… this ad would not fly today I think.
Pro: No pieces to loose when you change blades.
Con: Proprietary blade – but a standard DE can be modified.
I might look more into the Segal Safety Razor later.
Every man remembers his first shave, according to the internet…
I don’t.
I do remember my first shave with a traditional safety razor though, and how my face looked afterwards… was hooked right away, despite several nicks. Thinking about it, I do believe my first shaves as a pimply teen was with an unremarkable electric razor… a no-brand rotary. First experiments with carts and canned goo came a little later as I was gearing up for boot camp – I believe my logic was that you can’t find an outlet while on exercise in the deep forests. The main takeaway from the first few years was that I dislike canned goo; left my face feeling dry and funky.
Enter stage right; a cheap brush and cream from BodyShop. Much better, even if ingrown hairs and shaving rash still plagued me.. at the time I though that was just how it was.
Over the next couple of decades I waffled between carts (Sensor Excel), various electrics, and growing beards… until I was pointed in the direction of traditional wetshaving while I was gearing up for a one year Tour of Duty as a UN Military Observer in Africa – the logic at the time being that you can’t always find an electrical outlet nor reliable buy carts while in a third world country… seems to be a common theme with why I switched to a cart years before.
The anticipation when I slid the Feather blade into my Parker R22 and slowly twisted is closed was palatable… and I promptly opened and closed it a few times to make 100% absolutely sure I had put it in right. I was happy with the lather I had made with my brand new Omega boar brush and my just as new tube of Proraso Green… even if looking back it was frankly not particularly good. And the less I say about my pre-shave, the better… because there is not much to say about splashing some warm water on ones face.
The feeling of sliding a traditional safety razor over my cheeks for the first time? Unforgettable. The actual sound of stubble being sliced through by a piece of wicked sharp steel? Simply wonderful.
Yes, there was several nicks. Blood was drawn. The Feather is, in hindsight, way to sharp for an aggressive razor like the R22. My lather was too watery and provided little cushion. But despite all that I knew one thing for sure when I rinsed the bright red remains of watery lather of my face:
I wanted more. Much more.
To roll back, I think my first shave was forgotten because it wasn’t anything special. I do remember my first traditional shave because it was quite simply unforgettable.
Suppose there is a town with just one barber, who is male. In this town, every man keeps himself clean-shaven, and he does so by doing exactly one of two things:
- shaving himself; or
- being shaved by the barber.
Also, “The barber is a man in town who shaves all those, and only those, men in town who do not shave themselves.”
Starting from this, one is supposed to ask the question “Who shaves the barber?”, which allegedly leads to the paradox…
In this day and age the solution ought to be simple though; the barber is logically a woman*. Simple as that!
*) At least in Norwegian that is – the term “a man” is often used (correctly or incorrectly) as a somewhat genter neutral way of saying “a person”.
From what I can tell, it’s hard to find a Gillette Old Type without a cracked handle these days. Drawing on my education and experience, it is in part due to the way they are made – two end pieces press fitted into a hollow tube. As anyone who have worked with machinery can attest to, this kind of construction gives raise to lots of stress on the hollow piece (hoop stresses – not by itself a bad thing). Stress will, over time, give raise to cracking unless the surface is near perfect.
The Old Type handles were probably anything but perfect when they were made – there would be no point in broaching and polishing the barrels, since razors was and are considered semi-disposable items. At the time the Old Type was manufactured machining the barrel the needed close tolerances would also been much more costly than the equivalent operation would be today, both in money and time.
The end result is – with more than a hundred years of hindsight – obvious; the handle cracks. My Old Type (part of my Khaki Kit) isn’t bad, just a short crack on either end, but some handles have cracks going straight from one end to the other.
The cracking is repairable, either by filling it with epoxy or – for the adventurous shaver – by silver soldering or welding. In my opinion it’s not needful to repair it unless the crack hampers the enjoyment of the razor. An easier option may be to replace either just the tube or the whole handle – which has the added benefit of being easily reversible later.
Prepwork looks okay and the razor is plenty sharp, but he really needs to work on the angle…
Terry Gilliam’s animations are priceless…
Photograph of a stick of Erasmic shaving soap with a German bullet embedded in it. It was carried by a private of the 2nd Middlesex Regiment who had his life saved by it! Date: 1915
A stick of Erasmic shaving soap with a German bullet embedded in it. Allegedly carried by a private of the 2nd Middlesex Regiment during World War One, who had his life saved by it.
CARE OF THE FACE AFTER SHAVING.
Most men who shave themselves seem to think that when they have removed the beard, they have nothing further to do. This is a great mistake. They undervalue the importance of a proper treatment of the face. A quick and easy way of caring for the face after shaving, is to remove the lather by a thorough washing, then to apply either witch hazel, bay rum or some other good face lotion, and to follow this with a small quantity of talcum powder, evenly applied. This is probably about all that the average man will usually find time to do.
In order, however, to keep the skin in a healthful condition, a little more elaborate treatment should occasionally be given. We recommend the following: Wash the face thoroughly to free it from the lather, and then apply a steaming hot towel, as hot as can be borne. The heat and moisture draw the blood to the face, open the pores, and set up a healthful action of the skin. Next apply witch hazel, and finally give the face a thorough massage. There is no other treatment so beneficial to the skin. With many persons the flow of blood to the face and scalp is very sluggish, because of enfeebled or slow heart action; and in consequence, the many small arteries and capillaries become clogged. Massage stimulates the circulation, and brings the blood from the inner centers to the surface, filling the many minute capillaries just underneath the skin, thus producing a tonic effect, which gives the skin renewed vigor and health.
What to do for a Cut.
If a man cuts himself while shaving, it is usually due to certain causes that are easily avoidable. The principal causes are six in number:
First—Attempting to shave with a dull razor.
Second—Using a sharp pointed razor.
Third—Shaving with a razor that is too hollow ground, so that the edge springs and bends on the face.
Fourth—Holding the razor improperly.
Fifth—Shaving upward against the growth of the beard.
Sixth—Shaving in too great a hurry.
If you will avoid these mistakes and exercise proper care, you will seldom cut yourself. But when you do, it will be well to know how to treat the wound. If it be slight, the bleeding may sometimes be checked by using pressure. Covering the fingers with a towel, simply press the cut together. If this does not stop the flow, use an astringent. The styptis pencils, made especially for this purpose, are the best, and may be obtained at any store where barbers’ supplies are kept. In case you should not have the pencils, alum may be used. In any event do not be discouraged, for such accidents sometimes happen to the best barbers.
It is quite possible to shave with a flint blade, and some predynastic flints were undeniably utilised in this way. The early Egyptian metal razors exactly copy these flint forms. One type, confined to the Early Dynastic period, was rectangular with four bevelled edges. Another form, going back to Late Predynastic times, looks like a broad double-edged knife with a short tang. Probably most were sharpened along one edge only, as is certainly the case with the specimens from Queen Hetep-heres’ tomb. A very similar little implement has recently been found in early Sumerian tombs. The Mesopotamian razors, always unfortunately in bad preservation, are regularly found in pairs; it is uncertain whether both edges were sharp. In the Aegean area the earliest certain razors date from the LM III period. The majority are one-edged (Fig. 81) but there are double-edged specimens in which the handle was riveted directly on to the blade without a tang.
The majority of European razors belong to the same family. In the earlier graves of the so-called Siculan II period, containing Mycenaean vases imported from Greece, we find a long blade with slightly concave sides and an indentation at the lower end (Fig. 83). The purpose of the indent was perhaps to allow the forefinger to feel the skin while shaving. In any case it is a prominent feature in nearly all European double-edged razors. In contemporary North Italian implements the indent is much more pronounced, and, above, a wide slit separates the two blades. An openwork handle, generally terminating in a loop and cast in one piece with the blade, was attached to these Italian razors (Fig. 85). They belong to the Middle Bronze Age. Rather later a small group of razors appears in Franconia and Western Bohemia with a very broad double-edged blade, sometimes at least divided by a slit near the end, and an openwork handle cast in one piece with it (Fig. 86). Crude razors of this pattern are found at a relatively later date in Holland and Eastern France (Nievre and Rhone). But the contemporary Central European razors of phase E have already grown into developed horseshoe-shaped blades (Fig. 87).
In Upper Italy, on the other hand, during the Late Bronze Age and first phase of the Early Iron Age (Villanova culture), the razor assumes a rectangular outline, preserving the indent in the lower end as an almost circular aperture and provided with a loop of twisted wire riveted on to the blade as handle (Fig. 88). The same type is found in South Italy and Sicily, but in that island a type, derived from the earlier native form, but with wider blade, more pronounced slit between he edges and a flat tang for handle, is also encountered in the later tombs of the Siculan II period. Similar forms occur in Southern France (Arige and Charente) and probably give a clue to the ancestry of our British razors.
The latter resemble a maple leaf in form. A tang to take the handle projects from the base of the blade and is often continued downwards by a wide midrib along its face. In the opposite end is a deep V-shaped indent and just behind it a circular eyelet. Though generally Late Bronze Age in date, one such blade, though without the round eyelet, was found with rapiers and palstaves in Scotland.[38] It is generally believed that these razors belong to the group of foreign forms introduced into Britain by invaders arriving at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. The affinities of our razors in any case seem to lie rather with Sicily and the Western Mediterranean than with the countries east of the Rhine.
While the standard European razors of the Bronze Age were double-edged, there is a series in Scandinavia with only one blade. Such are doubtless in the last resort derived from the normal Mycenaean implement (Fig. 91).
