many close failures to finally getting one.

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After getting loads of the aluminium Techs @Hellas showed in the topicstarter sent to me in razorlots, I decided it was time to get some decent ones. This was triggered by seeing an auction with three N°26's which I didn't know existed. In itself not very strange: Gillette never made a slant and so I ignored them al my shavinglife, basically until @merwtje showed me a very pretty raised flatbottom that he kept for himself.
First of, the Gold Tech, as it is called by mr-razor. His has a branded topcap, and mine has a mismatched bladepack: should be US not English.
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This razor is never used: the cellophane is still on the head, which is why on the photo's it seems either out of focus or scratched. It is neither. Made in England, handle is rather lightweight, and mr-razor has it with a white case and then it is a N°27.
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The Tech N°26 is weird. Not as a razor, loads of small, four-piece travel-razors have been produced, where the two parts of the handle grip in each other. All of the others however came in a travel-case. This one in a Bakelite bladebank, in which the head, the disassembled handle and a pack of blades can be stored. Kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me, as everything will fall out of the bladebank when held upside down, and the thin Bakelite will break when handled roughly, both these things happen with luggage.
The shipper is carton with a cellophane window, and the cellophane has not survived the past 73 years intact. Everything else did though.
I have two different type handles. The more regular evenly knurled handle, and a handle that has spiral knurling.
The pics with shipper are a bit of color, for some reason my camera decided to miscorrect.
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Does Europe have a secret stash of No. 25 Techs? Obviously because they are Made in England, there might be more of them over there, but in the USA we have our share of flat bottom Techs, but very few No. 25. I like the spiral two piece handle.
 
i have 3 #27 sets-one red/white case,one dark blue /white case and a light blue/white cased set for the french market with a hollow ended fat handle,a #44 thin handle set,a #44 thick handle set and numerous bakelite cased ones.i also have an nos 1953 canadian military set with the fluted solid handle.all but the military set came from england.i am based in canada..my other rare service set is a near mint brit #11 set in the tin case..yes ,:)i like techs..
 
Tech? Did you mention Gillette Tech? I just happen to have five of my favorite, which I will post later. I owned about 10 at different times, because they were either too mild or duplicates. For now, I will show my latest Tech acquisition, complete with mismatched case and me eating soups and stews for two weeks.

Gillette Hybrid Tech - Made in England and is a cross between the Raised Flat Bottom and the Flat Bottom Tech.

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Wonderfu score, Les - the best shaver of all in the whole universe!! And I am not sure that the case is mismatched. I got one of my Hybrids with the same case as did a few other guys I know over at B&B. So I think the jury is still out on that one!

My Tech collection consists of 2 Hybrids and one post-war US Tech (1957) on a Thin handle. I am still looking for a pristine Canadian triangular slot razor to try, never tried the triangulars as yet!
 
The Tech N°26 is weird. Not as a razor, loads of small, four-piece travel-razors have been produced, where the two parts of the handle grip in each other. All of the others however came in a travel-case. This one in a Bakelite bladebank, in which the head, the disassembled handle and a pack of blades can be stored. Kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me, as everything will fall out of the bladebank when held upside down, and the thin Bakelite will break when handled roughly, both these things happen with luggage.
The shipper is carton with a cellophane window, and the cellophane has not survived the past 73 years intact. Everything else did though.
I have two different type handles. The more regular evenly knurled handle, and a handle that has spiral knurling.
The pics with shipper are a bit of color, for some reason my camera decided to miscorrect.
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You got it, Richard! Enjoy!
 
My latest Tech addition - a 1940 French bakelite Tech. Top cap was supposed to be nickel, but was worn down so much that the original owner polished down to mostly brass and I finished off the rough spots. I think it looks better this way.

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I shaved with it briefly tonight and must say that the shave was pretty good. It was not as rough a shave as the original triangle slot Tech, but certainly rougher than what one would expect from a Tech. Efficiency was surprisingly good, being somewhere in between the triangle slot Tech and the Flat Bottom Tech.:daumenhoch

This would require a full shave sometime very soon (and possibly with a new blade).
 
Another model of Gillette Tech which I think should be mentioned for its very particular use is the model called Psycho. This model is basically a simple Gillette Tech but with the variant that the head cover cannot be removed to change the blade without using a key. These razors were used in psychiatric prisons and were distributed to the various patients (the most calm and stable) without the key that kept the head of the nurse of the guard duty only the latter changed the razor blade 1 or 2 times a week. They were distributed by the manufacturer to the various psychiatric prisons in rectangular boxes containing 10 units with 1 single key inside.

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Other manufacturers besides Gillette supplied this kind of razor like Grafco.


Benedetto.
 
Other manufacturers besides Gillette supplied this kind of razor like Grafco.


Benedetto.

Check out my thread on the Olaf Rasmussen.

Yes, I already know this model that you showed in the post. As I said there are numerous types of psycho-razors but the companies that owned the market were Gillette and Grafco.

I haven't shown them and I haven't told you about them because I think we are off topic with the post started Gillette Tech.

However, I still want to show you a photo of the razors of a well-known Italian collector Renzo Jardella.
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@gvw755 as you will notice the penultimate one on the right is yours.

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Of these razors it is very rare to find:
- the original cardboard case;
- the original key.
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Finding a full NOS razor of this type .. well he made himself BINGO.


Benedetto.
 
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Ah, so that picture of the prison razors originally came from Renzo. I should have guessed that. I found this picture posted on one of the forums and it did not identify the origins. That was how I figured out that Olaf Rasmussen made an institutional version of their surgical prep razor.
 
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