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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.
New subscribers welcome!
Please visit our wiki, which is always and forever a work in progress.
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Our sister Mastodon instance is https://wetshaving.social/.
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Rule 1 - Behaviour and Etiquette
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Be Respectful. Do not bully, flame, or harass others.
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Malicious comments are not allowed but heated discussion and salty banter is okay.
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Low effort replies and complaints about content will be removed.
Rule 2 - Content Guidelines
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Mail Calls, Simple Questions, and SOTD posts belong in the recurring weekly threads.
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Posts must have sufficient content to generate a meaningful discussion.
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Images, links, or videos must include additional text that summarizes the topic.
Rule 3 - Reviews and Disclosure
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Use [First Impressions] in the title if your experience with the product is limited.
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Use the [Review] in the title if you can provide comprehensive details with enough familiarity to answer follow-up questions.
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Disclose how the product being reviewed was acquired (e.g., PIF, loan, or purchase). If the product was provided to you directly by the maker or vendor free of charge or at a discount, you must disclose this fact even if the item will later be returned to the maker or vendor.
Rule 4 - Advertising
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Vendors are to keep marketing within the biweekly Deals/New Products threads.
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Non-vendors may post topics about products if it will foster a compelling discussion.
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Do not solicit donations or share fundraisers without mod approval.
Rule 5 - Inappropriate Content
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All NSFW/L content must request mod approval and be flaired appropriately.
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Non-shaving related NSFW/L content is not allowed.
Rule 10 - Moderator Discretion
- The rules may not apply perfectly to every situation. The mods have final discretion.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
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We all know that the Type A was the first Magazine Repeating Razor. But nothing gets created in a vacuum, and Jacob Schick filed a patent for his first repeating razor as early as 1921. And while it could hold a blade pack in the handle as the later types A through C, the main magazine was in the razor’s head.
As I’ve said over and over again, an invention is an attempt to solve a problem. And reading Jacob’s patent, it is clear that his repeating razor was aimed at simplifying the act of changing blades. To quote:
This invention relates to an improved safety razor which is adapted to use what are commonly known as wafer blades, that is, thin blades, these blades being held within the razor and adapted to be fed therefrom into shaving position when desired, and can be pushed beyond the shaving position for ejection or either to be replaced by a new blade or for the purpose of washing the blade and the razor.
The idea was both simpler and more complex than the later Magazine Repeating Razors. Unlike the later, the head didn’t need to rotate through 90° to be reloaded. On the other hand, the relatively simple plunger hadn't come into existence yet. Instead the top plate of the head was made to pivot, controlled by the twisting of the handle.
Patent drawing from US patent 1,452,935
As can be seen from the drawing, the handle can rotate in relation to the neck and head. A spur gear is secured to the stem the handle rotates around. This spur gear interacts with a rack that connects to the top plate with a pair of lever arms.
Twist the handle in one direction, the used blade is ejected. Twist it in the opposite direction, an edge on the underside of the top plate picks up a new blade. Return the handle to the centre, and you’re good to shave.
It’s a fairly simple system, and it has both good points and bad points compared to the later Magazine Repeating Razors.
On the plus side, there is no blade carrier as you’ll find on the later repeating razors. No carrier means you can’t insert it the wrong way… which incidentally means that you’ll jam up the inner workings. And you can keep a spare pack of blades in the hollow handle.
As for the negatives? Well, the razor head don’t fold, meaning this repeating razor is less well suited for travel. The blade stack is kept close to the actual shave, so you’ll risk corrosion. And unless there is a detent, there is the chance of the handle twisting as you shave.
I can see why Jacob didn’t put this repeating razor into production. The later magazine repeaters are both more convenient with their folding heads, and there was less risk of carbon steel blades rusting. At the same time I can see this razor doing okay today, with stainless steel blades and less focus on portability.
You can read the full patent text for Jacob Schick’s first repeating razor at Google Patents.
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…at least if the old ad for the Bessegg blade is to be believed. Speaking as one of the menfolk, I’m inclined to agree.
I’ve talked about Bessegg before – covering both the blades and two ads for their razor. Today we have a blade advertisement, which according to the source is from 1935. The Bessegg factory operated from 1927 until 1961, so bare minimum the advertisement cannot be older or newer than that.
The Bessegg ad – talking to the menfolk
A quick translation;
We menfolk don’t like to buy “cheap”. We want something good – something first class – BESSEGG
BESSEGG BLADE
“The new quality” – 25 øre per blade – Norwegian and good
Cheap, in context, don’t mean inexpensive. It means something cheaply or shoddily made. And as one of the menfolk, I can attest that I don’t want a cheap blade in my razor – but I’m more than happy to buy inexpensive blades if they are good.
For context, 25 øre in 1935 is 16 kroner and 23 øre today – or 1.52 USD / 1.40 EUR / 1.20 GBP.
Per blade.
So not cheap in the more vernacular meaning of the word either.
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Disposable shaving brushes are something we’ve looked at before. As is brushes with replaceable – or exchangeable – knots. So in that respect the shaving brush with exchangeable fiber pad that Marguerite Faucon^1^ patented in 1921 isn’t earth shattering.
Marguerite ‘s brush with replaceable knot, or, as the original German patent calls it; Rasierpinsel mit auswechselbarem Faserbausch, is a pretty simple idea. But made delightfully complicated, if the drawing is anything to go by.^2^ There is claws, funnels, springs, and all sort of doodahs.
Patent drawing from German patent 321,121
I’ll let the machine translated text^3^ explain how it works:
The handle shown in Figs. 4 to 6 is designed so that the Bags can be inserted and removed particularly easily; it contains four resilient claws 16, which tend to spring apart and through a screw spindle 17 is attached to a tube 18. Slides over this pipe a sleeve; this consists of an inner cylindrical spout 19, an outer one Grommet 2o and a union nut 21 which is screwed onto the grommet 2o. The rotation the sleeve is prevented by a pin 22 which slides in a groove 23 of the tube and is prevented from sliding off the sleeve by catches 24, 25. As soon as the Sleeve is pushed up on the tube (Fig. 5), it presses the claws 16 together and forces them to clamp the fiber ball i between them. – Simultaneously slides a detachable one fastened in the sleeve Knife 7 over the cord or paper-existing binding of the puff i and cut it up. If you have the Sleeve down, the claws jump apart and let go of the bag, so that the fibers can now fall apart. The union nut 21 is used at the same time to detachably attach the knife 7 and likewise the spring 3 detachable hold back. One end of this spring engages in a recess 27 and in threaded pieces 28 on the union nut. When you pull the sleeve down goes down the feather and lets go of the fiber ball i, the one with a thin sheath may or may not be surrounded; accordingly is the removal and insertion of the pads very easy and quick.
Which all sounds like fun and games, but it comes down to the four claws holding the exchangeable knot securely until it was released. And when it was released the knot would fall apart, preventing reuse. In that respect this brush was very much like the one patented by Marguerite herself back in 1909.
That’s right. This patent is just an ‘improvement’ on an earlier patent. And by improvement I mean ‘more complicated’. Which goes counter to the principle that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.^4^
When I looked at Margureite’s earlier patent, I said that I saw no reason why it wouldn’t work as intended. From the vantage point of today, it was functional, but pointless. This ‘improved’ patent though? More moving parts, more fiddly bits, more stuff that can break. The only real improvement I can see is that the claws might hold the exchangeable knot more securely.
The rest of it? All I see is more complexity and less simplicity. Given a choice, I prefer the earlier idea.
You can read the machine translated patent text at Google Patents, and the German original at Espacenet.
- née Berger.
- Insert your own joke about Vorsprung durch Technik if you like.
- Denn meine Deutschkenntnisse sind sehr eingerostet.
- Paragraphed from Antoine de Saint Exupéry .
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