That perfect moment caught between lather and blade; the little breathing space where it's you, your razor and perfection.
Wetshaver, approximate wood worker, career military, blogger, avid reader
Are you worried that the blade in your inexpensive safety razor cannot be stropped without having to take it out of the razor?
Me neither, but if this ever was a worry for you the British 7 o’clock razor was what you wanted. A simple touch of a finger let the razor spring open for stropping and cleaning, and the razor was so simple that nothing could go wrong.1
Robert K Waits mention in his compendium that it’s a different design than the American AutoStrop razors, pointing to a couple of patents.
The ones that are quickest to find online it the US patents 764,574 , 1,061,772, and 1,087,544. Common to all of them is a mechanism to swing the base plate with the open comb down as the blade is swung up for stropping.
(1) If experience is an indicator, there is no such thing as a foolproof device; nature just comes up with a better fool.
Need a new brush, but think a pure badger is a little expensive? What if we cut the price by twenty percent? Still too expensive? Okay… what about a free safety razor thrown in too, for free? Deal?
This epochal invention – the Warner Fountain Shaving Brush – carries it’s cream in the handle, as a a fountain pen holds ink. When you turn the control the cream is released in the bristles. Then dip the brush in water and it lathers copiously. To shave this way, a man doesn’t have to soap his brush or his face – or to whip up lather in a shaving mug. This new way appeals espesially to men who find a stick or tube bothersome – ofttimes the tiny tube cap gets lost on the floor. The Warner Fountain Shaving Brush ends all annoyance and tinkering. It’s the team-mate of any razor – and ranks with the safety razor in convenience.
Speaking of the cream; Warner apparently teamed up with the manufacturer of the far-famed Mennen’s Shaving Cream – fresh cartridges with enough cream for two to three months of shaving available at any dealer for a mere 35 cents.
According to the advertisements, the knot itself was a celebrated Rubberset brush – soft and thick bristles set in a bed of vulcanised rubber, guarantied by both the Rubberset makers and by Warner. The knot was detachable and easily sterilised (just “…drop in boiling water”), and the nozzle that delivered the cream into the knot was self sealing to prevent the cream from drying out.
Enough of Warner’s Fountain Brushes must have been sold for the brush to show up on online auctions sites from time to time… but given how pristine the boxes sometimes looks I’m not convinced they saw a lot of use – possible it was better as a Father Day gift when you were out of ideas than an actual daily driver in the bathroom?
