Single-edge Razors

I've just recently been re-introduced to single-edge razors (after having *not* used one in more years than I can remember), and now I'm really tossed about which razor is my favorite. More investigation and experimentation is needed.

 GEM Junior

GEM and Star (the original "safety razor" as made by the Kampfe Brothers in 1880) are the two most prolific brands you'll find available these days. These old razors are finding a gaining popularity among wet-shavers, with their prices reflecting this. Still, the GEM Junior pictured above was had for a mere ten bucks...and gives a most triumphant shave. It's all brass with a solid handle, giving it noticeable heft, but is a true pleasure to use due to its small size. Added cool factor: the sound of whiskers being mowed down as it glides across your face. 

 Schick-Eversharp razor with injector

Injector razors are another single-edge design, the brain-child of Col. Jacob Schick. He based the concept of the injector on the loading of a repeating rifle (hence the name of his company, the "Magazine Repeating Razor Co.", founded in 1925); blades were contained in a spring-loaded "clip" that had a "key" which is inserted into the razor. A slide is pulled back, engaging the first blade, then pushed forward to force the blade into the razor (pushing the old blade out if one was previously loaded). Pull the "key" out, and the razor is ready to use. A really cool "lock 'n' load" feeling, this. Schick, of course, PAL (both fixed and adjustable) and Personna are the most common vintage injectors to be found.

Double-edge Razor *blades*

Now that you know a bit about the razors, let's take a look at the blades. And there are probably twice as many blade versions as there are razors. Old-school blades are carbon steel, and subject to rust if not dried after using; stainless steel blades came out around 1930, became thinner, then coated for a smoother shave. Most modern blades are made overseas, with Gillette having licensed plants in Russia and India. Most blades come in packs (or "tucks") of 5 or 10, individually wrapped in paper with the flap glued once, twice, and sometimes in four spots. Blades can be uncoated, chrome, platinum, or Teflon-coated (these are my favorites, and give me the smoothest shave of the lot). To give you an idea of the variety of blades out there, here's a list of mine:

Gillette (Platinum, Platinum Plus, Silver Blue, Rubie, four different "7 o'clock blades", and Gillette Wilkinsons); BIC Chrome Platinum; Feather; KAI; Derby Extra; Dorco ST300 and ST301; Shark Super Chrome; SuperMax Platinum; Polsilver (both Super Iridium and the Lodz blades; Personna Meds, Reds, and Crystals; Astra Superior Platinum; Treet Dura-Sharp and Platinum; Laser Super Platinum; Voskhod Teflon-coated (and probably a half-dozen other Russian blades); Bolzano; Lord Super Chrome and Platinum Classics; Perma-Sharp Super; Schick Plus Platinum and Super Chromium; and a mix of others I can't recall right now. A rare bird I recently acquired is a Schick "twin" double-edge blade...

Finding the right mix of razor & blade can be a daunting task, because preparation and your own skin & whiskers play a big part in finding the right combination as well. Like they say, "Your mileage may vary."

Double-edge Razors

Since I started out collecting double-edge Gillette razors, let's start there...first, a little history.

King Camp Gillette (what a name, huh?) is the name everyone knows when it comes to razors & blades. Although there were already several models of safety razors on the market, Gillette was the guy who is best-known for inventing the cheap, disposable razor blade, which is where he made his money: sell the razor cheap, and make profits off the blades. Just like HP does with printers and ink cartridges.

And he's made a ton of money ever since.

 Our Founder

Anyway, Gillette double-edge razors come in a wide variety of models and sub-models. My personal collection consists of an Old Style, a NEW, a Goodwill (these three razors being open comb), six Techs (including two Contracts and an English-made), a 1941 Ranger Tech, a 1946 Ranger Tech hybrid (being a '46 Ranger head on a '48 SS handle), an Aristocrat, a dozen Super Speeds, and four adjustables. A good example of different sub-models are the Super Speeds: I have the Ranger hybrid, a standard 40's style (1954) Super Speed, two Milords (a no-notch '47 and a '51), two black-tips (steel and aluminum handles), a blue-tip, a red-tip, a '58 TV Special, and a black resin-handle. Even between my '56 and '61 flare-tips, there is a slight variation in the handle (the band above the TTO knob is wider on the '56 than on the '61).

A sampling of Super Speeds

Among my Tech (three-piece) razors, I have a pre-war Heavy (the slots in the safety bar are triangular; post-war Techs have oval-shaped slots), a post-war ball-end, a '65 English-made Tech, and two Contract Techs (Gillette suspended civilian production during WWII, and made several different models under government contract: my two are both fluted steel-handled, one being black with a nickel base plate and the other gold).

A few Techs

 The four adjustable razors I have are a '59 "Fat Boy" (named for the slightly larger diameter handle, and also known as the "195" because it originally cost $1.95), a '65 Slim (with a slender handle), and a pair of '74 Super Adjustables (with black resin handles, one being a Super 84, 84mm handle length, and a Super 109, 109mm handle length).

My adjustables

 There are two additional variations of the Fat Boy: a "Red Dot" (having a painted red dot for an adjustment marker), and the rare "bottom dial" (the adjustment dial is placed just above the TTO knob). Interesting, and costly. There is also the aforementioned Toggle adjustable, which comes in a 5-position and a later 9-position model. (The adjustment dial on all models sets the blade gap from "1", which is mild, to "9", or more aggressive.) 

I've only three open comb razors: the Old style (which originally took the old three-hole blade), a Goodwill (more on that in a bit), and a NEW (made for the new Gillette slotted blade). My Old is a short comb, while the other two are long comb (the length of the (teeth) on the base plate). Old style razors were notorious for the handles splitting at both the bottom and top plugs, as they were separate pieces and pressed into the brass handle tube.

Open comb razors

 Now, about the Goodwill: King Gillette gave these razors away when a customer bought a ten-pack of his new style slotted blades for $1. Mine, the 160, has two studs milled into the base plate which correspond to two indentations in the cap. Other models had holes cut in the cap to mate with these studs, while others still had slots at the center stud.

*whew*

 Confused yet?

Well, gee...what kind of razors are there?

Man is an ingenious creature. I reckon the very first razor was nothing more than a sharp-edged rock or seashell. And look what he's advanced to...

heh.

Sure, there are a slew of multi-blade cartridge razors out there, but how many would be worth collecting? Let's stick with the most commonly-found classics.

Single-edge razors use a blade with one edge that's been honed; the other edge is sometimes covered with a narrow strip of metal (called a "spine"). You've probably seen single-edge razor blades at hardware stores, although they probably aren't what you'd want to shave with. Basically, the top (or "cap") of the razor flips up, a blade is placed on the base plate, and the top closed, exposing the single sharp edge. A variation of single-edge razors is the injector; each narrow blade is encased in a mechanical loader that is inserted into one side of the razor by way of a built-in "key". A slide forces a new blade into the razor while pushing an old blade out (if one is loaded). Some injectors are fixed (as far as mildness or aggressiveness), while some are adjustable (the blade gap can be set for both mild and and aggressive to a varying degree). Straight razors are also considered single-edge, but they're scary, and I don't wanna go there. 

Double-edge razors have blades with both edges sharpened. Razors are typically the three-piece (the handle is unscrewed from a stud on the cap, which protrudes through the base plate). The older models had two studs in the cap and used blades with three holes to keep the blade aligned. The slot and diamond pattern in the blades we use now came out around 1930. The other type of double-edge razor is the twist-to-open (TTO); a knob at the base of the handle is turned to open and close "butterfly" doors in the head, where the blade is loaded. Like the injector razor, TTO razors can also be fixed (but of varying degrees of blade gap, like the mild Blue-tip and more aggressive Red-tip), or adjustable (which can be sub-divided into Slim, Fat Boy, short and long Super Adjustable, and the rare toggle). There are fancy TTOs, such as Aristocrats, or Plain Janes like a flare-tip or a "40's style".

As you can see, you can get pretty involved with even one type, Like Super Speeds, for example, which began (by name) in 1947 (the 1946 Ranger Tech is considered the forefather; but if you include it, you may as well include the 1941 Ranger) through 1988. Here is an excellent guide to all that is Super Speed. And here is a good pictorial on classic Tech razors.    

So, wha'cha interested it?

First things first, I reckon. If you're going to collect something, you have to decide what it is you're going to collect. One particular brand, one particular style, one particular period of time...

 Since I already had one Gillette, it only made sense for me to stick with Gillettes. What I didn't realize (until soon after I started) was the vast number of Gillettes there were. Old, NEW, NEW Improved, Goodwill, open comb (the ones with teeth), safety bar, Tech, TTO (twist to open), pre-war, war production, post-war, SS (Super Speed), adjustables...not to mention the variations within each type. Or maybe you'll get lucky and score a "hybrid", one made with a combination of old and new parts (Gillette was known for using leftover parts in newer models to save production costs)...

 1946 Ranger Tech head on a 1947 Super Speed handle

How to wade through all the confusion? Research. And the Interwebz. Ah, a marvelous thing is the Interwebz. Here, you'll find the ShaveWiki, a personal site devoted to vintage Gillette safety razors, numerous Gillette date code sites, plus forums containing more information than you could ever need. You may have to register in order to view any posted images, but you'll also be able to ask any questions you have about a particular razor you might find. Which leads us to...

...where do you find these things? Well, eBay is a good place to start. Sure, some of the prices are inflated, but I've seen the same in second-hand shops and "antique stores". Here is where your research pays off. Say you have your eye on a post-war, ball-end Tech, but the guy wants $40 for it. Gee, awful steep, you think. Sure does look good, though, like it's never been used. But you'd have to want it real bad to pay that much. So, you go to your forum and search "Gillette ball end Tech" to see who's saying what about it. You'll be able to figure out what a decent price would be. Back to the auction site, you do a similar search. Find all the ball end Techs listed, starting with those ending the earliest; if nothing's interesting, try the newly listed ones, then the "Buy It Now" listings with the lowest priced listed first. If nothing still comes up, be patient. There will always be another that shows up. But as you'll soon see, things can get complicated at times.

Be wary of listings that might be questionable. The razor pictured above was listed as a "Super-rare '46 Super Speed!" But the Super Speed wasn't named as such until 1947. The '46 was a Ranger Tech. Images posted showed a no-notch center bar (as was also stated in the description); I knew beforehand that Gillette notched the center bar in 1948 so as to simplify loading the blade from their new dispenser. An image posted that showed an inside view of the base plate revealed there were no creases where the safety bar joins.

Took some digging, but I found that Gillette started using creased base plates sometime in 1947. But what about the handle? A 1946 Ranger has a smooth band just above the TTO knob. This one is checkered like the rest of the handle. More digging found that a 1947 SS had a flat "shoulder" milled into the neck where it joins the handle. So the handle had to at least be a 1948. It looked like a clean, solid razor, too, so I snatched it up.

Was it worth the $39 I paid for it? I think so.

Shaving doesn't have to be a chore.

I used to think it was...for almost my entire life, I had a job that required me to wear one uniform or another (and therefore required me to be clean-shaven). So, I was always having to scrape my face before going to work.

On the few occasions I could grow a beard, it always turned out to be a pitiful exercise in futility. One, my whiskers didn't grow evenly. I'd have bare spots on my cheeks. Now, I could grow chin whiskers just fine...which leads me to my second point. Itching. After about a week, I couldn't take it anymore, and they'd have to come off. Quite the conundrum.

In my 40-some-odd years of shaving, I've used just about everything short of a straight razor. Truth is, my hands aren't that steady, and I'd probably cut my head off. I don't recollect what my first razor was, but more than likely it came out of a bag of cheap disposables. I tried electric razors, too, but they felt like the whiskers were being ripped out of my face instead of being cut cleanly like on the TV commercials. I do recollect having a three-piece travel razor and several different types of cartridge razors. After 20 years or so, I wound up with a '70s black-handled Gillette Super Speed. It came with me when I moved to Austin back in 2003. I was also using a myriad of disposables...cheap no-names from a plastic bag, a women's Venus a friend had given me (don't laugh; that thing could literally fly over my face and give me the closest shave)...but for some reason, I got rid of the Super Speed and scored a '65 (K4) Slim Adjustable. I'd been using a Czech-made brush, too, using whatever soap I could get at HEB's in a Homer Laughlin coffee mug (I used to collect restaurant china years ago). The pucks were cheaper than the canned stuff and lasted longer. I'm a horrible tightwad, but I digress.

Old Faithful

So, about a year ago I started searching online (can't say why 'cuz I don't know why) about wet shaving. Could have been the fact that my brush had shed most of its bristles. Or maybe I was getting bored with Slim (after 8 or 9 years). Whatever the reason, I joined an online shaving forum and caught a severe case of RAD (Razor Acquisition Disorder) and have been hooked ever since. I now have 29 vintage Gillette double-edge (DE) razors, and just started on single-edge (SE) injectors (waiting for the mailman to bring me some blades for my newly-acquired Schick Type L, as stores don't seem to carry them). 

Of course I had to get blades for all these treasures, so after doing some research, I now have over 1300 blades of some 35 or so different varieties (the $5 plastic fishing tackle boxes were tailor-made for razor blade storage). I do get carried away sometimes.

There's method to my madness, of course. Several years ago, I gave my oldest grandson my coin collection. Some +400 coins from over a hundred different countries, all neatly displayed in three zippered Meade binders. My youngest grandson will get my collection of 30-some-odd vintage coffee pots. Soon, the middle kid will get the majority of these (some I'll keep for my own personal use, of course). Are they worth anything? Maybe not...the most I'd spent on any one razor was like 47 bucks for a 1947 Milord, and the least was $5.50 for a post-war Heavy Tech (an excellent razor, btw). Are they "collector grade"? While some do appear like-new, they are all common and easily obtainable razors. Not like a Red-dot Toggle or something. A razor, like anything else, is only worth what you're willing to pay. Will they ever be worth anything? Who knows? By the time the kid gets my age, maybe so. A couple of things for certain, though...they are all good, clean user-grade razors, and they're all pretty damned cool.