Category Archives: VintageRazor

Razor on a spring?

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For those who grew up with early eight bit micro computers* – such as myself – the Thing on a Spring was most assuredly a thing… but what has that Thing to do with razors?

Click for a trip down memory lane

Well… it was what I was reminded of when I stumbled upon Herr Felix Meyer’s patent for an “improved” safety razor. I imagine Herr Meyer was standing in his bathroom one morning in Germany and said to himself something along the lines of “Would this razor shave better is ze handle was not so stiff?”
And so he applied for, and got patented, an improvement that – in the words of his patents – was something like this:

In the preferred form of carrying out the invention the handle of the shaving device is made resilient, for instance, by being made or the like spring. Blade, guard and cap are either rigidly mounted together upon the resilient handle and have a common spring action, or the blade is stationary and-only guard and cap are resiliently mounted on the handle, or the cap and guard are stationary, whereas the blade is resilient.

The mechanics of having a moving blade – or moving base plate and top cap – while the rest of the razor is rigid is daunting… which may explain why the preferred form of the invention was a normal enough head mounted on a springy spring.
It is fairly clear from the description that the idea was for the razor to adjust to uneven pressure and sharpness by introducing an amount of ‘give’ to the razor, thus preventing cuts and nicks. Herr Meyer even came up with a way to adjust the stiffness of the handle:

Preferably the handle is so constructed that it does not consist of a single spring but of two coiled or other steel springs, which are inserted the one into the other, in such a manner that the handle can be made more or less rigid by adjusting the said coils, the one in the other. If instead of a coiled spring, a spiral (watch spring) is used for the handle, it is also preferable to make the handle in two parts, which can be taken apart and inserted into each other, so as to be able to again adjust the strength of the spring action at will. The object of the adjustability of the strength of the spring action is to be able to regulate the said spring action according to the growth of the beard or to the sharpness of the blade.

Reading the rather verbose text, it seem that Herr Meyer believed the flexible handle would give a shave closer to that of an experienced barber with a straight – or at least make it less likely for a new shaver to cut himself. Since we still uses razors with stiff, non-resilient handles, I’ll let you all work out how well Herr Meyer’s invention did in the marketplace…
… unlike the Thing on a Spring. That game have stuck with me and a generation of 8-bit gamers.

 *) At least those who had a C64 or C128, and I guess those with the Amstrad CPC as well. Not those sad people with a ZX81 or a Spectrum though.

Clemak safety razor

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One of the things I love about poking around on the web is when I find something previously unknown to me; such as the British Clemak Safety Razor from before the Great War, in production until at least the early 1920’s, and quite possible beyond that.
Robert K Waits described the Clemak in his compendium as a single edged comb guard hoe type silver- or nickel-plated razor – much like the US GEM and EverReady razors – and states that it dates from 1908.

I do think that this advertisement is trying to push the idea that you could strop the Clemak once a week and have seven days of satisfying shaves. There are strong indications online that the Clemak used blades similar enough to the various GEMs and EverReady razors to be able to take a modern GEM blade – and the old style GEM blades were close enough to old wedge blades to take several rounds on the strop before wearing out.

Clemak was offered up – at least initially – as the cheaper and more British alternative to expensive safety razors, even if (as we’ll see later) it cost more than twice of the advertised five shilling if you wanted the full kit and kaboodle.
I figure we should go on a tangent right here for those less than familiar with old British coinage; one guinea was originally a gold coin worth one pound sterling, which was not minted after 1816. The name lived on and at the time of the Clemak it was referring to a value of one pound and one shilling – or about 21 shillings – which would be 1.05£ today (and keep in mind that the British resisted decimal currency because they figured it would be too complicated according to some of my sources). The guinea had an aristocratic overtone; professional fees and payment for land, horses, art, bespoke tailoring, furniture and other luxury items were often quoted in guineas – hence the question “Why pay a guinea?” – or in other words; why buy a luxery razor when the Clemak is just as good and affordable?

The images used in the advertisements points to the Clemak coming with an optional strop, as well as a selection of blades.

In 1908 the razor with seven blades cost 5 shilling (a little less than a quarter guinea), and if you wanted a dozen blades with your razor you would have to come up with 2 shilling 6 pence more. Which would point to a pack of blade contained five blades – which checks out since a pack of blade is mentioned as costing 2 shilling 6 pence.

If you wanted to go all out – the razor, a dozen blade, the stropping machine, and a hide strop – you would have to come up with 10 shilling 6 pence – or around 97GBP (135USD) when adjusted for inflation and the change to decimal currency. Not cheap by any means, but nowhere near the prices we have to pay for a high end razor today – and still just half of the one guinea they wonder why you should spend.

As British as Bulldogs and the British Army!

“Handle-less” safety razor patent

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Way back in 1907 Mr William H Crichton-Clarke patented an improvement in safety razors on behalf of the Gillette Company. William had – as far as I can tell – two other shaving related patents; one for a simplified safety razor with fewer parts than the Gillette Old, and one for a blade-sharpening mechanism to hone the edge of razors blades.

The patent I’m having a look at today is one that would produce a very, very small razor consisting of basically nothing more than a top cap and a bottom cap with a blade fastened between them. Or in William’s own words;

…a strong, simple, durable, and inexpensive safety razor which is small and compact in construction, so that it can be carried conveniently in a vest pocket or the like.

The main claim of the invention is to have a razor with two folding handles that lie flat when not in use as shown in the drawing, and which can be held between thumb and index finger when shaving. For those who thinks that looks and sounds vaguely familiar, I covered a tiny little travel razor back in May of 2015 that works in much the same manner – so while the manner of execution is different, at least the concept got into production at one point.

Update: for more on the tiny little travel razor, see this post.

Another match book novelty razor

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While looking for more information on the match book novelty razor I posted last Thursday, I found these photos on a shaving forum. A different take on the match book razor, possible older than the last one I found judging by the razor’s head – it looks like a SE, possible a GEM blade.

Keep HIM FIT with a “COMFYKIT”

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The ComfyKit is – or rather was – the most complete kit on the market. Or at least they claimed to be.

I have to admit one thing; I would love to have this kit today when I’m travelling for work or on the Go.

Everything a soldier (or sailor) could need while serving in the field or aboard – including space for writing supplies to write letters home. You can see some photos of an original Nathan Comfykit here.

If anyone offers quality reproductions of these – preferable filled with the gear – I’m seriously tempted to get one. It’s a more complete solution than the Khaki Kit.

A novelty safety razor; the Yawnmower

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It’s amazing what you stumble over while semi-randomly wandering the interweb – like a novelty razor shaped like an old push-mower.

I have no idea how it shaves – or even if it shaves – but I wanted to share the photos I found.

Going medieval

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The Zen of Shaving

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A thread on my favourite web-forum reminded me of this old post from October 2012, and since it’s as true now as it was then I decided to repost the post that gave rice to my blog’s tagline:

Shaving time is – at least to me – a quiet, reflective moment. It’s me-time; the time when I can close the door and just enjoy myself without a worry in the world. It’s also a very manly time; if by manly you mean “waving a very sharp blade around millimeters from your jugular veins… heck, spin that right and it sounds like you’re cheating death every time you shave…

On a more serious tone, it is the time each morning I can ‘let go’ of everyday worries and simply enjoy the ‘now’ – a perfect moment caught between lather and blade as it were. It’s a moment that flushes the system, in a manner of speaking, and lets me put things in perspective. I think that traditional wetshaving have helped making me a better man, as well as a better looking man.

I’m far from the first to notice this off course; a quick search on google will reveal a few hundred thousand hits on the subject. But even so it’s something worth keeping in mind, especially when the cartridge-and-canned-goo brigade wonders why we prefers the old fashioned, traditional art of wetshaving.

Forget the ‘better shave’ spiel; they have heard it a million times before – every time one of the huge multinationals adds another blade they promise the consumers a better shave than ever before.

Forget the whole ‘saving money’ thing too; most of us succumbs to one or more ADs shortly after we pick up a decent brush and a safety razor.

You might want to quickly bypass the ‘better for the environment’ issue as well; yes, traditional shaving is greener and wastes less plastic, but most people honestly don’t care as much about the environment as they claim to do.

But do tell them about that perfect moment caught between lather and blade – those precious minutes every time you shave that lets your worries and concerns simply drain away. The little breathing space where it’s you, your razor and perfection.

Retiring a razor

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Edited 2017-05-26

Some razors do, to be polite about it, age less well than others. But when it’s a razor that cost me slightly less than 3 US dollars to begin with, a five year service life really isn’t bad at all… it’s all of 60 cents a year.

When new, the Yuma was shiny, full of promises and very, very cheap.

I must say the Yuma – a cheaply made razor with a hollow handle and paper-thin head all made from “who knows what fell into the pot” zinc alloy – has given remarkable good shaves, wear, tear and oxidation have eaten away the molecule thick “chrome” coating. This means that while the razor is technically usable, it simply don’t glide across my manly cheeks with any degree of ease any longer… the whole surface is covered in zinc oxide which is used as an industrial abrasive, in effect the opposite of what you’ll want for smooth shaves.

I guess I could ship my Yuma out to be replated by the professionals, possible in something more fancy than plain chrome… but it’s not worth doing that with something that is so cheap and cheerful. So I guess it’s time to put it back in it’s presentation box, put it on the shelf and look for a replacement in my rotation.

Update: Over on my favorite shaving forum a fellow gentleman pointed out that the Yuma might be made from aluminium alloy, rather than the zinc alloy I have been assuming for years. If it is aluminium it’s some of the least quality alloy of it I’ve seen… but that would mean that I could – in theory – repolish the head and get back the original shiny finish. I might give that a go at some point, just for fun.

A very interesting read

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A few years ago Brian Krampert – the man who makes one of my favourite aftershaves – posted an in depth history of the Valet Autostrop; a razor I consider to have one of the more steam-punky looks of them all.

If you haven’t read it already, I strongly recommend going and doing it now – it’s a very interesting read.