Thread: Vintage Gillette “The New” open comb - Gold plated

My sister rececently gave me some vintage shaving gear. Not the least of it, was this Vintage Gillette in beautiful condition with 99% of the gold plating intact. The only thing missing is the box. I put a Feather blade in it and had a few great shaves. My straights our perform it hands down though so I will only be shaving with it periodically. It is sort of fun though. Thanks sister.

I'm surprised that the razor is so much inferior to your straights, being an aggressive open comb paired with a Feather blade.

I also habe one of those. Hard to beat it with any DE in my opinion. Sense i started with straights i habent used it once. But i still got it! Nice sister you got Steel. My kind of woman!

Originally Posted by Firefighter2

I'm surprised that the razor is so much inferior to your straights, being an aggressive open comb paired with a Feather blade.

You are correct in being surprised! I think I might have been misunderstood a bit also. When I said my straights outperform it hands down I don’t mean the DE is inferior in sharpness. The comparison between the DE and my best edges is tough to say one is sharper then the other. What I meant is that with the DE it is easy for me to get irritation and after the first shave with a DE blade there is a noticeable deterioration in shave results. Sure I can get 5 good shaves out of it but I can notice with each shave it is getting more irritating.
With my best straights the shave result is as smooth if not smoother then the DE and there is no irritation. Additionally, the straights edge will last much longer and I don’t notice any deterioration after one shave.
So, for me, my straights outperform the DE hands down. This DE is a beauty and in memory of my sister I will be using it from time to time.

Way to go! Memorial shaves is a nice tradition to have.

Originally Posted by Steel

You are correct in being surprised! I think I might have been misunderstood a bit also. When I said my straights outperform it hands down I don’t mean the DE is inferior in sharpness. The comparison between the DE and my best edges is tough to say one is sharper then the other. What I meant is that with the DE it is easy for me to get irritation and after the first shave with a DE blade there is a noticeable deterioration in shave results. Sure I can get 5 good shaves out of it but I can notice with each shave it is getting more irritating.
With my best straights the shave result is as smooth if not smoother then the DE and there is no irritation. Additionally, the straights edge will last much longer and I don’t notice any deterioration after one shave.
So, for me, my straights outperform the DE hands down. This DE is a beauty and in memory of my sister I will be using it from time to time.

I think historically speaking, the old DE razors even with adjustments and open combs simply do not give as good a shave as a straight. Some come closer than other but there is this gap.

Modern designed straights benefit from much better machining with tighter tolerances and better design too. The result is many of the newer crop of DE's and SE's outperform the vintage types by a wide margin.

From my own experiences when I tried the much feared R-41 with a feather blade it almost equaled a straight however it was so temperamental I could just as well use a straight. When I used the Mongoose I thought it came very close to the R-41 without the harshness. Now I use the Razorock new slant and that's the best I have ever used. It comes so close to a straight shave it's scary.

Really? I haven't even heard of a Razorock slant. May have to give it a whirl, but my trusty Fatboy on 9 with a feather has always given me perfect shaves, but then again I had 40+ years of practice with it. Tc

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

Really? I haven't even heard of a Razorock slant. May have to give it a whirl, but my trusty Fatboy on 9 with a feather has always given me perfect shaves, but then again I had 40+ years of practice with it. Tc

Yep, they have two. The standard one and the new one as I recall is called the Wunderbar and is billed as the only machined slant DE. The Italian Barber sells it. A little on the pricey side.