Category Archives: Patents

…simple and non-expensive safety razor

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If you’re using a cartridge razor today, you know that the real cost is not in the razor, but in buying the replacements cartridges. In the same way, and for the same reasons, the real cost of using a DE back in the day was the replacement blades. This created the market for razor blade sharpeners as well as self sharpening razors (the Shake Sharp razors springs to mind). The cost also inspired Bertil Åström of Sweden to invent a simple and non-expensive safety razor;

The chief object of this invention is to create a simple and non-expensive safety razor uniting the advantages of the ordinary or knife razor and those of the so-called safety razors, while eliminating the disadvantages of the known razors.

In other words, combining the advantage of the straight’s everlasting blade with the shaving simplicity of a hoe type safety razor… while at the same time making the razor simple to manufacture, use, and maintain – without a top cap.

Another object of this invention is to render it possible to remove or to insert the blade in one single operation, i. e. in one single manipulative step […] while the non-cutting parts remain as a single, assembled aggregate
A further object of this invention is to construct the safety razor in such blade is always automatically exactly centred and kept in its correct position.
A further object of this invention is to construct manner that the a safety razor without any clamping plate on the blade, so that the razor has only a comb-shaped safety plate or guard below the blade.

So that is four things to achieve all at once, and the way Mr Åström went about achieving them is both simple and easy to manufacture. The patent drawing does a pretty good way of explaining it.

The whole razor consists of three major parts: A blade of a unique shape with a cut out in the back, a bolt and the handle with attached base plate…. and that’s it
The countersunk keyhole in the back of the blade makes for easy assembly and disassembly – the cone shaped head of the bolt easily and repeatedly locates and lock the blade in the correct spot – while the shape of the blade itself do away with the need for a top cap. That is two of the for items taken care of.
According to the patent the thickness of the blade increases the rigidity and reduces blade vibration, which should lead to the edge lasting much longer than the ordinary thin safety razor blades. Mr Åström also claimed that the angle of the edge would result in a  very efficient and painless shave.
The keyhole slot also means that one don’t have to to unscrew the bolt more than a few threads, leaning it secured to the rest of the razor, while the base plate (referred to as a carrier plate) is permanently fastened to the handle proper. That takes care of the two last items on the list.
To disassemble the razor, all the user have to do is to loosen the nut on the end of the handle and the blade will be free to slide off the carrier plate. To assemble it again after cleaning and/or honing the blade, all the user have to do is to slip the blade in place under the bolt head and tighten the nut. All told as easy as a twist to open DE, and with less parts to keep track of than a three piece safety razor.
The shape of the blade itself is another stroke of genius, and one that isn’t explicitly mentioned in the patent text; unlike a straight razor – or the blades used in most wedge-razors – it only needs to be honed on one side. Setting up the edge of a razor blade (or a knife, for that matter) takes a fair bit of skill, but Mr Åström made it a lot simpler with the shape of this blade.
Overall I’m quite impressed with the well though out simplicity of the design. As far as I can see it achieves it’s four stated goals, while additionally providing a blade design that would be far easier to maintain than the two sided hollow ground of most straight razors and wedge razors. It is a shame that the design don’t seem to have gone beyond the patent (which have expired by now, in case someone has a machine shop…).

Self-feeding shaving-brush

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Does loading your brush with shaving soap take too long? Is it too much work to load and lather? Or do you simply want to save a bit of space in your shave den?

If so, a possible solution was patented by H Forms Hansell Jr. and G D Lewis (citizens of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania) all the way back in 1907: A self feeding shaving brush.

The basic concept is simple enough; a hollow brush handle with a squeezable rubber base, a rubber tube leading from the hollow handle into the bristles, and a capped hole so the handle could be filled with a liquid soap. To use one would wet the brush, give the handle a squeeze and make the lather directly on the face.

a is a tubular metallic casing and b a closed rubber cap secured to and forming an extension of the casing. The casing and cap together form the brush handle. To secure the rubber cap to the metal casing. the end of the casing adjacent to the rubber cap is provided with an inwardly extending annular the open end of the rubber cap is confined. The thickness of the rubber cap is preferable reduced at its open end so as to facilitate its (unreadable) in position by means of the ring d. The bristle portion a of the brush inserted into the contracted upper end of the metal casing. At f is a rubber tube of a length preferably somewhat greater than the length of the handle. the upper end of the rubber tube extending into the centre of the base of the bristle portion and approximately half way there through, the lower end of the rubber tube terminating preferably a. very short distance above the closed end of the rubber esp. SUI; rounding and secured to the rubber tube is a sleeve II, which is inserted into the base of the bristle portion, so as to relive the rubber tube at this point from the (unreadable) of the confined bristles. In the wet of the metal internal annular flange is formed on the body and threaded to receive a screw cap is.

I see no reason why this brush shouldn’t work as advertised, but I’m sceptical to how easy it would be to keep clean on the inside without the ability to pop the rubber cap off from time to time. Even so, I can find no indications online that this brush was ever manufactured.

A 1908 machine for sharpening razor-blades

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Want to eek out a little more life from your double edged blade? Recoup a little bit more on the investment as it were? To us today that don’t make much sense, since we’re just paying pennies per blade, but back in the day blades were more costly; about equivalent to the cost of a razor cartridge today per blade!

Much like you today can find sharpeners for cartridge razor, there was a market for DE-sharpeners back in the day. One of the earliest that I found a patent for was granted in March 1911, and was submitted by Eleazer I Rains. As far as I can tell it is Mr Rains’ only shaving related patent.

The machine he patented is simple enough in principle, but the actual execution might leave a little something to desire… it’s not a handle little device you can keep in a drawer, it’s a fairly big lump of machinery you bolt to your bathroom counter.

The device consists of two geared sharpening rollers (which could be made adjustable) against which a blade could be pressed by a spring… and that is about it when you come down to it. This is a principle which several other sharpeners adopted later, in various forms.

In Mr Rains’ own words, the machine is

comprising a sharpening roll, `means to rotate the same, a spring pressed blade support adapted to press the blade yieldingly toward the roll, and movable “bodily toward and from the roll, and guides in which said support is loosely guided

I don’t know if this sharpener was ever built, manufactured or sold, but as far as I can tell from the drawings it should work as intended. The major failing I can see with the design of it is the sheer bulk and the need to bolt it to a countertop.

Mad patent; Combination razor and shaving brush

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Very often a patent description starts out with a claim stating something along the line of “…have invented a new and improved…” or “…certain improvements to…”. The patent we’re looking at today on the other hand do NOT start with such a claim, and it is quite telling.

Instead George R Harvey – when he filed his claim in April of 1932 – simply starts with a very short description of what it’s all about: “Combination razor and shaving brush in advance of the razor.”

Wait.. what? In advance of? What do that even?

Well… the logic isn’t too far of the so called “lube strips” on certain modern cartridge razors, even if Mr Harvey’s design probably did more for lubrication and skincare.

The key to the invention, as far as I can tell, is that the single edge razor have a hollow handle you can fill with shaving cream. The bottom of the handle is a plunger, much like a syringe, which forces the cream out through a nozzle onto which there is mounted a short brush. The drawing makes it easy to understand:

How would this rather clumsy looking device be to use? In Mr Harvey’s own words:

In the operation of the device the compartment 3 being charged with a soap or other emollient, the brush 9 is first dampened and the plunger 14 is then rotated so as to-cause the desired amount of the material to be discharged through the slots 13 onto the tufts of the brush. The instrument is then drawn over the face of the user so as to cause the brush to travel in advance of the cutting edge of the blade, the brush applying the material to the face and the razor then performing its function in a manner which will be readily understood.

I strongly suspect that Mr Harvey had a mustache…  there is no way this contraption would both lather and shave the upper lip without both cutting your nose while lathering and getting a taste of shaving cream while shaving.

…certain new and useful Improvements in Safety-Razors – what might have been

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In 1907 William H Crichton-Clarke – most likely working for Gillette – patented what he described as a useful improvement in safety razors… in particular an improvement to simplify and reduce the number of parts in the razor.

Before looking at the patent it is worth remembering that the Gillette Old Type we know and love is made out of at least five pieces:

  • The top cap, with two pins and a threaded stud
  • The base plate, with three holes
  • The “nut”, which forms the top of the handle
  • A tube that forms the handle
  • The ball that forms the end of the handle.

The last three pieces is permanently joined together into one unit. If the only objective was to reduce the number of parts the handle could have been machined out from a single piece. However this approach would make a heavier razor which used more metal to make, thus likely making it more expensive to manufacture and ship.

William choose a different route, creating a razor which would retain the hollow handle and reduce the number of parts by… hmm.. one.

Click to make bigger – it’s worth a close look

Instead of having a threaded stud on the top cap that threaded into the handle, the top cap now have the female end of the thread, and is screwed onto the threaded end of the handle. The base plate is secured to the end of the handle by means of a collar, which in turn is held in place by a couple of tiny bolts or pins.

In the words of William himself:

A razor comprising a cap having a threaded opening, a guard, and a handle rotatably swivelled on the guard and having an enlarged threaded extension at its upper end projecting above the guard and adapted to engage the threaded opening of the cap, and means for preventing axial movement of the handle relative to the guard

One major benefit I can see from a manufacturing perspective is the fact that you no longer have to fit together three separate pieces to make the handle. The machining should also be a bit more straight forward.

The major downside I can see is visible in the lower left corner of the drawing; The blades would have to change. And while the ‘new’ blade – with the enlarged centre hole – might work on the old razors, the old style blade would not fit in this improved and simplified safety razor. And that is probably what killed this project when all is said and done.

Seven years and counting

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I posted the very first post on this blog seven years ago today… it’s been fun, and as long as it keeps being fun I’ll keep at it. Thanks to all my readers, both my regulars and those who swing my now and then. I couldn’t done this without your interest in the fine art of wet shaving.

One of my favourite parts of writing this blog is when I got the time to deep dive into old patents and odd shaving gear and accessories – what I call Shaving Oddities – and I gathered all (or at least most) of those in a single page. If you have the time and inclination I suggest looking over them; there is quite a bit to learn and a fair number of chuckles to be had there.

I’ve also attempted to collect all of my reviews on a single page… I probably missed out a few here and there.

So again, to all my readers, thank you all for coming by and thank you all for inspiring me to keep having fun writing this blog.

Walled gardens, and how they apply to shaving

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A lot of modern shave gear can be seen as part of a walled garden; a term most often used around computers that describe a closed platform where a single entity (provider) has control over applications, content, and media, and restricts convenient access to non-approved applications or content.

If you’re shaving with a cartridge razor, in theory at least you have to get your blades from the same guys who sold you the handle – and often not all of their cartridges fits all of their handles either. You can’t stick a Sensor Excel cartridge on a Mach3 or Fusion5 handle, and you certainly can’t expect a Schick cartridge of any kind to fit on any Gillette handle.

Unless you’re buying more handles, you’re locked to one brand and (in theory at least) one vendor. And given how hard some of those vendors advertise their canned goo and other shaving accoutrements, I get the feeling they would make their razors incompatible with their competitors canned goo if they could…  

Yes, you’re getting a unified and consistent experience. Some users value and appreciate that, and I’m cool with the fact that they do. It don’t chance the underlying fact that cartridge razors is a series of closed platforms designed to make the end user dependent on the OEM.

Traditional safety razors on the other hand are open platform solutions. Yes, there is a number of distinct, non-compatible platforms; DE, SE, injectors and so on. But I can pick up any DE razor from a large number of wildly different manufacturers and be confident that any DE blade I buy will fit and work in the razor – same as any razor made for the GEM blade will take any GEM blade I can buy.

The underlying standards are open and accessible to all – anyone with the skills, drive and money can make and sell razors or blades. Since the patents are long expired, traditional wetshaving is in essence Open Source Hardware, with all the benefits (and drawbacks) that entails.

I’m not saying traditional safety razors are inherently better than cartridge razors. I’m saying they are inherently more open in this day and age, and to me that is an important thing.

Wooden disposables; the Welch’s Saratoga and the E-KON-I-ME

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 When you think “disposable razor” today, you think plastic. But there was a time before non-biodegradable materials were the material of choice for things used a few times and then dumped in the landfill… and in those days a lady would want smooth legs and hairless pits even if she had forgotten her grooming equipment when she went on a unplanned rendezvous.

Enter the Welch’s Saratoga Disposable Razor and/or E-KON-I-ME (economy?) razors, identical in all but name as far as I can tell, and both also used the trademark “Just A Little Shaver”. A perfectly safe hair remover that would aid you in removing objectionable hair.

Robert K Waits’ compendium tracks the trademark back to 1917, not that long after we as a society started body-shaming women into shaving their armpits (which happened in 1915).

The razor was made by Woodward-Williams Co. Inc., of Rochester, NY. Given that the only difference is the markings on the head, and that Saratoga apparently was a popular summer resort, I assume it was possible at the time for a hotel or resort to have razors like these rebranded as a promotional item… something you could keep for a while as a tangible reminder of the unplanned rendezvous you suddenly went on.

The razor itself is simple enough; all wooden construction, a head with an open comb cut on one side and a slot for a blade, and a fairly stubby handle. Given the coarseness of the comb – only five teeth across the whole razor – it probably wasn’t the smoothest of razors out there… but it was available on site as it were, and if you really need a shave a razor in your hand is ten times better than a razor at home.

 

The E-KON-I-ME brand was also used on a razor blade sharpener. The name makes more sense for that product, so I’m assuming in the absence of firm information that the sharpener started manufacture before the little wooden disposable.

A bio-degradable disposable would be a nice option to have today, but I think I would prefer something a bit more refined than these wooden ones. Still fun to dive into what little I could find about them and share with my readers.

Another improvement in shaving mugs

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Don’t you hate it when you’re emptying your shaving mug of water and your soap falls out? Well, me neither, but just in case you do Philip Schauble and Louis Dohm, of Elizabeth, Union county, New Jersey have you covered. Or had you covered, back in 1875 when they patented an improvement in shaving mugs.
To understand why an improvement was needed, one have to recall that while a lot of us today will soak the brush, load the soap of the puck, then use a separate bowl or mug to make lather they did it differently back on the day. The soap puck was kept in the shaving mug, water was added on top, lather made on top of the puck and water then poured out… sometimes along with the soap.
Our bold inventors came up with a solution to this problem, as they stated in the very beginning of the patent letter;

Our invention consists of a shaving-cup having means for securing the soap, so that the cup may be turned upside down, for pouring out the water for cleaning it, without the loss of the soap, and without the necessity of holding it by the brush or by the hand, as is now necessary when cleaning the cup, thus saving considerable trouble and greatly facilitating the work.

In hindsight the solution Philip and Louis came up with is obvious when you read about it, but it does actually require a bit of lateral thinking. In short… who says a mug have to be smooth on the inside? What if the bottom of the mug had a screw thread mounded to the inside, like a nut that goes on the end of a bolt? And if the soap also had screw threads, like the aforementioned bolt, and could be screwed down into the mug?
As explained in the patent:

The plan which we have adopted in this case consists of screw-threads in the bottom or lower part of the cup, with corresponding threads molded in the soap, to screw it into the cup by a little forked’key or other suitable instrument…

They also outline an alternate, by having a screw that comes up through the bottom of the mug, but point out this is a much less ideal solution.

A solution they don’t touch upon in their patent might be more obvious to us today; simply have circular ridges along the inside of the mug and cast the soap in situ (i.e.:directly into the shaving mug). The downside of that solution is, off course, that soaps cannot easily be replaced.
I have no idea if this invention was ever put into production, and the patent have long since lapsed… but if any artisan or small scale manufacturer of soaps and shaving accoutrements put something like this on the market today, I would be sorely tempted. Perhaps a standard diameter and screw pitch could be agreed upon by a group of loosely organised artisans so we could choose between several of our favourite soaps… but I’m daydreaming. I guess I’ll continue to soak my brush, load from the puck and lather in a separate mug of scuttle.

A 1964 disposable plastic double edged razor

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While I personally find disposable razors to be – at best – an unavoidable evil I occasionally must deal with, it can still be interesting to look at old patents for them.
Case in point; Mr Leonard W Sachs’ patent for a disposable razor with a priority date of 1964-10-26. While modern plastic disposables makes every effort to look and handle like a modern cartridge razor, his design looked very much like any other DE safety razor.
That is, off course, because it IS a fairly standard DE razor, made out of thermoplastic and heat welded together. In the words of Mr Sachs:

The head and guard members and pins are formed of an inexpensive disposable thermoplastic material deformable by the application of heat and pressure, and the pins have deformed enlarged ends to permanently secure the assembly together. A handle is secured to and projects from the guard member.

The patents states outright that the object of the invention was to make a razor cheap enough to be thrown away after one or two uses, yet good enough to provide a smooth shave. Judging by the drawings and description this was achieved. I’m not sure if Mr Sachs ever got his razor into production, but the method of construction looks remarkable similar to some of the medical prep razors you can buy all over the internet today.