I would buy one but the price has to be fair. But knowing that it comes from AOS I think it would be Rather expensive just like every thing in AOS stores.
If P&G decided to stock AoS stores with Gillette-branded razors, I would expect them to be decently made and on the expensive side. It would please me to see Gillette producing good-quality DE razors again for Western markets.
I have a feeling it will be a rerun of the final Gillette tech razor. zamac head, aluminum handle, stamped steel base plate.
personally it wont be what we use already. Someone once quipped, the following.
They, Gillette wont make a traditional razor anymore. not like our techs or slims or even the black beauty. Sure the manufacturing technology has advanced but the personal hasn't. The few people who ran, set up, and fixed that equipment for those lines is all gone. Past retirement age.
People, Gillette doesn't make anything in the USA anymore. Only a fool would believe that these won't be made in the Third World just as their blades are.
The obvious way is for Gillette to contract with whichever firm(s) are busy making all of these other currently marketed razors. Slap on an AOS brand, and let 'em start flying off the shelves. Piece of cake. One thing for certain: P&G/Gillette knows plenty about how to get the stuff and sell it.
Gary
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
Gillette and all the others rely upon "upgrades" to the plastic cartridge concept in order to make money. The original concept of gillettes is still there.
sucker them with the cheapest possible handle, and rape them with the most expensive blade possible.
if Gillette wanted, they could take 6 months, retool brazil and india factories, and make 5 million plastic techs a year. easily. and they would sell.
by plastic tech I mean the ww2 solid plastic tech razor issued to troops. If they wanted they could make the same number of plastic handled metal base and top plate razors as issued in the hard plastic case.
their whole advertising campaign since what, 1980 has been "only stupid dumbass hicks with no brains use an old DE razor. While using our new plastic cartridge system makes you an irrestable sexy stud to the supermodel next door".
all they can advertise it as is as a throw back centennial producton run.
On the other hand, P&G (who own Gillette) make a hell of a lot of stuff in the United States. I don't think I would be too quick to try to predict their game plan.
pausted wrote:On the other hand, P&G (who own Gillette) make a hell of a lot of stuff in the United States. I don't think I would be too quick to try to predict their game plan.
This is true & P&G are building a new one in VA, but this metallurgy thing is something they abandoned a generation ago. At this point I just can't see them jumping in whole hog on building a new factory with smelters, MIM eqpmt., etc. However, who knows(?).
Gillette gave up on real shaving a long time ago. Vietnam era with the big influx of free trial cartridge razors.
They assemble a lot in America. Even in the 1950s, After Korea, and I think with the start of Korea all Techs were made in England as separate components and assembled in the US. That continued to the end of the tech. Sure the adjustables and superspeeds were I believe made in America, they disappeared along time ago.
I believe that unless its a genuine Gillette product, with stamped brass or steel base plate, and hot forged brass top plate and a turned brass handle. Or Heavy Handle tech, it wont sell to US, the afficianadoes.
Razor blades are almost able to run them selves. The only human aspect is final testing and moving the big bundles of blades around. Even that can be automated.
Gillette was making blades in the 1920s for a penny a blade when it left the factory in a package. The machinery still exists in patent form and most likely in the Gillette archives as instruction manuals and shop drawings.
If they actually do bring it out in numbers, ill be surprised. All the marketing since we entered Vietnam has been "de bad, cartridge good". most of the guys I talk to under 60 are to scared to use a DE. They actually think it will cause the facial hair problems they get from cartridges.