Testing a 1955 Gillette Blue Tip Super Speed A3
Hello everyone, welcome back for another shave. It’s a late evening one tonight, and I’m in the mood to try another vintage razor. Over here I’ve got the Gillette Super Speed Blue Tip, and you can see the date code stamped on the bottom: A3, made in the USA, 1955. For an old razor, this one’s in pretty good shape.
The Razor
This one comes from my buddy Aaron, who dropped off a whole pile of Super Speeds for me to work through. I feel a little bad they’ve been sitting with me this long, so I’m trying to get through all of them. Aaron’s told me before that this Blue Tip is supposed to run milder than the Red Tip I tried a few months back. I might be mixing up exactly when he said that, but that’s the gist I remember.
As with most of these vintage razors, I go in pretty much blind and lean on the notes Aaron sends along with each one. He puts a lot of thought into it, and he’s a great friend of the channel. Thanks to him, I get to check out tools that survived decades and are still in remarkably good shape, like this one. The butterfly mechanism on the Super Speeds still opens cleanly, no grinding, no stiffness. A lot of shaves went through this razor over the years and it’s still holding up.
The big difference between this one and the Gillette Red Tip is the handle. It’s aluminum instead of whatever the Red Tip used, and that makes it a lot lighter. It also shifts the balance, so this one feels more head-heavy in the hand.
Loading Up
I’m dropping in a brand new Personna Comfort Coated blade for this shave. Butterfly doors open, blade in, tighten it down, and check both sides to make sure it’s seated right.
Everything looks good. One thing worth knowing if you’re picking up one of these vintage razors: the tabs on the sides stick out. That’s not just a Gillette thing either; most of the old razors from this era do it. Just something to be mindful of when you’re handling one.
The Lather
For soap, I went with Mizukaze by Gentleman’s Nod. I haven’t used it in a while, and it’s such a nice, fresh scent. Good for any time of day. I’ve already got it lathered up in my Brousseau and Dov bowl, and I’m swirling it a bit more before I get going. Plenty of lather here, and even without much light in the room right now, you can see it’s got a nice shine to it.
I’m dealing with about two and a half days of growth tonight, so we’ll see how the Blue Tip handles that.
First Pass
Comfortable right out of the gate. Definitely milder than the Red Tip, barely any blade feel at all. With two and a half days of stubble, I noticed I needed to rinse the face more often than usual. After the rinse, still very comfortable; super mild razor. This is a beginner-friendly one if you’re thinking about picking one up, assuming you can find it on the secondhand market. There’s stubble left after one pass, but that’s expected from something this mild. Honestly, it feels milder than my Henson, and that’s saying something.
Second Pass and Detailing
Second pass, against the grain. Nice audio feedback off the blade, still barely any blade feel. I think this one would come alive with a Feather blade in it. As is, I wish it had a bit more efficiency.
Very comfortable razor overall, but I stayed careful around my goatee. These vintage butterfly razors aren’t the most precise tools when you’re detailing, so I paid close attention to keeping the lines clean and not messing anything up. There’s one blemish spot that’s shown up on my face the last few shaves, nothing to do with this razor, but I didn’t feel a thing working around it with the Blue Tip.
Alum Block and Aftershave
New razor, so out comes the alum block for feedback. Just a small tingle on that blemish spot and a little where I buffed. This razor is mild. It’s not delivering a BBS finish, but the result is very acceptable for what it is. I’m confident a Feather blade would close that gap. I’m not going to chase a closer shave by buffing more, though. Even with a mild razor, you can talk yourself into razor burn if you push it. I’ve made that mistake before with my Merkur 42C, which is really the same head as a 34C on a different handle. It’s easy to get overconfident when a razor feels this gentle. This time I stopped when I should have.
Rinsed the alum off. A bunch of you have mentioned that alum dries your skin out more than you’d like, and a lot of you tried my face wash trick afterward using the leftover lather. Sounds like it worked well even after alum, so if you haven’t tried that yet, give it a shot. Rub the leftover lather on your face after the shave, rinse your gear, and let those ingredients sit on your skin a little longer before you wash it all off. My skin felt great after doing that.
Time for the matching splash, same Mizukaze scent. There’s a bit more alcohol tingle than I expected, but nothing crazy. Really pleasant, refreshing scent to close things out.
Final Thoughts
So that’s another cool vintage razor tried and tested: the 1955 Gillette Super Speed Blue Tip with the aluminum handle. A little too mild for my personal taste, but I think a Feather blade would close most of that gap. Not a BBS in this shave, but a perfectly acceptable shave, and I’m happy with it given how mild this razor runs.
If you’re newer to wet shaving and looking for a first razor, or just something safe and mild that’s also got some vintage character, this is a solid pick if you spot one on the secondhand market. It’s about as forgiving as they come.
Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried the Blue Tip, and what your favorite Super Speed variant is. I always enjoy getting to test a piece of shaving history like this.
Thanks for joining me for this shave. I’ll see you in the next one. Until then, stay safe and enjoy smooth shaves.