Shave of the forenoon 30th December 2022

Razor: Schick E2

Blade: Schick Injector

Brush: Semogue TSN LE 2012

Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream

Lather: Asylum Shave Works Flying Mango

Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara

Additional Care: Alum Block

A Flying Mango box, mostly obscured by a TSN LE 2012 brush and a Schick E2 Injector from 1941.
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A fine Friday shave on the penultimate day of 2022. My next shave will be the first shave of a new year. See y’all in 2023!

Disposable preassembled plastic razor

What was it with the late sixties and early seventies that made people want to fill up the landfills with plastic? Earlier this week we looked at a plastic razor, and here we got another disposable preassembled plastic razor. Or, to you and me who dabble in traditional wetshaving;1 piece of plastic junk.

At a casual glance, the razor patented by Paul A Braginetz2 looks remarkable similar to the semi-disposable double edge razor3 I got in my drawer. Major differences in in the arrangement of the blade aligning studs, and that it came with both an open comb and a safety bar.

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Shave of the early afternoon 28th December 2022

Razor: Schick E2

Blade: Schick Injector

Brush: Artesania Romera Manchurian Badger, imitation horn

Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream

Lather: Taylor of Old Bond Street Peppermint

Aftershave: Myrsol Formula K

Additional Care: Alum Block

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A minty fresh midweek shave. The fact that the razor is over eighty years old just make it more enjoyable.

Plastic safety razor

One morning in late ’72, Ray L Stone woke up and realised what the world needed. Yet another disposable plastic razor. Which, honestly, is the last thing the world need – but the early seventies were a different time. So Ray went and patented his idea, so lets look at the result.

Most inventions have a purpose.

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Shave of the afternoon 26th December 2022

Razor: Schick E2

Blade: Schick Injector

Brush: Vie-Long #12705B

Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream

Lather: Pereira Shavery Orange Blossom w/ activated charcoal

Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara

Additional Care: Alum Block

A late and lazy shave, still enjoying the midwinter celebrations.

Shave of the early afternoon 23rd December

Razor: Schick E2 Blade: Schick Injector

Brush: Brush Experimental Alpha

Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream

Lather: Williams Mug shaving soap

Aftershave: Saponificio Varesino Tundra Artica

Additional Care: Alum Block

A home made shaving brush and a vintage Schick Injector, both standing on top of a tub containing William Mug Soap
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A late but nice shave on Little Chrismas Eve.

Double edge injector

A few days ago we looked at a guard bar for safety razors. In that post, I mentioned wanting to take a look at a patent for a double edge injector. Guess what we’re doing today? That’s right – we’re looking at the double edge injector!

The patent was filed by Gerald Stahl and Charles A Johnson Jr in 1961, and granted four years later. And it is delightfully detailed and lavishly illustrated. Even the full title is quite a mouthful; “Injector razor having means for flexing a flexible double edge blade as it moves into position and arrangements for operating the same”.

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Shave of the noon 21st December 2022

Razor: Schick E2

Blade: Personna Injector

Brush: Vie-Long #14033

Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream

Lather: Asylum Shave Works Frankincense & Myrrh

Aftershave: Asylum Shave Works Frankincense & Myrrh

Additional Care: Alum Block

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A nice and relaxed humpday shave

Artificial Intelligence meets Traditional Shaving

Traditional shaving isn’t my only interest in this world. I also like wood turning, military history, old computers, and suchlike. So it tickled my interest when a co-worker pointed me towards ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence project for producing text. Since he had had some decent results on subject that interest him, I decided to have a go and see what it would produce from the prompt “A blogpost on traditional shaving, of about 500 words.“.

So without further ado, I present ChatGPT’s take on our hobby:

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