Tag Archives: Thoughts while shaving

What goes in the GoBag?

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When I talk about my GoBag, I talk about the bag I grab whenever I have to go somewhere for my job – for training, classes or other happenings that usually means long days and little sleep. But no sleep for several days in a row don’t mean that you have to end up as a shambling, unkempt zombie… on the contrary; with the right gear in the GoBag and a fifteen minute break you can be a neat and dapper walking dead (lets face it; shaving does not replace sleep).

So what goes in my GoBag to allow me to manage this transformation? Not a whole lot to be honest… have a look:
From the back and left:
  • Alum stick in a travel container
  • A travel sized thing of Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum aftershave
  • A bottle of WSP Matterhorn beard oil
  • A small styptic pencil, just in case
  • A BEA shavestick
  • An Omega #50014 travel brush
  • A “Khaki Kit” with a vintage Gillette Old and a pack of blades

I haven’t had to use the styptic pencil yet, and I’ve just switched from my vintage one hundred and one year old original khaki kit to a modern recreation I received recently.

While I could streamline it further by changing to smaller bottles for the aftershave and beard oil, I wouldn’t really save much space… and since coworkers with less forethought or packing skills sometimes ask if they could borrow a little, it’s nice to have extra.
As you can see, it don’t take a lot if items to have a good shave while on the Go… and not a lot of space either.

…like climbing ten flights of stairs

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If you are still depending upon the barber or old fashioned razor you are in the same category with the man who climbs ten flight of stairs when there is an elevator in the building.

While there is many things we can gleam from this advertisement from May 1908 – one of which is the almost curious lack of contractions (“you are” instead of “you’re” in the small excerpt I copied above) – the two that stands out to me is the fact that a safety razor with a dozen blades set you back a mere 5 USD, and you could get combination sets for tens times that price.
Adjusting for a hundred and eleven years of inflation, that equals about 140 USD for a single razor with blades, and a whooping 1400 USD for the most expensive set…

More razor infrastructure – the art of the sale

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So you invented a safety razor. You designed the machinery for making blades cheaply and easily. But until you can convince shavers to buy your razor, you’re nowhere close to turning every man into his own barber.
Selling is – I’m told – mainly about presentation, double so when selling to a merchant. And who wants to rummage around in a dark box to pick up a cased razor? So Gillette bought out a patent by Mr Nelson H Fairweather for a suitable display case; one I think would be well suited to a travelling salesman peddling his wares to merchants.

The mechanism is simple, yet elegant… as the lid opens, the tray with the wares lifts up and locks in place – a neat little trick, just the thing to lend a little extra to your sales pitch.

WTB: G-type injector

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I’ve realised that my only injector probably feels lonely, and is in the market for a reasonable priced G-type injector. Preferable without cracks in the handle, case optional, must be in good working order although scratches and plating loss is okay. In other words; I’m looking for a user grade razor.

Contact me over at the Shave Nook, or email me directly.

The back end of safety razors: Grinding machine and machine for printing and for other purposes

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Often when people talk of people inventing safety razors, they dive into the shape of the top cap, how the base plate was curved, the way the handle was attached and all those bits and pieces the end-user – ie.: the shaver – saw and used.

A lot of what made and broke early safety razors was the “back end” though… the infrastructure to supply consumables. For a razor using a wedge blade this would be a non-issue but if your razor and business idea depended on replacing the blades on a regular basis, you needed to make sure that you could keep up a steady supply of identical blades that are easily recognised as being yours.

Enter left; two early Gillette patents describing just that: A grinding machine that allowed for fast, easy and repeatable sharpening of the blades in an industrial setting, and a machine especially suitable for printing on both sides of a razor blade of the Gillette type.

The sheer size of the patents is perhaps indicative to just how important building the proper infrastructure is… while the original Gillette safety razor had one (1) page of illustrations, while these two patents have nineteen total. And these two devices don’t cover the whole process of making and packaging blades, only two steps among many from the moment rolls of raw steel bands entered the factory until tucks of finished blades were packed in boxes and shipped from the factory.

The OCR is horrendous on both patents, but the images are both clear, detailed and interesting for anyone with a mechanical bent

The grinding machine, US 1 126 839:

The machine for printing and for other purposes, US 1 075 989:

Too hot to shave…

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As you probably are aware, there is a heatwave in Europe these days… so I find it’s simply too hot to shave. 28°C in the shave den this morning, which don’t make it too inviting to stay in there for any amount of time.
On the bright side, the forecast is stating that the temperature should go down next week.

Everything old is new again, again

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…and again, and again.

Heated razors is an age old quest. Gillette just dropped one, which seems to have impressed Mark over on the Sharpologist, and in their typical over the top marketing Gillette seems to be pushing this since the best shave ever… A hint for P&G: if you need to advertise the fact that your razor is waterproof, you’ve likely made an overly complicated razor.

Electrically heated razors isn’t a new idea by far, even if the latest itteration seems both more complicated* and far safer to use than some of the older ideas**.

While I can’t be completly sure, I’m reasonable satisfied that the current offering is based on a patent I found that was filed in in 2008 and assigned to the Gillette company – the patents describe a great many of the same features as the ads do.

…safety razor comprises a handle 14, a cartridge 15 with a safety device 18, a plate 24 and blades 30 between them. Inside the cartridge there is a heat-dispersive strip 40 and a heating element 45 with a resistive element 46 and an insulating element 50. The safety device comprises an electrical circuit providing power supply to the resistive element that provides heat to the heat-dispersive strip so that it imposes warmth to skin of the user during shaving.

The patent also lists twenty seven (27!) citations that predates it… and I found quite a few patents for heated razors that isn’t listed in the application.

Barra Charles  filed a version all the way back in 1923. If you think the plug looks kind of odd it’s because you’re meant to screw it into a light bulb socket… so no chance of grounding it.

…electrically heat safety razors in such a manner that they may be conveniently used while being heated and that the heat may be maintained during the shaving operation at any desired temperature, whereby I am enabled to obtain the advantageous results of smoothness and comfort during shaving and to avoid infections of the skin which frequently occur from the use of unsterilised razors.

Charles Barra also filed a heated straight razor in 1923, or rather an attachment that turned your straight into a heated razor:

A razor blade heated to such a temperature will make shaving of a persons face more comfortable and the resulting shave will be more satisfactory than where the face is shaved with a cold razor. 

…using an electric heater disposed at a suitable distance from the cutting edge of the blade, and in thermal relation thereto, which heater may be supplied with current from an ordinary electric service outlet, whereby the blade may be heated to and maintained at a sterilisation temperature both while not in use and while in the act of shaving.

(As a side note, sterilisation temperature is about 80°C (175°F) for almost all bacteria, yeast, and fungi… 80°C is enough to cause second and third degree burns in less than one second.)

In 1933 Pirwitz Emil filed for a safer variation, which required plugging and unplugging the razor:

…the invention employs a heating bolt disposed in the handle of the razor and made of material that is a good heat conductor, such as metal, the bolt iilling the entire handle from one end to the other and being adapted after one heating to keep the razor heated during an entire shaving operation without a new supply of heat.

…a bolt of this type permits the use of the razor without the dangers resulting from keeping the razor under current during the shaving operation. 

Mr Pirwitz also showed an interesting variation in the same patent:

 Look at figures 3 and 4; it’s a regular safety razor inserted into the heating device… which I presume you could either use while inserted in the bulky heater or take out and burn your fingers badly while shaving.

Thomas J Henderson and Leon Henderson aimed for cool hands in their 1935 patent:

The primary object of our invention is to provide in a safety razor a handle thereof which in use will apply heat only to the desired portion of the razor, that is, the head and blade, but will maintain a cool handle or grip.
A further object of our invention is to provide an electrically heated safety razor handle which is readily adapted for use on any suitable razor head.

Or how about this one from 1942, patented by Moses M Gravin?

…a safety razor with an electrically heated heating element therein which transmits an even heat to the razor blade and keeps it warm or hot during the shaving operation.
One of the objects of my invention is to heat the razor blade by conduction through a metallic element. I Another object of my invention is to provide ventilation between the heating element and the handle so that the handle will be cooled by the circulation of air.

In 1948 James Russel Hunt filed for a heated razor that allowed the shaver to adjust the current going into the razor by means of a rheostat:

..an electro-thermic shaver of the safety razor type which is adapted to directly heat the razor blade by heat conduction through a metallic element having a high coefficient of thermal conductivity such as copper.
…a heat control unit to permit the heat to be regulated by the user to produce various heat temperatures.

So as can be seen, the desire to make a heated razor is almost as old as Gillettes original safety razor… there is nothing new under the sun, nor in the shave den – except this time the offering isn’t that much bulkier than a regular razor, nor does it offer the exciting chance of electrocuting yourself while shaving.

*) It has overheat protection, two levels of heating, onboard battery with wireless charging, microcontroller, wobbly blades… I suspect the lats bit is unintentional
**) Hook your ungrounded razor up to the light fixture in your bathroom.. what can go wrong?

Gillette Adjustable resource site

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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.


Gillette Adjustable Razors

Pictures in this post is from Glenn Conti’s website, copyrighted by Glenn Conti, and are used with permission.

Wetshavers Digest – a free, online magazine

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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.

Brushless razor?

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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.