Category Archives: History

The back end of safety razors: Grinding machine and machine for printing and for other purposes

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Often when people talk of people inventing safety razors, they dive into the shape of the top cap, how the base plate was curved, the way the handle was attached and all those bits and pieces the end-user – ie.: the shaver – saw and used.

A lot of what made and broke early safety razors was the “back end” though… the infrastructure to supply consumables. For a razor using a wedge blade this would be a non-issue but if your razor and business idea depended on replacing the blades on a regular basis, you needed to make sure that you could keep up a steady supply of identical blades that are easily recognised as being yours.

Enter left; two early Gillette patents describing just that: A grinding machine that allowed for fast, easy and repeatable sharpening of the blades in an industrial setting, and a machine especially suitable for printing on both sides of a razor blade of the Gillette type.

The sheer size of the patents is perhaps indicative to just how important building the proper infrastructure is… while the original Gillette safety razor had one (1) page of illustrations, while these two patents have nineteen total. And these two devices don’t cover the whole process of making and packaging blades, only two steps among many from the moment rolls of raw steel bands entered the factory until tucks of finished blades were packed in boxes and shipped from the factory.

The OCR is horrendous on both patents, but the images are both clear, detailed and interesting for anyone with a mechanical bent

The grinding machine, US 1 126 839:

The machine for printing and for other purposes, US 1 075 989:

Old GEM advertisement

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Appropriate, since I’m using a GEM Clug Pruf this week. Also got the love this little blurb at the marketing wank, which neatly dates the advertisement to the Second World War era:

Conserve steel! Make your blades last much longer by protecting their edges. Keep razoe and blade dry between shaves.

A quick look at the Segal Twist To Open

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The Segal was possible the first ever one piece razor, where the shaver twisted the handle to open the top cap. It worked very differently than the silo doors we’re used to today, and required a speciality blade.

Recently I found a video on YouTube that gives a very good impression of how it works:

As for the internals; here is the drawing from the patent:

An early patent for adjustable razors

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Thanks to Glenn’s website covering the history of Gillette’s adjustable razors, I found a very important number… the number is one million, five hundred and ninety nine thousand,  seven hundred and ninety three. As in US patent number 1 599 793, that is.

To quote from the patent description, it

…relates particularly to an index’adjusting device for use in connection with safety razors of the Gillette type wherein a flexible and elastic blade is provided with cutting edges that are adjustable toward and from the guard member of the razor

In short, it’s about how to make an adjustable razor adjustable.

As can be seen from the image, everything interesting is happening in the head or right below it. Adjusting the dial 16 makes the top cap move up and down in relation to the base plate, while the base plate stays fixed in relationship to the handle. In order to remove or insert a blade, the shaver would turn the dial around and around to unscrew the cap. In other words, this very early version of the Gillette Adjustable works much the same way a Merkur Progress does – although without the central bar the Progress have.

I don’t think Gillette ever manufactured – apart from prototypes – this razor, although it must be pointed out that the method of adjusting this razor bears a lot of resemblance to how Gillette suggested one could “adjust” an Old type razor back when it was first offered:

If a close shave is desired, turn the end of the handle back a little and the edges of the blade will lift slightly from the guard thus permitting closer contact with the face. A moments practice will show the proper adjustment.

The patent is expired, and thus anyone can make a razor like this today; however bear in mind that other aspects of a good adjustable may still be covered by patents. It would still be interesting if a machinist decided to have a go though, so we could compare how far this version is from the other adjustable safety razors.

/Update: I originally believed this was an early Gillette patent, but discussion and research by the members of the Shave Nook showed that this patent was never assigned to Gillette.

Self-sharpening safety razor

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One of the reasons why the classic safety razor have seen a resurgence the later years is that you can get great blades for a fraction of the cost of a cart… but that was not always the case. As I’ve shown in previous posts*, when adjusted for inflation the blades used to be as costly as cartridges are today. With that in mind, the popularity of razor blade sharpeners** made a lot more sense… but it still required you to take the blade out of the razor. Wouldn’t it be easier if the blade could stay in the razor?

While not a new idea^, William R Ewing and Benton M Ewing filed a couple of interesting patents in 1948 and 1950 for a self-sharpening razor and improvements for it.

The two Ewings certainly aimed high with their invention, wanting to

…eliminate the need for constant replacement of blades in a device of the safety razor type by providing means whereby opposite faces of the blade edge may be sharpened at will…

The patent drawings shows a permanently attached single edge blade, and a sharpening element in the form of a roller.

Two interesting things that stands out on the sharpening roller is that the actual grinder is a arranged in a spiral shape around most of the circumference, and that the roller is shaped to act as the safety bar when in the neutral position. A lot of effort went into making sure that the blade was pushed evenly against the grinder, as evidenced by the flat spring pressing on the swingable blade holder. And it seems like it was that spring that was the major improvement in their second patent.

The vaguely kidney shaped cavity in the roller allowed the blade to swing enough to allow the roller to sharpen the upper side of the blade as well as the underside… how this works is best seen with the small illustration in the bottom left corner of the last drawing in conjunction with the illustration in the same location on the first drawing.

So after loosing the roller the shaver would push it along a flat surface, first one way and then the other, until the blade was sharp. Simple, easy, and fast… in one handy, complicated package.

Overall, the two patents shows a lot of ingenuity and effort going into perfecting a solution to a problem the shaver today simply don’t have… blades are so cheap these days we can change them daily if we want to.

*) See, for example, this post
**) Some of which is discussed in this post
^) The Shake Sharp dates from ’43

Everything old is new again, again

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…and again, and again.

Heated razors is an age old quest. Gillette just dropped one, which seems to have impressed Mark over on the Sharpologist, and in their typical over the top marketing Gillette seems to be pushing this since the best shave ever… A hint for P&G: if you need to advertise the fact that your razor is waterproof, you’ve likely made an overly complicated razor.

Electrically heated razors isn’t a new idea by far, even if the latest itteration seems both more complicated* and far safer to use than some of the older ideas**.

While I can’t be completly sure, I’m reasonable satisfied that the current offering is based on a patent I found that was filed in in 2008 and assigned to the Gillette company – the patents describe a great many of the same features as the ads do.

…safety razor comprises a handle 14, a cartridge 15 with a safety device 18, a plate 24 and blades 30 between them. Inside the cartridge there is a heat-dispersive strip 40 and a heating element 45 with a resistive element 46 and an insulating element 50. The safety device comprises an electrical circuit providing power supply to the resistive element that provides heat to the heat-dispersive strip so that it imposes warmth to skin of the user during shaving.

The patent also lists twenty seven (27!) citations that predates it… and I found quite a few patents for heated razors that isn’t listed in the application.

Barra Charles  filed a version all the way back in 1923. If you think the plug looks kind of odd it’s because you’re meant to screw it into a light bulb socket… so no chance of grounding it.

…electrically heat safety razors in such a manner that they may be conveniently used while being heated and that the heat may be maintained during the shaving operation at any desired temperature, whereby I am enabled to obtain the advantageous results of smoothness and comfort during shaving and to avoid infections of the skin which frequently occur from the use of unsterilised razors.

Charles Barra also filed a heated straight razor in 1923, or rather an attachment that turned your straight into a heated razor:

A razor blade heated to such a temperature will make shaving of a persons face more comfortable and the resulting shave will be more satisfactory than where the face is shaved with a cold razor. 

…using an electric heater disposed at a suitable distance from the cutting edge of the blade, and in thermal relation thereto, which heater may be supplied with current from an ordinary electric service outlet, whereby the blade may be heated to and maintained at a sterilisation temperature both while not in use and while in the act of shaving.

(As a side note, sterilisation temperature is about 80°C (175°F) for almost all bacteria, yeast, and fungi… 80°C is enough to cause second and third degree burns in less than one second.)

In 1933 Pirwitz Emil filed for a safer variation, which required plugging and unplugging the razor:

…the invention employs a heating bolt disposed in the handle of the razor and made of material that is a good heat conductor, such as metal, the bolt iilling the entire handle from one end to the other and being adapted after one heating to keep the razor heated during an entire shaving operation without a new supply of heat.

…a bolt of this type permits the use of the razor without the dangers resulting from keeping the razor under current during the shaving operation. 

Mr Pirwitz also showed an interesting variation in the same patent:

 Look at figures 3 and 4; it’s a regular safety razor inserted into the heating device… which I presume you could either use while inserted in the bulky heater or take out and burn your fingers badly while shaving.

Thomas J Henderson and Leon Henderson aimed for cool hands in their 1935 patent:

The primary object of our invention is to provide in a safety razor a handle thereof which in use will apply heat only to the desired portion of the razor, that is, the head and blade, but will maintain a cool handle or grip.
A further object of our invention is to provide an electrically heated safety razor handle which is readily adapted for use on any suitable razor head.

Or how about this one from 1942, patented by Moses M Gravin?

…a safety razor with an electrically heated heating element therein which transmits an even heat to the razor blade and keeps it warm or hot during the shaving operation.
One of the objects of my invention is to heat the razor blade by conduction through a metallic element. I Another object of my invention is to provide ventilation between the heating element and the handle so that the handle will be cooled by the circulation of air.

In 1948 James Russel Hunt filed for a heated razor that allowed the shaver to adjust the current going into the razor by means of a rheostat:

..an electro-thermic shaver of the safety razor type which is adapted to directly heat the razor blade by heat conduction through a metallic element having a high coefficient of thermal conductivity such as copper.
…a heat control unit to permit the heat to be regulated by the user to produce various heat temperatures.

So as can be seen, the desire to make a heated razor is almost as old as Gillettes original safety razor… there is nothing new under the sun, nor in the shave den – except this time the offering isn’t that much bulkier than a regular razor, nor does it offer the exciting chance of electrocuting yourself while shaving.

*) It has overheat protection, two levels of heating, onboard battery with wireless charging, microcontroller, wobbly blades… I suspect the lats bit is unintentional
**) Hook your ungrounded razor up to the light fixture in your bathroom.. what can go wrong?

Gillette Adjustable resource site

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A number of my fellow wetshavers are extremely knowledgeable and enjoys sharing their labours of love. One of them is Glenn Conti, who knows more about Gillette adjustable razors than most shavers and collectors.

Glenn have put together a website detailing not only the details of how an adjustable razor work, not just pretty pictures of adjustable razors, not just how the Gillette adjustables evolved, but all that and much more. For example; I was clueless to the fact that including all variations there is about 150 distinct Gillette Adjustables out there, but Glenn have given more than enough detail to identify each one.

Glenn’s website is an invaluable resource for shavers and collectors alike, and I found it hard to close the window and go back to doing other things – the miscellaneous section in particular held my interest. The whole site is not only well written, but also well illustrated. A couple of examples:

Variations on parts used in the Fatboy razor. Some of the changes seems to have to do with function, some of them seems to be made for easier manufacture.

If you ever wondered how the gap changes on an adjustable, wonder no more. Glenn also details what the gap should be on each and every major variation of the Gillette Adjustables (apperantly my Slim is slightly milder than average).

So if you have a Gillette Adjustable, plan to get one, or just enjoys reading about razors in great detail, you owe yourself a visit to Glenns’s site.


Gillette Adjustable Razors

Pictures in this post is from Glenn Conti’s website, copyrighted by Glenn Conti, and are used with permission.

Brushless razor?

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Brushless creams saves time… or so I’m told. If you could do away with the whole ‘putting lather on before shaving’, it stands to reason that you should save even more time… or at least cut down on the clutter in the bathroom. So that might bave been on Kai Warming’s mind when he patented his “Shaving apparatus with supply of shaving liquid to the cutting edge” back in 1924.

Mr Warming – a Dane living in Copenhagen – stated in his patent that:

It is well known that shaving is rendered difficult if the lather or the shaving-liquid used is dried up or quite absorbed by the skin or the hair of the beard.

Hmm. Get a better shaving soap, or design an overly complex razor to supply  the skin with a small quantity of suds or water? I think Kai had a little too much spare time…

So what he designed was a fairly normal DE, but with a hollow handle and small channels running from the hollow handle and into the base plate. As an added complexity – and possible to avoid spraying the bathroom with suds and water – he included a small rotating disk (S) in the channels, that let the shaver select which half of the razor water was spraying from as well as turning the spray on and off…  at least until corrosion made the disk stick.

Just how the shaving liquid – be it “water, suds, glycerine, eau de cologne or olive oil” – was to be encouraged to move from the handle to the base plate is a little unclear to me; the patent mentions that the handle would be “displaceable as a unit by exertion of an axial pressure by hand, thereby supplying liquid from the said bore to the said cavity”… I can only read that as saying you would pump the handle to get liquid out.

The patent is long expired if a machinist out there feels adventurous… just don’t expect to sell much more than Kai did, even if you use olive oil as your shave liquid.

Shermac round razor for under-arm shaving

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Remember Joseph J. Schermack, Jr. and the ladies underarm razor he filed a patent for in 1931? That razor might never have made it to production, but the Shermac did… basically the razor he patented but without the “upstanding diametrically opposed segmental portions overlapping the cutting edge of the blade” that turned the round razor into a double edged design. The Shermac was, in effect, a single edge razor… one where the edge wrapped all around the blade.

I can find no patent covering the Shermac; it could simply be that Joseph J didn’t consider it to be different enough from his patented razor to file a new one, or it could be that the US patent office didn’t consider it patentable. The Shermac certainly looks easier to both manufacture and use than the razor described in the patent.

Allegedly the Shermac is pretty heavy for the size; to me this implies a cast baseplate and cap, which would be both cheaper and easier than machining them.

Even with the improvements from the patent, the Shermac seems to have been little more than a passing novelty fad in the market – the kind of thing you would buy as a gift for someone you couldn’t think of a better present for… and making the blades would still be more difficult and expensive than a regular straight blade.

A couple of photos I found online:

Keep happy with cool shaves

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I spotted this old advert this while browsing an old Popular Mechanics from June 1935… I think I have to break out some menthol soap and aftershave for tomorrows shave.