Razor: Gillette Slim
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Omega #10048
Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream
Lather: Brutalt Bra TSN LE / Norwegian Wood
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
A fine Friday shave after being outside all day.
A little while back we looked at a lather spreading attachment for your razor. Unsurprisingly, bad ideas keeps coming back – although Fredrick Schallgruber referred to his 1949 invention as a lather applying razor, rather than as an attachment. And it was single, rather than double sided. And it didn’t make it harder to change blades, so that at least was an improvement.
Continue readingRazor: Gillette Slim
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Semogue TSN LE 2012
Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream
Lather: Crabtree & Evelyn Sandalwood
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
A smooth humpday shave
Razor: Gillette Slim
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Artesania Romera Manchurian Badger, imitation horn
Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream
Lather: Jabonman Mediterráno L.E. BullGoose
Aftershave: Myrsol Aqua De Limón
Additional Care: Alum Block
A fluffy start on a new week. I love traditional wetshaving!
Razor: Gillette 1958 TV Special
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Vie-Long #12705B
Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream
Lather: Asylum Shave Works Frankincense & Myrrh
Aftershave: Asylum Shave Works Frankincense & Myrrh
Additional Care: Alum Block
A fine Friday shave on a foggy fall morning.
Razor handles can apparently be used to store many things. In the past I’ve riffed on razors with styptic pencils, shaving cream, and even pens in the handle. It is an idea that don’t seem to want to die, as proven by Arthur E Keene’s 1943 patent for a soap-containing safety razor. While Arthur’s invention shares some traits with most of the razors that have things in the handle,1 it has a couple of interesting ideas I have not seen elsewhere.
Continue readingRazor: Gillette 1958 TV Special
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Wilkinson Sword Badger
Pre-Shave: O Way Softening Shaving Cream
Lather: Wilkinson Shaving Soap
Aftershave: Epsilon for Men Scottish Spirit
Additional Care: Alum Block
A quick but nice humpday shave.
The word “apparatus” makes me think of something big, complex, and of dubious use. I mean, if it was something simple and useful, we wouldn’t use a fifty dollar word to describe it, right? So it is only right and proper that Hans Schenk and Walter Sprung termed their patent application for their invention that way. It is, indeed, a shaving apparatus.
An overly complex and perhaps a tad bit scary piece of gadgetry. A – in my opinion – contraption of dubious value. With the added benefit of risking scalding the shaver.
Continue readingRazor: Gillette 1958 TV Special
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Vie-Long #13051M
Pre-Shave: Proraso Pre Shave Cream
Lather: Pereira Oud
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
Another week, another great shave.
Ever so often I find a patent that makes me shake my head and wonder what the inventor was thinking. Although sometimes I wonder what he was smoking. The skin stretching and lather spreading attachment devised by Vance Fulenwider1 is one of the later. Like several other inventions I’ve discussed, I am struggling to figure out what problem he was trying to solve.
So what was he trying to achieve, in his own words?
Continue reading