Monthly Archives: April 2019

The cost of shaving over a quarter century

Posted on by
1

I was pondering over my morning coffee today how much shaving really costs us… or could have cost us, if we didn’t go all in buying all those razors, brushes, soaps, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And all those et ceteras do add up.

Consider a spherical cow in vacuum… actually, no.

Consider a hypothetical scenario where the software – that is the pre-shave, the lather, and the post-shave – is identical, but we’ll consider different hardware – razor and blade / cartridge. In other words; I’ll only look at the cost of razor + cutting edge.

The Gillette Sensor I got as a promotion in boot camp lasted about 25 years of somewhat infrequent use before breaking. That should make a good baseline as a lifespan of a razor (even if at least one of my razors is a century old and still shaves great).

For the “cheap and nasty route”, Amazon charges roughly 13USD for a Gillette Fusion5 ProGlide Power Men’s Razor Handle (quite the mouthful to say) and 34USD for a pack of 12 refills. Gillette suggests that a cartridge lasts “up to” a month of shaving, so a 12 pack should last a year. The total cost of the handle and 25×12 cartridges at Amazon (which is cheap compared to buying in brick and mortar stores) is 863USD.

Looking over at BullGoose Shaving, a mid-range razor like the Muhle R41 Twist Safety Razor will set you back 75USD. He sells one of my favourite blades – the Green Astra – in packs of one hundred for a reasonable 15USD. In my experience, blades lasts for about a week, so a pack will lasts a little under two years – or 13 packs for the projected 25 years. Doing the math, we’ll find that going this route will costs a total of 270USD.

Or in a more visual format:

The break even point seems to be around two years and five months – 2,3665 years, which works out to roughly two years, four months, and twelve days – so if you plan to shave for more than two and a half year into the future, it pays to switch to DE once you used up any carts you already have bought.

Caveats: Amazon is as mentioned usually cheaper than buying from a physical store. You can get less expensive traditional safety razors, as well as significantly more expensive ones. I picked the R41 as an example of a mid-range model.

Again; this ONLY looks at the cost of shaving with a single razor and using the same blade, and assumes that you’ll use the same software regardless.

Shave of the day 15th April

Posted on by
Reply

Razor: GEM 1912
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Wilkinson Sword Badger
Pre-Shave: The Lavish Gentleman Natural Strength Oil Cleanser
Lather: Cold River Soap Works’ Barbere Sapone
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb

…certain new and useful Improvements in Safety-Razors – what might have been

Posted on by
Reply

In 1907 William H Crichton-Clarke – most likely working for Gillette – patented what he described as a useful improvement in safety razors… in particular an improvement to simplify and reduce the number of parts in the razor.

Before looking at the patent it is worth remembering that the Gillette Old Type we know and love is made out of at least five pieces:

  • The top cap, with two pins and a threaded stud
  • The base plate, with three holes
  • The “nut”, which forms the top of the handle
  • A tube that forms the handle
  • The ball that forms the end of the handle.

The last three pieces is permanently joined together into one unit. If the only objective was to reduce the number of parts the handle could have been machined out from a single piece. However this approach would make a heavier razor which used more metal to make, thus likely making it more expensive to manufacture and ship.

William choose a different route, creating a razor which would retain the hollow handle and reduce the number of parts by… hmm.. one.

Click to make bigger – it’s worth a close look

Instead of having a threaded stud on the top cap that threaded into the handle, the top cap now have the female end of the thread, and is screwed onto the threaded end of the handle. The base plate is secured to the end of the handle by means of a collar, which in turn is held in place by a couple of tiny bolts or pins.

In the words of William himself:

A razor comprising a cap having a threaded opening, a guard, and a handle rotatably swivelled on the guard and having an enlarged threaded extension at its upper end projecting above the guard and adapted to engage the threaded opening of the cap, and means for preventing axial movement of the handle relative to the guard

One major benefit I can see from a manufacturing perspective is the fact that you no longer have to fit together three separate pieces to make the handle. The machining should also be a bit more straight forward.

The major downside I can see is visible in the lower left corner of the drawing; The blades would have to change. And while the ‘new’ blade – with the enlarged centre hole – might work on the old razors, the old style blade would not fit in this improved and simplified safety razor. And that is probably what killed this project when all is said and done.

Shave of the day 10th April

Posted on by
Reply

Razor: GEM Micromatic Clug Pruf
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Vie-Long #13051M
Pre-Shave: The Lavish Gentleman Natural Strength Oil Cleanser
Lather: Arko Shavestick
Aftershave: BullDog Original Aftershave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block, Scotch Porter Beard Balm, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb

Seven years and counting

Posted on by
Reply

I posted the very first post on this blog seven years ago today… it’s been fun, and as long as it keeps being fun I’ll keep at it. Thanks to all my readers, both my regulars and those who swing my now and then. I couldn’t done this without your interest in the fine art of wet shaving.

One of my favourite parts of writing this blog is when I got the time to deep dive into old patents and odd shaving gear and accessories – what I call Shaving Oddities – and I gathered all (or at least most) of those in a single page. If you have the time and inclination I suggest looking over them; there is quite a bit to learn and a fair number of chuckles to be had there.

I’ve also attempted to collect all of my reviews on a single page… I probably missed out a few here and there.

So again, to all my readers, thank you all for coming by and thank you all for inspiring me to keep having fun writing this blog.

Heel-tastic – foot rescue in stick form

Posted on by
Reply

To paraphrase my sergant in boot camp; Take care of your feet and your feet will take care of you…

Wearing marching boots all day at work can be pretty rough on your feet, and my feet were getting pretty nasty… dry, cracking and generally sore. Not a pretty sight, and just filing and lotion before bedtime didn’t do much. But then my beloved wife spotted this:

While the name is a bad pun and the ingredient list is full of stuff you definitely don’t want in your shaving soap, it actually works very well. While my feet ain’t baby smooth by far and I still need to grind the hard skin off every evening, all the crack and a lot of the soreness is gone.

If you have cracking heels and dry feet, and if you can find it, definitely give the Heel-tastic a chance. It helped me enough that I’m devoting space in my GoBag for a stick of it.