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.
Our sister Mastodon instance is https://wetshaving.social.
Community Rules
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 1 year ago
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No shadow of doubt ever exists in the mind of a man who uses a –
Gillette Safety Razor.
Well, at least that was the claim in this 1905 advertisement for the new Gillette safety razor; the one we today would call the Old Type. Which was then the very newest type, and also the only type.
1905 advertisement from the Literary Digest.
In 1905 you would be an early adopter, and like most early adopters you would pay for the privilege. While the ad don’t mention how much you would have to fork over for an ideal holiday gift (either the standard silver-plate or the gold plated special set), they do mention how much you would have to pay for a dozen new blades.
One dollar.
Which may not sound like much for a claimed 240 to 480 shaves, but… inflation can be harsh. One dollar in 1905 is roughly the same as 36 dollars today (33€, 28£, or 395 Norwegian kroner). So not cheap.
But at least there would be no shadow of doubt in the mind of the shaver. But today I would very much doubt the mind of a man who opts to use the latest Gillette cartridge razor, at least if he has had the option of trying a proper safety razor.
As a side note, I like that they point out out their patent (#775,134) and what they claim it covers.
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I have pointed it out before. Perfection is not achieved when there is nothing more to add – but rather when there is nothing more to remove. Seen through that lens, John B Lydiards 2020 patent for a shaving brush with interchangeable bristles is far from perfect.
The idea is simple enough. Different shaving brush knots have different qualities, and people prefer different knots. Some likes the softness of badger, some prefer a scritchy boar. Me, I like a good horse. But to get back on track, let us see what John had to say in the patent text
A problem with shaving brushes is that the bristles are permanently attached by glue or other adhesive, thus making it impossible to change to different bristles according to the desires of the user, thereby requiring one to purchase multiple brushes for different bristles. Thus, a need exists for a shaving brush which will allow a user to change to different types of bristles, such as without limitation, synthetic, boar, badger, or bristle knot, by cartridgizing the shaving brush knot.
Needlessly to say, I disagree with the perceived need. And I have a reasonable modest brush collection, compared to some shavers.
So, how were John planning to get around using an adhesive to secure the knot in the handle? By replacing it with arrangement of threads, levers, push-rods, bell-cranks and a clamp. Easy-peasy.
The pictures do more justice to the gadgetry of the invention than mere words.
From my understanding of how John envisioned his shaving brush with interchangeable bristles working, this would be the order of operations:
- Loosen the tension ring (#1 on the drawing) and screw it all the way down.
- Push on the spring loaded release button (#4) so the two halves of the fastening cuffs (#9) swings up and to the side.
- Pick up the old knot (#32) from the floor, sink, or wherever it fell.
- Insert a new knot (still #32) with an adaption hoop (#12) into the fastening cuffs (#9) and push the cuffs together.
- Screw the tension ring (#1) all the way up around the fastening cuff (#9) and tighten it.
Now, compare this to how I pick a new shaving brush knot:
- Reach out, grasp the brush I want.
And even if it wasn’t pointlessly complicated, John seems to have forgotten one minor thing: Storing a shaving brush knot takes up about as much space as storing a whole shaving brush! So there is added complexity with no benefit that I can see.
I mean, I can see part of what he was going for. The words cartridgizing the shaving brush knot gives the game away. I think John wanted to set up a walled garden, where people who bought his handle would have to turn to him for shaving knots.
While it is only two years since John patented his brush with interchangeable bristles, I just can not see it being successful in the marked – unless the target audience is people with more money than common sense.
Which is, admittedly, a large market.
You can read the full patent for the shaving brush with interchangeable bristles over at Google Patents.
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One would thing there would be little left to invent, at least as far as shaving brushes goes. One would be wrong. Over in Japan, Mrs 由美子 井上 – or Yumiko Inoue for those of us who don’t read Japanese – recently got a patent for a shaving brush with a notch.
We have looked at a lot of brushes before. And I do mean a lot; folding, telescoping, collapsible, self-feeding, fountain style, antiseptic, disposable, self destructing, hygienic, sanitary, and many, many more. But Yumiko’s idea is the first notched brush that I can recall seeing.
Yet the idea is delightfully useful. The notch will let you rest the brush on the edge of a shelf (if the shelf has a lip of a certain size, that is). Or, perhaps more interesting, the notch lets the brush rest on the lid of a box. A box that is also a combined soap holder and ‘roughing bowl’. Or, as I would put it, a lather bowl.
The notch is sized so the brush can also rest on the size of the lather bowl.
And while the patent uses a lot of words to describe the brush with a notch, as well as the nesting bowls, the claims summarise it nicely:
A brush characterized by having a recess or a notch that fits into a locked body at the center of the handle in the longitudinal direction.
When the locked body is one or more of the handles provided on the protrusion, the protrusion, the edge of the container, and the lid, and the recess or the notch is fitted into the locked body, the handle is fitted. The brush according to claim 1, wherein the brush is held horizontally or with the hair bundle facing diagonally downward.
A whisk comprising the brush according to claim 1 or 2, and a whisk container for whipping a cleaning agent or soap.
The whipping container includes a razoring bowl for whipping shaving soap, a soap dish on which the shaving soap can be stored, and a removable cover having a handle on the upper surface, which covers the soap dish. The whipping device according to claim 3, further comprising, the recess or the notch being fitted into the handle of the cover or the edge of the roughing bowl, and the brush can be held.
I know, auto-translate makes somewhat of a dogs breakfast out of the text. But luckily the drawings are very clear.
I find myself almost wanting Yumiko’s brush with notch – and the nested soap-cup and lathering bowl too. It would make an excellent addition to my shave gear. Perhaps as my at work shave set.
You can read the whole translated patent at Google Patents, or over at Espacenet.
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So, there is some contradictory information about Friodur razors floating around the interwebs. For instance, according to the text of German Wikipedia (English Wikipedia, the ice-hardening process for hardening stainless steel was invented in 1939 and patented in 1951, but according to the time table in the same article, it was patented in 1939 but the name Friodur was only introduced with the first ice-hardened blades in 1951.
But then I saw a mysterious 7/8 Friodur 50 on eBay with a patent stamp D. R. PAT 41-DL4678.
Now I can't find that patent document, but it seems to be a patent stamp from the patent office of the German Reich (presumably of the third kind given that the Friodur name appeared in at the earliest 1939 and the Reich Patent Office was dissolved after the allied victory). So it seems that this is a 1941 Friodur model.
It's also the only Friodur I've ever seen to have etchings on both sides of the blade. Here's the usually blank back side with a big sweeping Friodur logo:
It seems like the early Friodurs made a really big deal of being Friodurs. Must have been expensive razors.
The front side has the typical shank markings of earlier carbon steel Henckels straights (Later Friodurs have the swirly Friodur logo in addition to the Zwilling (twin) logo):
But the really interesting part is the decoration etched into the front face of the blade. First, there's what looks like the double-headed eagle of the Scottish rite of Freemasonry.
A big Eye of Providence:
A Freemason's Star (apparently not really a star of David, but a geometric regularization of the square-and-compass symbol of the Freemasons
And finally this image I couldn't find information on that doesn't make me want to put on a tinfoil hat. Supposedly a scythe and a winged hourglass symbolising time as the destroyer of humankind's institutions. I will not link to my fishy sources.
Here's the whole thing! I'm not sure yet whether I think it's pretty, but it's sure interesting!
I'm going to hone this puppy to get it ready for Austere August, $FriodomRiders, and $Honemeisterschaft
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