Oddities and goodies in my haul with questions

Most of the razors in this collection are user grade so there were no museum pieces, but some are in very good to excellent condition. Like I said when I posted the original picture there were some I had never seen in person before, let alone in online. Others I have never seen for sale or pictures posted for others to see. Sometimes just pictureless posts describing a razor without a picture to provide context. So after 2-3 shifts standing at the sink with my toothbrush and baking powder/dish soap paste I have them cleaned up for a few glamour shots. I am looking for more info on the cream handled Gem, black handled Gem, and what I believe to be an England made Gillette Rocket. There was a Gillette Atra introductory razor new in the unopened can. I cant tell if this has the metal handle Atra in it or not. Does anybody know if thats what came in these? Or was is a plastic handle with and Atra head for demonstration purposes? With the collection was a plastic handled Atra headed razor, but I dont know if this was an early version of a disposable or not. It is different than the picture on the Atra can. Also with this group I bought 2 blade dispensers with blade banks. They have the F.O.E. Eagles insignia on them and are loaded with Craftsman branded blades. The bottom is imprinted with a Made By Craftsman USA label. I am guessing they were made by Craftsman and given as gifts to Eagles members. And for years I have been walking by these DE stroppers. Since I always thought of them as a period correct gimmick, I never bought one. But since it is shaving related and in almost new condition in the box, I decided to finally buy one to round out my display.

Full haul all cleaned up


Never seen or owned one of these Gems before. It is in almost perfect condition save for something that ate away at the SB. Anybody have any background on this one?



Cream handled Gem



A near flawless Gem G-Bar. Never held or owned one of these. Excited to take it for a spin.





A nice minty Eversharp. I believe this is what Krampert refers to as a "Shovelhead" Another that I have never owned or used before.




A very minty black handled SS with what I believe to be the English made Rocket. Since it was made in England there are no date codes on it. Anybody have a timeframe when this one was made? It has some corrosion during storage that took the plating off revealing the brass on the corner of the SB. Other than that it is in good condition.




His and Hers Lady Gillettes. I have tried for yrs to just get one let alone 2 of these. Almost minty fresh

Atra can and may be an early disposable?




A Shavel razor. The box tells the user to use it till it is dull then to buy a new one. "No more changing blades!" So in essence, this is one of the first disposables, only utilizing a DE blade. Never heard of these before till now. I wish I could change out the blade, I'd like to know what it feels like to shave with one of these. Looks to be a bakelite, caitlyn, or plastic handle--complete with impurities. Pictured with a FT SS for size reference.




An OT Ball End New Long Comb with obligatory cracked handle. Still holding tight though.



This is the much discussed, much hated, but never found Gillette Techmatic. From my understanding it held a spool to spool reel of razor ribbon and the user just wound it a bit to get to new razor ribbon. Plus the blade gap was adjustable like a Schick adjustable. Gillette's final answer to the Schick Injector and precursor to the Atra. Pretty much a wall hanger conversation piece at this point. This one is in like new condition. Shame it didnt work better.



Craftsman blade bank


And the stropper. The instructions say the strops are leather.


I hope everyone enjoys the pics! Any info is appreciated

All 3 of your GEMs will be very similar shaving experiences, except for the weight. The cream handle is known as a Featherweight, the black handle is virtually identical in head geometry to the Featherweight and G-bar. The G-bar is the heavyweight. I've never used the black handle version...never even seen one in person. My guess is the weight will fall between the Featherweight and the G-Bar.

I have used both the Featherweight and the G-Bar. I prefer the G-bar, and still have one in my rotation. It is my "go to" when I want to feel the stiffness and comfort of a straight, but I simply don't have time(or the use of my index finger to control a straight). Very close approximation to the comfort of a straight. The featherweight was too light in my opinion. I passed it on to someone else...

Enjoy the haul!!

The black handled GEM is a Contour II (2), the last GEM style razor ever made. You would think that it would shave similar to a Featherweight or G-bar because it has the same style head, but I had one and it was mild mild mild. The original Contour had a metal handle, not plastic. That's what I thought I was getting but it turned out to be a Contour II. I PIF'd mine because it was just not efficient enough.

I have a Gillette Techmatic that I used back in the day.  If you want to get cuts, nicks, and slices then this is for you.  A horrible razor, in my opinion.  The original cartridges, when I was using the razor, were not adjustable.  In fact, I don't ever remember seeing them so they must have come on the market after I stopped using my Techmatic.  Again, in my opinion, this was truly one of the worst ideas Gillette ever came up with that they allowed to go to market.

The (Ever Ready not Eversharp) Shovelhead will be the best shaver of them all.

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The (Ever Ready not Eversharp) Shovelhead will be the best shaver of them all.

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Agreed. I think the Shovelhead, or Ever Ready 1924, is my favorite GEM blade razor.

I am putting together another pkg of razors to send to my boys. They are 16 and 19. I am letting them choose amongst themselves which they will get, but the Featherweight, Contour II and a Pushbutton are their choices. The Pushbutton was so mild for me when I had one I ended up trading it away. I wonder if Gem had so much customer feedback on the over aggressiveness of the MMOC that they scaled back the aggressiveness just a little too far. I mean after 4 passes the Pushbutton was almost in-effective. I liked the weight, angle, and feel of the handle, it just wasnt a very close shave. I cant wait to use the shovelhead and the G-bar. Those have been on my "want to try" list for a while. Thanks for the info guys.

olschoolsteel, it amazes me sometimes how much "YMMV" really is true. I have the Pushbutton too, but for me, it is mild but effective. It shaves great for me, especially with a fresh PTFE blade. It seems to me that they all have the same head (G-bar, Pushbutton, Featherweight, Contour), but somehow shave different. The G-bar is very similar, but with added weight so maybe a tad more efficient. Let us know how they shave for you.

I wonder if Gem had so much customer feedback on the over aggressiveness of the MMOC that they scaled back the aggressiveness just a little too far.

Given that the MMOC was in production for a decade they sure didn't move very quickly if that were the case. Personally I find the MMOC a joy to use. It was all downhill after the Clog-Pruf.



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