There is always someone who can’t manage to handle both a razor and a brush. This has lead to a large number of self-lathering razors. So Saul Hackmyer was in good company when he filed a patent for a self-lathering razor in 1971.
Where he differed from most of the patents I’ve discussed before is that he designed his invention around canned goo. Or as the abstract puts it:
A holder for a razor blade and guard is directly mounted on the valve stem of an aerosol lather dispenser can which serves as a handle for the shaver. The valve stem has a bore communicating with a fan-shaped passageway formed in the holder for feeding the lather to the skin along the length of the cutting edge of the blade and in advance thereof. Pressure exerted as the guard is stroked along the skin serves to tilt the valve stem and release lather from the can.
From US patent 3,726,009
The concept of Hackmyer’s invention is simple, although non-obvious. A holder for a single edge razor blade is mounted on a can of goo. inside the holder there are channels to guide the goo. Goo squirts out just below the cutting edge, where it will have no time to do any good for the shave.
Heckmyer specified that the can had to have one of the “conventional tilt-to-dispense” valves. I am singularly unfamiliar with canned goo, so I got no idea how common that sort of valve is. Or was, back around the time I was born. The few cans of goo I’ve endured during my shaving career have all required me to push down on the nozzle, not tilting them.
However; if tilting the nozzle works, then the act of pushing Heckmeyers self-lathering razor against your face will release the goo.
One of the more interesting aspects of Hackmyer’s self-lathering razor is the blade he proposes. It looks very much like an injector blade, as can be seen in figure 4 of the drawing. Heckmyer did propose mounting it permanently – like Roy E Mullen did for his disposable razor – but it is interesting to see reuse of an existing blade.
The permanently mounted blade also means this is a disposable razor. Considering it relies on canned goo, I would dispose of it before use to be on the safe side.
The full patent can be read on Google Patents.
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