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.

Presented as an improvement on previous disposable preassembled plastic razor, the razor sought to both minimize the parts and simplify accurate alignment. It was also presented as especially suitable to surgical applications. Not because it was easy to sterilize and could be thrown away after a single use. Rather, it was because it had both a safety bar and an open comb. To quote:

…the razor is particularly adapted for use as a surgical preparation razor, and to this end it provides two types of cutting areas embodied in the single razor comprising one cutting area or side having a comb-type guard or shaving bar with an appropriate blade exposure adapted for preliminary removal of long hairs, and the other shaving area or edge comprising a solid smooth bar with a shaving clearance adapted particularly for close clean-up shaving or removal of short hair.

From US patent 3,675,323

Apart from the idea of making it out of plastic and – even worse – making it disposable, there is little inherently wrong with the design of the disposable preassembled plastic razor. If the top cap could be pulled or teased off,⁴ there is no reason why the blades can’t be replaced. With some care it would last for five, ten, or more blade changes. That could make it a viable travel razor for some.

The full text of the patent can be read at Google Patents.

Footnotes:

1. By traditional wethaving I mean shaving with water, soap or other lathering agent, brush, and a razor with a replaceable blade. If you use canned goo or cartridge razors, you’re not engaging in traditional wetshaving.
2. A man with many patents, both relating to shaving and other things.
3. Which shaves remarkable well, even more so with a Green Astra blade.
4. Like on the no-name semi-disposable DE in my drawer.