Shave of the day 29th November

Razor: Gillette Slim
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Omega #10048
Pre-Shave: The Lavish Gentleman Natural Strength Oil Cleanser
Lather: Palmolive Sensitive w/ aloe vera
Aftershave: BullDog Sensitive Aftershave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block, Gentlemen of Sweden Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb

Old advertisement – four biggest nuisances?

If old advertisements are to be believed, wetshavers in the Olden Days must bave been pretty easy to annoy…

According to this lovely Schick advertisement from 1958, the biggest shaving nuisances are having to touch the blade, having to take apart your razor, wasting time and irritated skin.
I can see the last one being a pain in the posterior, but the other three? Might be marketing desperately coming up with ways the injector outperforms the double edge, might be thin skinned shavers.
A couple of other take-aways; allegedly you can shave faster with an injector than any other razor – other ads from the period suggest up to five times as fast, but I would like to see the data supporting that assessment – and a brand new Schick with twenty blades costed the equivalent of eleven and a quarter US dollar.
As a sidenote the picture in the advertisement clearly shows a late G-type razor, a style that as far as I can find went out of production three years before the ad was printed. Reuse of existing graphical elements, or selling of the last of the old stock?

Shave of the day 27th November

Razor: Gillette Slim
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Semogue TSN LE 2012
Lather: Wet Shaving Products Pre-production Sample
Aftershave: BullDog Sensitive Aftershave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb

…attaching and connecting parts

Wetshaving requires water, and water means pipes and valves. And all that means that somewhere there has to be a water shut off valve, so I can shut off the water whenever a packing or O-ring needs replacing in a tap. Thus the main water shut off valve can be considered an “attaching and connecting part” of my shave

In my case, the shut off valve have – as I discovered a little while ago – corroded to the point of not shutting the water off. And since a water shut of valve that isn’t shutting the water off kind of negates the whole point (not to mention means that I can’t change the O-ring in the tap that drips), it was time to call in the professionals; i.e.: the plumber.
So out with the old:

And in with the new:

Whole thing done in less than an hour, including small talk and paperwork. And yes, it does shut off completely, allowing me to replace O-rings in peace…

Shave of the day 25th November

Razor: Gillette Slim
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Artesania Romera Manchurian Badger, imitation horn
Pre-Shave: The Lavish Gentleman Natural Strength Oil Cleanser
Lather: Pereira Shavery Orange Blossom w/ activated charcoal
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb

Shave of the day 22nd November

Razor: Gillette 1958 TV Special
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Brush Experimental Alpha
Lather: GzD Shavestick
Aftershave: Body Shop Macau Root Energetic Face Protection
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb

GEM razor Khaki Service Outfit

Everyone who have a modicum of interest in the history of wetshaving knows the Gillette Khaki Set from the Great War – there is even a very good modern version being offered by Spearhead Shaving Company – but how many today knows of the  GEM Khaki Service Outfit? I didn’t until I started perusing vintage razor advertisements.

While the blades a doughboy got in the Gillette Khaki Set were for all intents and purposes disposable, the GEM Khaki Service Outfit came with a separate handle for stropping the seven blades it came with. So while the Gillette offered vendor lock-in and future costs, the GEM could arguable be seen as a one time investment – if you had a strop, that is.

Ask for the GEM at your dealer, or the Post Exchange, Camp Canteens, or Quarter-master’s Depot.

…however I fear that if you went to a US PX today they would be out of stock.I still want one though.

Shave of the day 20th November

Razor: Gillette 1958 TV Special
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Vie-Long #12705B
Pre-Shave: The Lavish Gentleman Natural Strength Oil Cleanser
Lather: Arko Shavestick
Aftershave: BullDog Oil Control Moisturiser
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb

Henry J Gaisman’s patent for a folding injector razor

Imagine, if you will, an injector razor with the spare blades stored in the handle. Now imagine it in such a way that the head will swivel 90 degrees to line up with the spare blades. Got it? Good… that is basically what Henry J Gaisman patented in 1928.

The patent – which was granted in 1932, and assigned to Gillette Safety Razor Company – goes into quite a bit of details.

The numeral 1 indicates a blade holder, and at 2 is a handle shown provided with a reduced portion 2a to which the blade holder is pivotally attached. I have shown a screw 3 pivotally connecting the blade holder and the handle, whereby the blade holder may be turned .at an angle to the handle for shaving, (Fig. 1), and may be turned parallel to the handle to receive and discharge blades, (Figs. 4 and 5). The blade holder has a relatively flat seat 4 upon which the blade 5 may rest with its cutting ed es extending beyond the seat for shaving. Guards for the blade edge are indicated at 6, which guards are shown provided with comblike teeth at 6a in proper position relatively to the blade edges to guard the latter. The guards 6 are connected to the blade holder so as to have movement relatively to the corresponding blade edges, the guards being shown attached to the blade holder material by the connecting pieces 7, and due to resiliency of the meta …the guards may be adjusted toward and from the blade edges. I have illustrated screws 8 operative in threaded bores in the guards, adapted to be rotated against the body of the blade holder for adjusting the guards with respect to the blade edges, (Fig. 2). At 9 is a retainer for the blade to keep the latter pressed against the seat 4. The retainer is attached to the blade holder, as rivets or screws, at 9′, (Fig. 1) and is of resilient material so as to overlie the blade at the free edges 9a of the retainer, said edges being suitably spaced from the seat 4 of the holder to receive the blade in the space therebetween, pressure of the retainer upon the blade keeps the latter on its seat. The corners of the retainer are shown secured to posts 6b near the ends of the guards. To permit the blade to slide along the seat 4 of blade holder 1 and to retain the blade in shaving position I provide a plate 13 that is located between seat 4 and the adjacent end of 10@ handle 2, which plate is provided with tapering projections 14 that are adapted to pass through openings 1a in the blade holder at the seat 4 and t rough registering openings 5a in the blade, (Fig. 8).

Clear as mud, as most patent texts are…
Short version is that the head tilts back, so you can load it from the blade magazine in the handle. The spare blades are kept secure in said handle. Oh, and there is an open comb guard.
The whole package looks like it would make for a pretty neat travel razor, as it folds into a small package, and I can see something like this doing reasonable well today if it was set up to accept a standard injector blade.

Shave of the day 18th November

Razor: Gillette 1958 TV Special
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Wilkinson Sword Badger
Pre-Shave: The Lavish Gentleman Natural Strength Oil Cleanser
Lather: Palmolive Sensitive w/ aloe vera
Aftershave: Nivea Cooling After Shave Balm
Additional Care:   Alum Block, Gentlemen of Sweden Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb