Thanks to razors.click, I recently learned that in early 1930 Mr Joseph Richard Lillicrap filed a patent application for a uranium glass hone for razor blades. And while we may both wonder why you would hone a blade, and freak out a bit over, y’know, uranium in the bathroom… well, let me try to explain.
Regular readers may recall the Solidarity Advent Calendar from Gifts & Care that I shared with you all through December. The last surprise was nice card and a promo code – which I promptly used to buy full versions of some of my favourite things from the calendar. And just before the weekend I received a small but heavy package from Spain.
There is more than one way to skin a cat. In the same vein, there is more than one way to make adjustable razors. As I mentioned last week, you can change the distance between the top cap and bottom plate. You can change the blade curvature. Or you can more the guard back and forth. This last option seems to have been a minor obsession of the Warner Lambert Co. – because in addition to the patent by Peter Bowman and Ernest F Kiraly assigned to Warner Lambert, I found a slightly earlier patent by Mr Leopold K Kuhnl that is also assigned to Warner Lambert. And it is adjustable in the same manner, but differs in the details.
Not all that long ago there was a small business called Shave HQ, run by Chuck Falzone, that focused on cleaning, restoring, and selling vintage razors. While I never bought from him1 myself, he paired many a vintage razor with new owners.
Last week he posted on Reddit that the little pamphlet on how to shave that he used to ship with his starter kits was now “set free” – in other words, everyone can now benefit from his knowledge and advice. Chuck made it available both as a pamphlet, and as a straight up document better suited for reading on a screen.
Released under a creative commons license (CC BY-SA 4.0), the two versions of his explanatory text is free to download, share, and adapt as long as as you attribute and share alike.
You can find both of Chuck’s originals here. Download, enjoy, and share with other shavers – and tell them who made it.
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I have been lucky, getting my vintage razors either as PIFs or for little more than cost of shipping from friends online.