The Gillette Hybrid Tech

(album provided by u/falcons1583) https://imgur.com/a/2yYAF

First of all, huge thanks to u/falcons1583 for loaning me a handful of hard-to-find Gillette razors. Seriously, some of these I would likely never have gotten a chance to try without his help.

For those that don’t know me all that well I love, collect, buy, sell, restore, fix, and shave with vintage razors. More specifically, I love vintage Gillette razors and find all of the different variations fascinating. I think it's crazy that you could have 10 different razors sitting in your collection that are all technically a Gillette "NEW" or Gillette "Tech" with just minor variations setting them apart from one another. Trying to hunt down these different razors is a venture in itself, and one that I find fun, frustrating, exciting, costly, and if you ask my wife, a puzzling (to her) waste of time. But when it comes down to it, I simply cannot get a better shave than what I can get with a vintage Gillette. I’ve tried several modern razors but my best shaves are given by decades-old razors, some that had been forgotten/neglected for years. My hope is to put together one of these reviews each week and hopefully drop a little history on each razor as well as give my opinion on how it shaves. Here I'll give the standard-issue YMMV disclaimer. Also, I certainly don't claim to know everything there is to know about vintage razors, so any corrections/clarifications to the info I provide is more than welcome.

So, all that said, up first is the Gillette Hybrid Tech. This is a rare but amazing razor that proved to be quite difficult to research. I’ll go ahead and apologize for the lack of background on this one, there just doesn’t seem to be much known about it or how it came to be. So here's what I've got.

What We Know:

• Made in 1939

• Rhodium plated

• Made in England

• Similar design to the RFB (raised flat bottom) Gillette NEWs but with a solid bar instead of open comb

• The first British “Tech” – predecessor to the British “flat bottom” Tech that would arrive in the 1940s

• Quite rare, not many made – World War II started this same year. How many exist? I have no clue.

• Blade gap measures at .48mm with my feeler gauge – standard Gillette Tech gap is .56mm, Gillette NEW gap is .58mm, Gillette Fatboy/Slim on 1 is .56mm

• Balance: slightly head-heavy

Here is a link to the mr-razor listing for this razor. The bottom right corner will show you the differences between a flat bottom Tech, the Hybrid Tech, and an RFB NEW.

http://mr-razor.com/Rasierer/Tech/1939 Tech Hybrid England from Richard Snyder.jpg

Guesses:

• Possible that Gillette was making the push to the new Tech-style razors and the easiest course of action was to just add a solid guard to an existing razor

• World War II started in the same year that these were made, could the excess metal (RFB portion on the underside of the baseplate) have been nixed in an effort to make razors using less metal? Or was the design changed to further this razor from the previous iterations of the RFB razors which were all open comb?

• The cases for these razors are simple, leather zip pouches. Could these have possibly been made for the military or initially meant to be a travel razor?

How It Shaves:

This is probably one of my favorite vintage razors I’ve used to date. At first glance, it looks like any other Gillette Tech, but a peak at the bottom of the baseplate will show you it’s no normal Tech. The raised flat bottom design is shared with the RFB Gillette NEWs (also made in England) which is another one of my favorite vintage razors. In fact, the RFB NEW might be my favorite razor ever. The biggest difference between the Hybrid and the RFB NEW comes down to comfort/smoothness for me. The Hybrid is noticeably more comfortable due to the solid bar, while still retaining the efficiency of the NEW. For those of you who don’t like blade feel, this would be a great razor to try and pick up somewhere down the road. I will caution you though, it’s not easy to find one of these.

Ultimately, what I look for in a razor is efficiency but that has to be balanced with some level of comfort. Blade feel is fine but I definitely don’t want to use something that feels like a cheese grater just to get BBS. FWIW, I can never get a true BBS shave. There’s always some trouble spots on my neck. This razor was able to get me as good of a shave as I’ve ever had, and in 2 passes.

(Okay, I’m sold) Where can I get one?:

Sound like this razor is right up your alley? Settle down Cochise. These aren’t your run of the mill Slims that you can find all day for $35. Your best bet to find one of these is probably going to be eBay. You’ll need to know what you’re looking for. Study the pictures and keep an eye out for mislabeled listings. Sometimes these things pop up and the sellers don’t know what they have. You’ll need to be familiar with spotting an RFB baseplate. You’ll also, unfortunately, need to click every. single. listing. If the seller is just assuming they have a standard issue Tech, they’re not likely going to think to include a clear picture of the baseplate. It’s tiring, but if you find one it will definitely be worth it.

There are also cases where these pop up from time to time and the seller knows what they’ve got/is a collector. In those circumstances, expect to pay somewhere in the ballpark of $180 to $300. Especially towards that higher end if the example is properly cased.

TL;DR

The Gillette Hybrid Tech an amazing, but hard to find, razor that provides one of the most efficient yet comfortable shaves out there.