Continuing on from Tuesday…

From what I can tell, the head of the TechMatic was replaced with every cartridge – which means that the shave could change from cartridge to cartridge. We all know that the quality control on disposable cartridges isn’t always top notch and it would only take a couple of misaligned cartridges for the razor to gain a reputation as a face-shredder. Since cartridges are no longer made for them, there is basically no way to know today if the reputation as a horrible razor is deserved or not.

Looking at an open cartridge, it’s obvious to me that keeping tension on the band will be a major challenge – and one more place where quality control can fail.

Also, I have learned that there were many band razors out there in addition to the Gillette TechMatic;

The Wanie Rollband was razorblades on a roll for use in your regular razor.

The Razor Six had positive control of the blade and tension via a toothed wheel, but required the user to snap off the used portion of the band.

The Reel Watch Razor had a take-up spool like the TechMatic

The Warder-Hudnut Reelshav looked like a audio cassette.

And the Schick Auto-Band which was Schick’s counter to the TechMatic, and even looks much the same.

People been spending a lot of energy making the basic idea work over the years…

There is one added benefit for using proper shaving creams, as opposed to the canned goo; so called friends can never freeze your creams, use a hacksaw to open the can, and dump the resulting mess in your car where the resulting mess will thaw, expand and fill every nook and cranny…