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.

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.