Is your bathroom chilly in winter? The the patented invention of Mr M M Gravin would be just the thing for you, despite the fact that the purpose of the invention was to provide for a more even shave.

It is a well-known fact in having with a razor that the heating of a razor blade, makes the razor blade out just that much better in shaving the beard. For this reason it is a frequent practice to dip the razor whether open edge or safety razor into hot water before the user shaves. The lather on the face cools the razor and lessen; the efficiency with which it cuts. This makes it necessary to frequently dip the razor in hot Water as the shaving progresses and makes the shaving uneven.

It’s not a well known fact any longer, so I’m not sure if this claim was pure hogwash or if it actually did make a difference with carbon steel blades.

An injector is one of those things I want to try at some point, but it seems that they are harder and more expensive to get hold of than good old DE’s or even out of production SE’s… but if Mr A F Terenzi’s invention had taken off back in ’58, they might have been a lot more common these days.

Taking advantage of the tab that sticks out the side of a dispenser of injector blades, he came up with a simple, seemingly easy to manufacture injector head that allowed the shaver to use the dispenser as a handle.

In the inventors own words, this addressed

the need for an economical razor to take the place of one forgotten or lost in transit or while travelling or when needed, particularly when unexpectedly called away from home or for use in guest rooms, hotels, motels or the like.

 In addition, the inventor pointed out that such a razor head would be semi-disposable:

…an improved, simplified razor blade holder utilizing injector type blades which are currently available and sold in injector blade dispensers, and which according to this invention the blade dispenser may be readily used in conjunction with the improved holder to provide a handle means therefore. As the improved holder of this invention can be economically manufactured, each injector blade dispenser may be provided with a novel holder of this invention so that a user may be provided with a fresh, clean razor with every purchase of such blades, and thereafter the holder may be discarded along with the blade dispenser upon exhaustion of the blade supply.

It is a shame this invention didn’t take off… I would much rather have found something like this in my hotel room than a cheap, plastic disposable, and it would have made a handy, compact travel razor.

More is better, right? And before we had razors with multiple blades, we had razor blades with multiple edges… and if two edges (DE) is good, then three or four edges must be better!

I suspect that was the line of logic Mr J K Waterman followed in 1909 when he applied for a US patent. In is own words, the object of his invention was to provide to the public:

…a safety razor which will be adaptable to all portions of the face, and which will have a great extent of cutting edge, and withal will’ be simple of construction and convenient of manipulation in assembling and separating its parts…

The actual design don’t look too bad, even if getting the curvature right on the head must have been tricky – a regular DE is a two dimensional curve (yes, even a slant), whereas Mr Waterman’s invention required a head curved in three dimensions.

The sticking point with this razor is the blades though… as can be seen in the drawing, they have the shape of a Maltese cross, and would be much costlier and more difficult to manufacture than regular DE blades. Shame really, because the idea of four edges is oddly tempting.

Magnets, how do they work? Apparently well enough to sharpen razor blades…

Mr J A Nones was granted a patent for a self sharpening razor in 1933 that employed the power of magnets to keep the blade sharp and the razor head clunky…

In the inventors own words from the patent description:

…a safety razor with means for automatically sharpening or readjusting the minute particles of the functional or executive edges of the blade…

… a safety razor of the type noted with a magnetic means by which the edges of the wafer-blade may be reconditioned or sharpened…

According to my invention, the extremities of the pole portions of the magnet are inwardly curved toward the guard fingers 10 and terminate midway the length of the downwardly extending portions of said fingers; and said terminal portions or poles of the magnet are spaced apart from but are close to the line of guard fingers from end-to-end of the razor. The pole terminals of the magnet are also arranged sufficiently close to the cutting edges of the razor blade to exercise the necessary magnetic attraction for the minute deflected portions, produced during the course of shaving or while the blade is in use. It is this forceful attraction which reconditions the edges of the blade and sharpens the same, and restores the so-called teeth of said razor blade’edges to the normal plane of the blade-body.

It is my belief that the huge success of Mr Nones’ razor in the marked place clearly shows how effective magnets are for keeping your razorblades sharp. If you put this invention in a pyramid – which as we all know keeps milk fresh and razors sharp – it is quite possible you’ll end up going back in time… or just look like a fool.