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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This month is traditionally not one of my favourites. Typically it’s cold out and the holiday season has never interested me much. I’m kind of a scrooge and I have little explanation as to why, even a slightly warmer winter so far has yet to brighten my mood.
I’ve ordered a couple new sets before shipping gets totally messed up. Looking forward to trying out some new stuff as it’s been quite some time since my last spending spree.
Have a great day everyone!
Nothing to worry about, I'm also more of a Grinch in regards to Christmas. Hence I never had problems with working on the holidays, which is especially common in my profession (nursing). Plus you get some bonus payments for working late or night shifts on these days. I mean, I enjoy being together with my family (even though it's just my parents nowadays) and drinking some mulled wine... Even the winter weather only bothers me while driving. But the traditional german Christmas shenanigans over here, with all the christmas markets, lousy music and all the food? Egh. Humbug.
Enjoy your new sets!
So I was poking around on the ‘net, as one does.
And I found this:
All I know is that it’s marked “Mrk. W.Krags patent, Augsburg”, likely is from somewhen between 1880 and 1900, and probably is German.
Anyone have any pointers?
Where did you find that? And do you know whether it's shaving related?
Found it at Digitalmuseum.no - an online, digital collection of the archives of most Norwegian museums.
The item is at the Norwegian Museum of Technology, and they are the ones who identify it as a razor.
If "Hovel" is the tool you flatten wood with, that's the traditional German word for razors that are neither straights, nor cartridge razors (Rasierhobel).
I have never seen any contraption like this before, and I don't see clearly where's the edge, or how you would shave with it.
Edit:The wooden screw seems to be the (open) comb, and the metal screw might fix/adjust the blade of some sort. On your second link I guess that you can see more clearly. I would guess that the the razor rests on the skin with the two wooden elements, and the blade is kept away from your skin only by the distance it introduces with the wooden rolls. So basically, there's no topcap - or also, it's like a modern SE razor, but somehow assembled in the wrong way.
Høvel is indeed the word for a wood plane - as well as a razor, and a cheese slicer. WE make some words do a lot of heavy lifting in Norway :P
Now that I'm not sick, I'll see if I can't learn more about this contraption.
Unfortunately no idea. I tried Google Lens on it and the AI gave me everything from old woodworking equipment to "Bohnenschneidemaschine" (bean cutting machine). Also, no useful results for searching W. Krags in Augsburg. I was able to find one patent for a "machine to create holes in inner organs", or more precisely, a bone cutter. But judging by the lack of a blade or saw on it, this won't be such a thing. If you're able to find anything in german, I'd happily help with translations however ✌🏻
Lots of stuff is going on for me atm, unfortunately that's why I neglect wetshaving a bit despite it being the only hobby I do on a somewhat constant basis. My resignation letter wasn't that well received by the executive team of my current nursing home, but well - I only have this month left to work there and two weeks will be an internship in a different place due to my retraining.
On Tuesday next week, I have an appointment at the new place to sign my contract. Hopefully the cooperation with my nursing school will be worked out until then - it's stressful enough to change jobs, changing schools would be the absolute worst case for me!
Also, it's the prime Holiday month. As always, not much Christmas spirit in me... I feel like I already lost that somewhere in my early teens, where everything around the holidays felt forced and all too mellow. We have really nice winter weather around here currently, but I fear all the snow will be gone on Christmas.
Unfortunately there's not much to distract me atm. Most of the games I got during sales are crap and I still didn't manage to get back into a regular exercise routine. Due to the stress, I lost weight again - now I only weigh 90 kgs/220 lbs, crazy if you think that I used to be at 120 kgs/265 lbs in 2020. Not that this was good for my health either, but... I feel like I'm only a husk of what I used to be. I know it'd be a great opportunity to start a muscle building routine, but often I lack the physical and mental energy to do anything after my shifts...