Razor: Schick “Lady Eversharp”
Blade: Proraso Injector
Brush: Vie-Long #14033
Lather: Wet Shaving Products Pre-production Sample
Aftershave: BullDog Original Aftershave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil. & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb
A number of my fellow wetshavers are extremely knowledgeable and enjoys sharing their labours of love. One of them is Glenn Conti, who knows more about Gillette adjustable razors than most shavers and collectors.
Glenn have put together a website detailing not only the details of how an adjustable razor work, not just pretty pictures of adjustable razors, not just how the Gillette adjustables evolved, but all that and much more. For example; I was clueless to the fact that including all variations there is about 150 distinct Gillette Adjustables out there, but Glenn have given more than enough detail to identify each one.
Glenn’s website is an invaluable resource for shavers and collectors alike, and I found it hard to close the window and go back to doing other things – the miscellaneous section in particular held my interest. The whole site is not only well written, but also well illustrated. A couple of examples:
Variations on parts used in the Fatboy razor. Some of the changes seems to have to do with function, some of them seems to be made for easier manufacture.
If you ever wondered how the gap changes on an adjustable, wonder no more. Glenn also details what the gap should be on each and every major variation of the Gillette Adjustables (apperantly my Slim is slightly milder than average).
So if you have a Gillette Adjustable, plan to get one, or just enjoys reading about razors in great detail, you owe yourself a visit to Glenns’s site.
Razor: Schick “Lady Eversharp”
Blade: Proraso Injector
Brush: Wilkinson Sword Badger
Pre-Shave: The Lavish Gentleman Natural Strength Oil Cleanser
Lather: Prairie Creations Walter
Aftershave: BullDog Original Aftershave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb
Razor: Schick “Lady Eversharp”
Blade: Proraso Injector
Brush: Vie-Long #13051M
Lather: Nivea Mild
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block, Gentlemen of Sweden Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb
One of the things that attract me to wetshaving as a hobby – and not just a daily moment of Zen, and a wonderful way to get the stubble of my face – is the deep passion and mountains of knowledge on the subject you find among fellow wetshavers and the willingness and enjoyment they have to share.
That is the main reason I’m active on the Shave Nook, write five blog posts per week, read several other blogs, pay attention to my twitter feed, browse YouTube, bury myself in old patents, and in general have a great time thinking about shaving when not actively lathering up.
So, case in point: there is a new, free* online magazine that covers wetshaving now… it has reviews, interviews, editorials, and articles – everything you’ll expect from a print magazine except the price tag.
I would suggest you check it out, and if you like what you read you can even join their mailing list.
*) Free as beer, that is.
Razor: Schick “Lady Eversharp”
Blade: Proraso Injector
Brush: Omega #10048
Lather: Dalane d’men Energenic
Aftershave: Body Shop Macau Root Energetic Face Protection
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb
Brushless creams saves time… or so I’m told. If you could do away with the whole ‘putting lather on before shaving’, it stands to reason that you should save even more time… or at least cut down on the clutter in the bathroom. So that might bave been on Kai Warming’s mind when he patented his “Shaving apparatus with supply of shaving liquid to the cutting edge” back in 1924.
Mr Warming – a Dane living in Copenhagen – stated in his patent that:
It is well known that shaving is rendered difficult if the lather or the shaving-liquid used is dried up or quite absorbed by the skin or the hair of the beard.
Hmm. Get a better shaving soap, or design an overly complex razor to supply the skin with a small quantity of suds or water? I think Kai had a little too much spare time…
So what he designed was a fairly normal DE, but with a hollow handle and small channels running from the hollow handle and into the base plate. As an added complexity – and possible to avoid spraying the bathroom with suds and water – he included a small rotating disk (S) in the channels, that let the shaver select which half of the razor water was spraying from as well as turning the spray on and off… at least until corrosion made the disk stick.
Just how the shaving liquid – be it “water, suds, glycerine, eau de cologne or olive oil” – was to be encouraged to move from the handle to the base plate is a little unclear to me; the patent mentions that the handle would be “displaceable as a unit by exertion of an axial pressure by hand, thereby supplying liquid from the said bore to the said cavity”… I can only read that as saying you would pump the handle to get liquid out.
The patent is long expired if a machinist out there feels adventurous… just don’t expect to sell much more than Kai did, even if you use olive oil as your shave liquid.
Razor: Schick “Lady Eversharp”
Blade: Proraso Injector
Brush: Semogue TSN LE 2012
Pre-Shave: The Lavish Gentleman Natural Strength Oil Cleanser
Lather: Asylum Shave Works Frankincense & Myrrh
Aftershave: Asylum Shave Works Frankincense & Myrrh
Additional Care: Alum Block, Gentlemen of Sweden Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb
Razor: Asylum Shave Works Evolution
Blade: PolSilver Super Iridium
Brush: Artesania Romera Manchurian Badger, imitation horn
Lather: Pereira Samle
Aftershave: Nivea Cooling After Shave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb
There is an interesting article over on Sharpologist (adblocker recomended) on “The Science Of Blade Sharpness”; states and graphs and other interesting reading that I found well worth the time.
Or you could just try a lot of different blades until you find the best one for you – something you should probably do anyway, but reading this article can give you an idea of where to begin.