A little while ago I posted about two shaving kits disguised as pens. One was a pen style shavette patented in 1921, the other a single edge hoe razor from 1947. But what if you reached into your breast pocket for a pen, perhaps to sign some important document? What a bummer it would be if all you found was several razors, and no pen. What you would need is some form of combined writing instrument and shaver’s kit…which is just what Harry I Schwartz and Joseph H Rothstein filed a patent for in 1934.

A little while ago I posted a quick thing about a Schick Auto-Band Razor advertisement. In that post I mentioned that the Gillette Techmatic have been called… well… let’s just say that some online sources are less than impressed. And within hours of me putting out a twitter post about it, a fellow Norwegian wetshaver, twitterer, and blogger proved for me one of the core tenants of traditional wetshaving: Your Mileage Will Vary. And it Will Vary considerable too.