Category Archives: History

GEM razor Khaki Service Outfit

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Everyone who have a modicum of interest in the history of wetshaving knows the Gillette Khaki Set from the Great War – there is even a very good modern version being offered by Spearhead Shaving Company – but how many today knows of the  GEM Khaki Service Outfit? I didn’t until I started perusing vintage razor advertisements.

While the blades a doughboy got in the Gillette Khaki Set were for all intents and purposes disposable, the GEM Khaki Service Outfit came with a separate handle for stropping the seven blades it came with. So while the Gillette offered vendor lock-in and future costs, the GEM could arguable be seen as a one time investment – if you had a strop, that is.

Ask for the GEM at your dealer, or the Post Exchange, Camp Canteens, or Quarter-master’s Depot.

…however I fear that if you went to a US PX today they would be out of stock.I still want one though.

Selecting the Shaving Outfit – 1905 vs 2019

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The public domain book “Shaving made Easy” have a short chapter on selecting your shaving outfit. This is the original text and my annotations and comments:

First-class tools are necessary at the very outset. No matter how skillfully one may handle inferior tools, they will invariably produce poor results.
Probably as many failures have resulted from the use of poor razors, strops, or soap as from the lack of knowledge how to use them. In order that the best possible results may be attained, good tools and skill in using them should go hand in hand.

When I was young I was told repeatedly that good tools are half the work, and that holds true when it comes to tools for shaving as well. A poor razor or a bad lather will not give a good shave, no matter how well the tools are wielded. On the other hand, not even the best razor, the fanciest brush or the most exquisite shave soap will yield the desired result if not used with the necessary skill. Good tools and the skills to use them should still go hand in hand.

The shaving outfit should consist of one or two good razors, a first-class strop, a mirror, a cup, a brush, a cake of shaving soap, and a bottle of either bay rum, witch hazel, or some other good face lotion. These constitute what may be considered the necessary articles, and to these may be added a number of others, such as a good hone, magnesia or talcum powder, astringent or styptic pencils, antiseptic lotions, etc. which, while not absolutely requisite, will nevertheless add much to the convenience, comfort and luxury of the shave.

The shaving outfit recommended in 1905 would serve just as well today, although since the modern shaver is more likely to use a safety razor or even cartridge razor instead of a straight razor, I would recommend investing in a single good razor instead of two – at least until the desire to buy more raises its head. Using a safety razor also means that the modern razor will not have to worry about buying a strop and hone. The money saved can be invested in a second brush, or a small selection of soaps and post-shave products.

GEM and EverReady advertisement clocks

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Just a few pictures I found online, extending on what I posted two days ago:

While inherently “simpler” than the animated display I showed on Tuesday, these clocks would also draw the eye – the movement of the pendulum and minute hand – and would also give the time.

Animated GEM razor advertisement from 1912

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The eye – and thus the mind – is drawn towards motion.
This probably harks back to the earliest days of human evolution; movement might mean predators, and predators might mean you’ll become someones dinner as opposed to getting dinner yourself. Advertisers have tapped into this fact for ages, and one can often find advertisements on clocks, or clockwork used to drive animated displays.
And as I was browsing the web, i found pictures of one of the later:

Listed on the site i found it as “animated advertising display, articulated pressboard figure of a father shaving with a baby on his knee, spring driven pendulum movement with simple escapement on a wood base. 1912”
As far as I can tell the clockwork makes the rocking chair, uhm, rock back and forth, while a pair of lever uses that motion to make the shavers hand move across this face. Fairly simple, and in an age before full motion video presumably effective in grabbing shoppers attention.

Boris Karloff – the actor with the sensitive skin…

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Boris Karloff.
Well known for staring in a whole range of horror movies, playing among others as Frankenstein’s monster, the mummified Imhotep, a homicidal gangster, the voice of the Grinch, and many more.
Less well known for having sensitive skin and as a spokesperson for Williams’ shaving cream…

Morton G Bunnell and the patent for a Gillette Single Edge safety razor

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Morton G Bunnell had quite a few patents to his name, but only two razors – and only one of those got assigned to Gillette Co at some point.  I think it’s a quite interesting patent, for several reasons.

For starters; it is a patent for a single edge razor – with the patent filed back when Gillette was just getting traction with the double edged blade.
Secondly; it’s for all intents and purposes a single piece razor, although calling it a twist-to-open is stretching the definition a little – or rather a lot.
And thirdly; it’s a patent for a razor without a top cap.
The patent was filed in 1906, but was in limbo for several years until it was finally granted in 1913 – and I have no clue what caused the delay.

The razor is – as can be expected from a single piece, single edge razor – deceptively simple. A handle, containing a spring loaded plunger with a knob on the end to ain in blade removal. A base plate, angled, semicircular cuts in the sides, with a comb on one side as well as a shaped lug in each corner for holding the blade. Blade was inserted and removed by utilising the springiness of the steel, bending it to slip it in under and out from the corner nubs.
Or to quote from the patent text:

…a flat, rectangular, flexible blade having two cutting edges and four corners. The blade is sufficiently flexible that it may be compressed endwise between the thumb and forefinger.

The holder-portion is shown comprising a plate having a flat seat for the blade. Four overhanging lugs, one for each corner of the blade, are shown carried by the plate-portion of the holder.

The holder has the usual guard.

…the blade to be compressed endwise between the thumb and forefinger to such an extent that the ends of  the blade will assume a position inwardly of’ the overhanging portions of the lugs at the respective ends and the blade-caused to buckle or hump up from it’s seat and its corners pass inwardly from under the overhanging portions of the lugs and thus be disengaged, from the same. Thus the flexibility of the blade constitutes the expedient by which the blade is inserted and removed…

As a means of starting the upward bending of the blade, the handle is provided internally with a plunger held normally down by a spring. The lower end of this plunger projects at the lower end of the handle. A slight upward pressure on the plunger is sufficient to start the blade and allow it to flex under the pressure of the thumb and forefinger.

Interestingly enough the patent text states that the blade should be double edged, even if it don’t touch upon why. While the ability to turn the blade around and thus have it last twice as long is an obvious reason, I suspect the real reason is that Mr Bunnell intended to use slightly modified Gillette DE blades; squared off instead of rounded edges is the only real change, and there is no reason why Mr Bunnell’s razor couldn’t be slightly changed to accept blades with rounded edges instead of flat. The presence of the two additional holes wouldn’t mean nothing to the operation of the razor. thus allowing this razor to piggyback the infrastructure Gillette already had in place to support their DE razor.

I see no reason why this razor couldn’t be manufactured today, for modern DE blades – in fact the indented corners of the modern blades could actually make it easier to secure the blade under the lugs. The real question becomes; would you want to shave with a razor with no top cap?

Protector for safety-razor blades, patented in 1907

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There are several online shops that sells protectors for your DE razor these days, mostly made from plastic. You can even download a file to 3d-print your own, if you’re so inclined and have a 3D-printer handy. But did you know that the concept is about as old as the Gillette safety razor itself?

The patent was filed by Frederick Bunnell King in 1907, assigned to Gillette Co LLC. The patent describes a protector that not only protects the edge or edges of the blade, but is held in place by the tendency of the razor head to open slightly when tension is taken off the handle. Or to quote part of the patent text:

The protector for the cutting edge or edges of the blade comprises shield sides bent over to form pockets for enclosing the cutting edges of the blade when the shield is inserted over the back plate, the blade and the guard. This shield is transversely curved as shown and is of such shape that when the arts are drawn into position for use of the shield may be readily slid into and out of its protective position.

In short, the protector would also serve to keep the head and blade assembly together when the handle was unscrewed completely, thus allowing the blade to be kept in the razor even when the razor was packed away in a travel kit or drawer.

Ralph E Thompson’s one-hole razor blade patent

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Another one of Mr Thompson’s patents assigned to Gillette Co, this one dates from 1929 and highlights Gillette’s attempts to make a better blade than the original three hole design – a search that didn’t end until Gillette acquired the Probak Corp (and their parent company; AutoStrop Co) and started using the slotted Probak blade we know and love today.
This 1929 patent is trying to address one of the key issues with a safety razor with replaceable blades; the accurate and repeatable positioning of a mass produced, loose tolerance blade in the razor. To quote Mr Thompson in his patent text:

In the use of razors of this type satisfactory operation depends in a large measure upon the accurate positioning of the blade with respect to the cap and guard and the positioning of the cap and guard with respect to each other. A slight inaccuracy in relation of these parts will result in an uneven edge exposure of the blade at different points in its length, or may produce an excessive edge exposure which renders the razor dangerous.

King Gillette originally solved the problem with having three holes that had to line up with three studs. Today we have a stilted blade that can line up with a raised bar, or studs, or a combination. Both designs makes the manufacture of the razor head somewhat complex, since multiple studs or a raised portion has to be machined into the top cap or base plate. A blade with just one hole on the other hand… then you could get ways with just the threaded stud that holds the handle, as shown in the drawing.

A quick sidebar; the razor shown in the drawing looks very much like the Gillette Single Ring as manufactured in the twenties.
So how did Mr Thompson intend for this blade design to easily and accurately align with the cap and guard? By bending the ends of the blade into flanges that would naturally align with the short sides of the base and cap… one turned up, the other turned down. This would – in fact – serve to align the blade, but at the cost of not being able to easily wrap them in paper and pack them flat. Looking at the drawings, the blade was modified from the three hole blade with the rounded sides, which would simplify the production.
It’s hard for me to judge how serious this design was meant to be all the time Gillette was experimenting with a slotted blade at the same time. Possible this was a case of patenting something just to stop the competition from making blades this way, literary throwing stuff at the patent office to see what stuck.
In hindsight there is a better, simpler, and cheaper way to make a razor with just one threaded stud… but I think that in order to see it you needed to be familiar with the modern DE blade; the one developed from the Probak blade with notched corners. It’s clearly shown in the cheap and cheerful razor I bought from Flying Tiger Copenhagen close to two years ago; raised corners on the cap that engage the notched corners, as the photos below shows.

This patent shows an interesting attempt at moving away from the three hole blade before the patents expired, even if the shape would have made packaging more complicated. In the end though I do believe the modern slotted blade is a better solution though, especially as it’s backwards compatible with the older razors originally manufactured for the three hole blade.

Shaving legs

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A somewhat sexists vintage cartoon, but I can testify that if you offers the lady in your life to whip up some proper lather the next time they are about to shave their legs they will thank you later. A smoother shave, less ingrown hairs, softer skin… why should your face be alone in enjoying those benefits?
Sharing is caring, and sharing a shave is caring even more.

Ralph E Thompson’s 1924 safety blade patent

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I’ve mentioned Ralph E Thompson and his stack of razor patents (the majority of which is assigned to Gillette Co) before, and one of his earliest ones are for a peculiar blade design – suitable, he claims, for both safety razors and razors of the open-blade type.
The basic idea what that the blade should, in effect, be it’s own guard. In his own words:

…a razor blade having a safety edge, by which I mean an edge which is self-protected in such manner as to prevent it from cutting the skin without materially impairing its effectiveness for shaving.

And how was this to be achieved? Well, the drawing make it reasonable clear that the secret was how the blade was ground.

By having alternating sharp and blunt portion of the blade, the edge would act as a safety comb. Or, as Mr Thompson puts it:

A blade embodying my invention is characterized by having its shaving edge provided with a series of alternating sharp an dull portions of limited extent, of which the dull portions are located near enough together to prevent the sharp portions from entering the skin of the user when the blade edge is which ting them to reach the beard in the act of shaving. I have found that in spite of the presence of the dull portions a clean and comfortable shave can be readily obtained…

In addition to being safer for shaving, such a blade should be – according to Mr Thompson – be safer to handle outside of the razor as well.
While I can see several reasons why this blade never took of, there are two that stands out to me. Firstly, the machinery that ground and honed razor blades would have to be significantly redesigned, which would mean a significant investment. Secondly, say goodbye to a decent one-pass shave – this blade would by design miss roughly half the stubble.