The human mind can be an overboiling pot of fantastical ideas, letting us come up with all sorts of brilliant and bizarre inventions. King Gillette’s double edged blade was arguable one of the former. Malcolm H Baker and Franklin S Frisbie’s hexagonal blade probably belongs in the later category…

The idea behind the invention was admirable;

It is the object of the present invention to roduce a razor of the safety type in which the blades by the use of a plurality of cutting edges shall have increased life-in other words, a’ razor in which the blades require resharpening or replacing at longer intervals than in devices at present in use.

Blades for the Gillette razors were not – comparatively speaking – nearly as cheap as they are today, and older style safety razors used wedge blades that required tools and skill to hone and sharpen. However… the leap of logic seems to have been that if two edges are good, then more edges must be better. Minor issues like practicality and useability seems to have taken a back seat to having many edges on the blade.

The result is less of a safety razor of the hoe-type and more of a shavette:

A further object is to provide a razor in which the cutting edge in use is in a parallel lane with the handle, and thus to provide or a drawing stroke in shaving, of the same the as is employed in the ordinary old style folding-blade razor.

And finally, they claimed that their new, improved razor also were:

…of few and simple parts, which may be easily taken apart or assembled and which is readily cleansed after use.

My invention consists partly in application to a razor of a roller acting as a guard to prevent the wounding of the skin in the use of the razor, and partly in certain details of construction pointed out in the claims.

Unsurprisingly the razor isn’t a safety razor as we know it:

Judging by some posts on the shaving forums, the absolutely worst thing that can happen to a brush is the development of a cavity in the middle – some even referring to it as a wound in the knot. What if I told you that someone not only though the cavity to be a good thing, but managed to secure a patent on a brush with such a gaping wound?

Enter Earl D Snodderly, whom in 1965 filed a patent for his “foam shave applier”. Most inventions are dreamed up to fill a need – imaginary or not – and the foam shave applier should simplify the operation of applying lather and the brushing action. To quote the word salad from the patent itself:

The present invention relates to foam shave applier and has for an object to provide a shaving brush in conjunction with an attachment therefore by which a suitable cavity is formed in the bristle body opening through an end of the brush for the purpose of receiving shaving cream or the like whereby the operations of applying lather and the like to the face of the shaver and the brushing action by which the lather is worked into the skin are simplified and combined in a single action which will economize time and facilitate the action of working the lather into the areas of the facial skin requiring shaving. 

 And how was this miracle of science to be achieved? By creating a cavity in the brush, with what looks almost like a roofing nail:

Just looking at the drawing makes my insides turn… I’m very happy this invention didn’t take off, and I’m sure my brushes are too.

Hair grows all over, not just on out cheeks. Luckily for us, Valentine Heinrich applied for a patent in ’37 for a specialty razor for shaving your ears and nostrils.

Despite being described as a simple, practical and inexpensive miniature safety razor, I can find no indications that it was ever manufactured. Looking at the drawing for the patent, my guess is that it was the blade that proved it’s undoing; the curved edge is a magnitude harder to manufacture than the straight edge of a regular razor blade.

In the words of the inventor:

I claim as my invention:
A miniature safety razor comprising a handle. a plate detachably applied to. said handle and occupying a position immediately adjacent the end thereof, said plate being inclined with respect to the axis of the handle, the front lower edge of which plate is semi-circular in form and provided with substantially parallel teeth, a lug projecting upwardly from the center of the top of said plate, lugs formed on top of the plate adjacent the sides thereof, a blade removably positioned on top of said inclined plate, the sharpened edge of which blade is semi-circular in shape and overlies the teeth on said plate, said blade being provided with an aperture and notches for the reception of the lugs on the upper surface of said plate, a guard plate overlying the blade, the front edge of which guard plate is semi-circular in form and occupies a position adjacent the sharp edge o! the blade, a depending hook projecting inwardly from the rear edge of said guard plate and there being a transversely disposed groove formed in the under side of said inclined plate for the reception of the free end of said hook.

It’s amazing how much human ingenuity have gone towards creating products that makes more waste… like disposable razors. I do however acknowledge that a disposable razor can be convenient at times, especially while travelling or for freebies.

Back in ’71, a guy named Gregorio A Perez came up with an interesting single edged disposable that also carried a supply of shaving cream or gel in the handle. Or as the patent describes it:

A disposable razor in which a blade is molded therein with the edge thereof projecting from the shaving head and including a telescopic handle over a stem which is secured central of the shaving head and having a coaxial bore in the stem including a quantity of shaving cream for projection through the bore from an outlet in the razor head when the handle is manually moved over the stem.

A few things that strikes me with Mr Perez’s razor;:

• As drwn it’s a SE with no visible guard, more like a shavette with the handle on the side.
• You better hope it don’t get compressed while in the luggage…
• The angle of the head is quite close to my GEMs

Reading the patent, it’s fairly clear that what Mr Perez’s though was most important was the handle with the manually telescoping action for dispensing shaving cream. Or in his own words:

…the handle is filled with a well known shaving cream which is adapted to be dispensed through a bore in the stem and through the head member when the handle is telescoped over the stem.

An interesting patent, but I don’t believe the razor was a success in the marketplace. A potential niche I can see for something like this razor in hotels and the like; a freebie on line with the tiny bottles of shampoo.

I found several patents, one of the more practical ones was the brainchild of Charles J Kennedy from Dakota, US.

In Mr Kennedy’s own words;

1. A device of the character described comprising two pieces of resilient sheet metal bent inwardly toward each other at their ends and suitably united. A cleaning pad and a drying pad held adjacent each other longitudinally on the inner surfaces of the parallel portions of the pieces of .metal, whereby a razor blade, when passed between said portions, may be engaged by the pads and thus cleaned and dried.
2. In a device of the character described, the combination with a holder having two parallel spaced body portions resiliently united at both ends, of a cleaning pad and a drying pad carried by the inner face of each parallel portion and so positioned in relation to each other as to cooperate in cleaning and drying a razor blade when passed therebetween. 1
3. In a device of the character described, the combination with a holder having two parallel spaced body portions united at both ends, of a blade cleaning pad and a drying pad positioned close to each other and rigidly secured to the inner face of each body portion whereby when a blade is passed intermediate of the two pairs of pads, it will be first cleaned and then dried by a single operation.
4. A device of the character described comprising two pieces of elongated sheet metal united at their ends and having parallel body portions spaced apart, the side edges of said body portions being turned inwardly forming converging flanges extending from the innermost faces of the body portions, a cleaning pad and a drying pad held tightly bearing upon each other intermediate of each pair of flanges, the free edges of each pair of pads being opposite each other whereby when a razor blade is properly passed therebetween, it will be first cleaned and then dried by a single operation.
5. A device of the character described comprising two pieces of elongated sheet metal united at their ends and having parallel body portions, converging flanges extending inwardly from each body portion, a cleaning pad and a drying pad held tightly between each pair of flanges, one pair of pads opposite the other pair and engageable therewith whereby when a razor blade is properly passed between the two pairs of pads, it will first be cleaned and then dried by a single operation.

The device seems practical enough, and while I personally don’t like taking the blade out of my razor after every shave I would probably like shaving with a rusty blade even less.