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WetShaving
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This is a community of enthusiasts, hobbyists and artisans who enjoy a traditional wet shave: brush, soap, and safety or straight razor. We are a part of the WetShaving community found on Reddit, Discord, and IRC.
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…in addition to being self-stropping. According to the advertisement, that is. Just how instantly adjustable it truly was is a different matter. I do suspect less so than the copywriter claimed.
Valet 1918 advertisement
By a touch on the adjusting lug you can vary the distance between the blade and the guard with supreme precision and accuracy, according to the toughness of your beard or the tenderness of your skin.
From what I can tell, the “adjusting lug” they are talking about is the lever you use to release the blade for stropping. Which means that if you use it to lift the blade away from the guard, the blade is less well supported for the actual shaving.
And I might be less tough and more tender… but I do not want to shave with an unsupported blade.
As for what an instantly adjustable Valet would cost you.. .21 shilling is 1.05 pounds, also known as one Guinea (British pre-decimal currency was weird). and if we adjust for inflation, that would be 49.39£ (57.70€ / 61.89$ / 670.05 NOK) today. Not a cheap razor, but not terrible expensive either.
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A couple of months ago, @EldrormR@sub.wetshaving.social loaned me some GEM razors including a beautiful Ever-Ready Streamline. His was in a plastic (or maybe bakelite?) case. "Streamline" has become the vernacular for referencing any of the various razors that look like a "Streamline". They come in various packaging, which differentiates them for collectors.
Anyway, I fell in love and started to casually keep an eye out for one. They are notoriously hard to come by, especially in the USA. Nevertheless, one fell in my lap! A nice one, too!
Specifically, the one I got is called an Ever-Ready Jewel because it comes in a metal case, and although mine doesn't have the "paperwork", these metal cases came with an insert that called it "Jewel".
Most of these have purple felt inside the case. The one I got has red felt.
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Share your shave of the day!
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Not only did Jacob Schick think up various repeating magazine razors – he also came up with the idea of a combined sales package and razor. Or, put another way, a razor blade dispenser with a built in razor. Or, arguably, a disposable razors that came with a supply of blades.
And the one I’ll discuss today isn’t even his first one… but the improved version.
Both versions of the combined sales package and razor aimed making a small and convenient blade package and razor that could fit in your vest pocket. Having looked at both, this version is smaller, handier, and requires less parts. Which is good when the whole point is to make it cheap. Or as the patent put’s it:
This invention relates to an improved article which forms a shaving unit and consists of a combined blade package and razor, the blade package being in the form of a sales package so that the article can be supplied filled with blades and has an opening through which the blades can be fed, one at a time. It is preferably made so that it will be difficult to refill it all this in view of the fact that a large supply of blades can be furnished with the package and the whole device is so cheap that when the supply of blades is exhausted the article can be thrown away.
The whole thing takes the form of a small aluminium box, about as tall as it is wide. The blade looks to be about the size of an injector blade. If so the sales package and razor would be about 4 cm (1 6/10 inches) square, and about 1 cm ( 2/5 inches) thick. It’s partly a machined aluminium lump, and partly sheet metal cover.
Patent drawing from US patent 1,767,707
One half of the package was a blade dispenser. A slit in the end allowed the user to slide blades. And a pair of springs and a plate kept pressure on the stack of blades.
The other half of the combination package and razor is, unsurprisingly, the razor. A guard is machined into the metal body that makes up the box. The sheet metal cover forms the top cap and blade retainer. The guard and blade is covered with a, well, cover.
To change the blade, the user would press on the back of the combined sales package and razor. This would bend the sheet metal cover into an recess machined into the aluminium body, which would bend the top cap up. A quick shake would release the old blade. The old blade could then be user to push a new blade out enough for it to be pulled or pushed the rest of the way. Another push on the back would oven the cap again, so the new blade could be installed.
All in all it’s a handy little package. And while it might be a little more awkward to shave with than most razors, it would still make for a handy travel razor. Or a neat razor to keep in your vest pocket, so you can have a quick shave when you need one.
I can also see this being cast from a cheaper alloy like zamak, of even from injection moulded plastic. The only real drawback I see is the awkward shape. That, and the fact that the market today is overfilled with inexpensive disposable razors.
You can read the full patent for Jacob’s combined sales package and razor at Google Patents.
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Schick didn’t go directly from his first patent to the Type A. In between he patented a second repeating razor, that has a fair bit in common with the first patent.
Unlike the first patent, the second patent specifically mentions the use of a blade package. It extols the virtue of the package as a sanitary improvement. To quote:
The holder and the stack of blades in it form a unit that can be inserted into the razor without the user handling an individual blade either to in sort it in the holder or to place it in shaving position. The holder and the blades form an expendable unit so that the purchaser simply inserts the filled holder into the razor and after the blades are used up the holder is thrown away. This not only provides for economy in manufacture and saves time in using the razor, but it also guards against injury as the user need not handle an individual blade at any time.
Furthermore, this package insures a sanitary razor as when the packing of blades in a holder is done automatically the individual blades need not be handled by anyone from the time they are packed until they are used for shaving.
Conceptually there is not that much difference between Jacob’s first and second repeating razor. On both you manipulated part of the razor to make the top cap move back and forth.
But the devil is in the details, as always.
Patent drawing from US patent 1,584,811
Instead of twisting the handle back and forth, on the second patent you twisted the knob at the bottom. This moved – through a cam and a bell crank – the top plate back far enough that it would pick up a blade from the magazine. Twisting the knob further would cause the top plate would swing forward, ejecting the old blade and presenting a new one for use.
Or as the patent text puts it:
The means shown for operating the top plate consists of an arm 17 which is pivoted on a pin 18, this pivotal point being the center of the radius of the opposed faces of the top plate and the guard. The arm has an extension 19 which fits in a slot 20 in a collar 21 thus forming a cam on the end of the stem 22 the projecting end 23 of which is beyond the end of the handle and thus available for easy manipulation.
It will be seen from this that when the finger piece 23 is turned the cam groove 20 will actuate the finger 19 and this in turn swings the arm 17 which being secured to the top plate moves the top plate to the desired position. Suitable insignia can be placed on the finger piece or handle to indicate relative positions and directions of operation for placing the blade.
There are three major improvements, as I see them, in Jacob’s second repeating razor.
Firstly, the mechanism is a fair bit neater. Gone are the rack and spur gears, replaced by a cam and a bell crank. The back and forth motion is replaced by a full rotation of the knob.
Secondly, the blades are kept in a carrier. This means that the shaver won’t have to manipulate a stack of thin, razor sharp razor blades.
And thirdly, it just looks better.
The downsides are much the same as in the first patent. The head don’t fold, meaning it is less suitable as a travel razor. And the blade magazine is right up by the wet end… which could cause carbon blades to rust. With modern stainless blades, the risk of corrosion is much reduced.
My only concern is that the short end of the bell crank that rides in the cam track looks a bit flimsy. Apart from that, I would buy this razor if someone manufactured it today.
You can read the full patent for Jacob’s second repeating razor at Google Patents.
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