factory oopses and shave quality

[nicodemus38]

I am curious of this,

I have quite a few Gillette razors that use the tech safety bar
1969 black beauty gold plate
66 travel tech
53 tech
2 slims
1960s flare

on all of them, the slots under the blade edge, are all uniform all around. but on the 1946- 1947 in my bathroom the slots are crooked and not in line with eachother or the blade edge. Is that something that can affect the shave ability?

[brothers]

I don't think so, but what do I know!

[CMur12]

If I understand your description correctly, the safety bars on your 1946 - 1947 (Aristocrat?) are bent out of their normal alignment, possibly from a fall. This would definitely affect the characteristics of the shave. How much it affects the shave would depend on how badly bent the safety bars are.

As an example of the principle, I remember reading on this forum of someone carefully bending/realigning the safety bars of one of the more aggressive Gillettes to reduce the blade gap and make it a gentler shaver. Safety bars bent as the result of a fall or other accidental damage wouldn't be uniform (probably bent more on one side than the other), causing more inconsistent results.

If the safety bars on your razor are obviously bent, the performance characteristics of the razor are almost certainly altered. If you like its shaving characteristics, you're lucky, but you can't assume that it is performing like other razors of the same kind.

- Murray

[nicodemus38]

not damaged at all. the base plate itself is fine. its just that the SLOTS themselves were punched into the baseplate at differing angles. Almost like someone just used a hand punch to do it, or they were training a new person on a drill press.

I admit the safety bars themselves do have a slight dip in them when seen from above, but my flare tip does as well and it shaves fine.

[CMur12]

Nic, you report that your Flair-Tip is fairly aggressive/you have to be careful with it, which isn't typical of that razor, so you may have damage to the safety bars. The safety bars shouldn't have any dip in them.

- Murray

[brothers]

Nic, where are you finding these particular old razors? You don't seem to be having much luck?

[nicodemus38]

ebay like everybody else. The thing is, ive been meaning to have a certain person go over my razors and check them out for spec, but I haven't been able to get email contact with them.

[brothers]

I hear you. Good luck!

[Pauldog]

Try shaving with it. If it doesn't shave well, toss it or sell it.

Some years ago, I swapped some stuff with a member in Korea. My package never reached him, and the Dorco DE razor he sent me didn't work at all - there was little if any exposure, so it was like shaving without a blade.

[Squire]

Nic there's not much to be done to vintage razors that no longer shave well except to discard them. Unless you want to tinker with them but I wouldn't.