Today I received in the post a Lord L5 safety razor which I bought, brand new, for £3.50 on eBay. This is about as simple as a metal razor can get. It is a three piece design like a Gillette Tech, screwing in the handle clamps the two sides of the head together, sandwiching the blade. All three parts are very well and precisely made, I would guess that it is made from chromium plated steel.
So I put an Iridium blade in it and lathered up using Body Shop shaving cream and my Frank Shaving brush. It certainly didn’t shave like a Tech, it was far more effective. In fact it was not far short of a Feather Portable. And very smooth, which is a reflection of the precision of its construction. Overall a quite impressive performance.
Now a lot of people reading this will not know who Lord are. They are one of the six major razor manufacturers in the world, based in Alexandria, Egypt and employing over 2,000 people. Founded in 1930 they are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified. They export to 75 countries and their products are found throughout much of the developing world. A lot of their technology came from their long standing historic joint venture with Wilkinson Sword. Often their produce is sold with different brand names on it. Some of these are Shark, Big Ben, Asco, Crown, Silver Star, Racer and Rainbow.
Lord are very well known in the traditional shaving community for their excellent blades. However they also make 12 different models of safety razor, some in plastic and some in metal. My L5 is their entry level metal razor. Another metal model is the L6 premium model. This has a scalloped bar, much like a some Merkur and Edwin Jagger razors, this will be interesting to shave with when it arrives. It gets rave reviews in the traditional shaving community.
And also they make their “Click” range of plastic double edged safety razors with a novel side opening mechanism.
So for razor collectors out there these are well worth trying, they are very good quality razors. And if you see any of these brands on your travels then give them a go. For beginners on a low budget one of these razors, picked up from eBay is ideal. They must give just about the best quality to price ratio of any brand new razors.
In the razor blade industry you would think that all the management would know their business model. They are making a blade that lasts for a few shaves and is then thrown away. The longer it lasts the less they sell. So it is in the razor manufacturer’s interests to make a blade with the shortest life that they can get away with. But the technology is out there to make a blade that lasts for a lot longer.
Personna has been making all sorts of blades for 130 years, currently they are part of American Safety Razor. In the 1960s and 1970s it was owned by Philip Morris, the tobacco company. The management decided that they wanted to take on Gillette and in doing so they decided to throw the industry business model out of the window. They decided to make a long lasting blade.
The Personna 74 was introduced in 1970. Everything about it is special. The steel is a a tungsten (atomic number 74) alloy, which makes it extremely hard and wear resistant. This is the sort of steel that they make rocket engine nozzles out of. It is also used for making the cutting tools that are used when machining other steels. This alone would make a blade that lasted a long time. But Personna went further, they coated it with a microscopic layer of titanium, which protected the steel underneath.
Unsurprisingly they ended up with what is definitely the longest lasting safety razor blade ever made and also probably the sharpest. There are reports of customers using the same blade for months. Which obviously was very bad for Personna’s business. So after only a few years in production they dropped it.
They didn’t make that many of these blades and obviously they are a consumable item and as this happened 40 years ago finding unused Personna 74s is very rare. And of course when they are found they get used, making them even rarer, and even more valuable. Currently they sell for about a pound for each blade. As traditional shaving increases in popularity these blades are going to become yet more expensive, a lot of people are going to want to try the best. But once they have been used they are gone forever.
The real shaving DE community seem to agree with this. They end up with a variety of razors, a variety of blades, a variety of soaps and creams and a variety brushes. Then they use them in rotation, or as and when they feel like it, just acting on a whim. Let’s face it, shaving has the potential to be a pretty boring ritual. Having this variety of choice of quality options massively enriches the experience. And if we can bring nerdiness and technology to it then it has to be a lot better.
For instance in this hot weather some like to use the Proraso cream from Italy with it’s high menthol and eucalyptus content. After shaving with this you can feel your face glow.
This is a whole world away from the almond smell and completely different lathering characteristics of Cella Crema Da Sapone soap. Amazing stuff, so lush.
Then you could switch to a traditional Palmolive shaving soap stick (the European version) for that traditional barber’s smell. It is a genuine high quality product that only costs less than 50p and it will give you more shaves than several aerosol cans of foam or gel. The tallow base it uses makes an exceptional shaving soap. This is not sold in America so keen real shavers there buy this over the internet or carry it back in their luggage.
For blades you could switch from the all round excellence of a Derby (from Turkey) to the super smoothness of an Iridium (from Russia) to the mega sharpness of a Feather (from Japan). Or for economy with quality there are Vidyut Super Max blades (from India) for a little over 2p each.
For razors you could switch from the very highly rated British Edwin Jagger DE89L to the aggression of a German Merkur slant bar to the history of using a 70 year old Gillette Tech from America, to the precision of one of the Feather razors from Japan.
With brushes, badger is the best for creams, but lots of people are now using boar brushes, especially with soaps because they lather up better. They are cheaper and take a while to break in and become soft. The Italian Omega brand, available from Amazon, have a fantastic reputation and some lovely coloured handles! They vie with the Portuguese Semogue brushes for who makes the best at each price point.
The choice is truly infinite. Just count the four elements of the shave: razor, blade, soap/cream and brush that you have in your collection. Then do the maths, multiply them together to get all the possible permutations. I know that if I do this I could go for several years without having the same shave twice!
Bakelite is one of the first ever plastics, named after Dr. Leo Baekeland, the Belgian who invented it at the beginning of the 20th century. During World War 2 there was a strategic shortage of metals so Bakelite was pressed into service for a myriad of uses, they even thought of making coins out of it. So it is no surprise that it was used for making safety razors. Manufacturers like Wardonia and Souplex produced models that are collectors items today. I have a Souplex and it is terrible to shave with.
So when Merkur announced that they were going to produce a new Bakelite razor there was a lot of interest. It is a three piece design, like a Gillette Tech, though it is unusual that it arches the blade a lot, like a Merkur Progress, this means you hold and use the razor at a shallower angle. It is very light indeed, just 14 grammes, so in the hand it feels a bit like a Weishi.
Merkur are selling the Bakelite quite a lot cheaper than its existing range of razors, presumably to reflect it’s lower manufacturing cost Although it may also be not as durable, only time will tell. The Bakelite that they have made it out of is quite bright and distinctive, so it certainly stands out from other razors.
I have been using one of these for a few days now and it certainly is an excellent shave, the exact opposite of my Souplex. It is quite aggressive, something similar to a Feather Portable, but is easy to master once you adapt to the very light weight. On the internet many users are reporting very favourable results from using it.
So it looks like Merkur have another hit razor on their hands. Something that is different to everything else and which delivers great results.
btw In case you were wondering what Bakelite is here is it’s chemical name: polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride.
So, Sunday morning, time to give the car boot sale in Leamington another go. This time I got there earlier and it was a lot busier. Literally hundreds of traders spread over several rugby pitches. There are two sorts of traders, the semi professionals, who tend to specialise: fishing equipment, DVDs, cosmetics etc etc. And then there are the genuine car booters who sort out a pile of junk they don’t need and come along to turn it into money. They sell quite literally everything. Obviously only this latter group are going to be of any use to me, but will they think it is worth bringing along an old razor?
The answer, quite obviously is no. Many of them must have one lying around, they just don’t think that anyone would be interested. Except for the girl who bought an old, men’s, leather cased, travel grooming kit. The contents were quite comprehensive, a metal backed hair brush, a comb, a toothbrush, a plastic shaving stick container with a metal lid, a mirror, a plastic shaving brush container with a metal lid, a shaving brush, a mirror and a double edged razor. The razor is an English, aluminium handled, Gillette Tech. All in a “Vantage” brand case made of “”Sundew Hide”, which Google knows nothing about.
Usually such kits were bought as gifts. And usually they were never used, they just gathered dust. This one has been used, but not much. The contents are all in a bucket of hot water and disinfectant right now. Some will be binned. But some will find a use. The razor certainly is a new addition to my collection.
And how much did all this cost me? One whole English pound!
Also there is a tactic that would yield results. Just go round the whole car boot and tell every trader that you are interested in shaving kit and that you will be back again on an upcoming Sunday. Then they would all root out their old shaving kit and bring it along. This might actually be worth doing with the way that classic antique razors are going up in value.
This is amazing. A guy called Brett undertakes all sorts of projects and documents them in a blog called Project Blog. And he decides to make a double edged safety razor. So he sandwiches a blade between two pieces cut out of PVC tubes and holds it all together with a long nut and bolt, which also serves as the razor handle. And it works and he is shaving with it.
Obviously it didn’t just bolt together and work straight off, he spent 2 to 3 hours fettling it. But the materials cost him $1. Another blow against the multinational shaving industry. He could buy Supermax blades for just over 2 pence each and then he would have the ultimate in bargain DE shaving!
So when, on eBay, I saw “Finest Pure Badger Hair Shaving Brush Faux Ivory Handle” for $9.99 (£6.57), it was no problem to click the BUY button. On the 11th of July. Many people would be put off because it was too cheap, or because they are sending money to someone they don’t know in China. But the seller, iantang19821024, has 100% feedback after 74 transactions.
Today it arrived, just 12 days after placing the order. It is very nicely made, the equal of my other brushes. The badger hair is two band, light above dark, the knot is quite dense and the diameter at the base is the same or maybe a bit bigger than my other badger brushes. Testing for softness it is midway between a Trumper pure badger and a Trumper best badger, but these two brushes are both run in and the Frank Shaving brush isn’t.
So to shaving and the stern test of Nanny’s Silly Soap Company, lavender improved recipe soft shaving soap. The brush easily had enough backbone to deal with this and build up a fine lather. And as it built up that lather the brush bloomed right out quite impressively. There was enough in there for a two pass shave and it would probably have done a third pass if needed. During the shave it shed maybe two hairs, which is nothing for a new badger brush.
Obviously one shave is not much of a test so we will see how this develops.
And one final note, the brush came with a plastic stand very similar to the one that Trumper sells for £5.50. Take that into account and my new badger brush cost about £1!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mitchell’s Wool Fat (MWF), and the supposedly identical Kent Brush shaving soap, has a legendary status in the traditional shaving community. It is regarded by many as the gold standard in shaving soaps, yet some people don’t get on with it. Part of their problems could be the normal different strokes for different folks syndrome that enriches real shaving so much. Part of it could be the way that MWF behaves.
The thing about MWF is that it doesn’t do what other soaps do, it acts almost as if it is a living thing. Use it on consecutive days and it gets better and better, as if it appreciates the attention. Leave it for a week and it will have a sulk and try and give you a bad time. Left for a while it becomes a loner, forming a hard skin round itself. Too long and cracks appear in the surface as it displays its displeasure.
This is what Mitchell’s themselves have to say about this soap:
Mitchell’s Wool Fat Soap was first produced in the early 1930′s by Bradford chemist Fred Mitchell who realised that the natural lanolin content of wool fat, which kept the hands of local sheep shearers and wool sorters so exceptionally soft, could also be beneficial to delicate complexions and sensitive skins
A simple and natural product, Mitchell’s Wool Fat Soap is still made to Mr. Mitchell’s original formula, based on a recipe from the turn of the century and incorporating lanolin from the wool fat as the key ingredient.
So what is this wool fat of which they speak? When a sheep is sheared between 5 and 25 percent of the wool’s weight is wool fat, produced by the sheep as waterproofing. This is removed from the wool, initially with steel rollers and then using detergents and centrifugal separators. It has a lot of uses including in medicine because it is hypoallergenic and bacteriostatic, it forms the basis of many ointments, where it is listed as lanolin.
One useful feature is that this is an animal fat produced in large quantities without killing anything. So strict vegetarians can get the considerable benefits of products like MWF. In fact on the side of the MWF box it says: “No animal suffers in the preparation of this bio-degradable product”.
So how do you manage your puck of MWF so that it gives a brilliant lather every time? Firstly don’t expose it to the air between shaves, it need to live in its own microclimate. The best way to do this is keep it in a hermetically sealed container such as a Tupperware box, you can find one the right size or you can mill the soap puck to fit.
Milling is very popular in the traditional shaving community and makes any soap perform better. Firstly you need to grate the soap puck up in a kitchen grater, then you put the flakes into your container of choice, then use a weight to compress it and remove the air. This process is so successful that many luxury soaps are “triple milled” using steel rollers.
If you mill at home you should aim to only half fill your container, as a maximum. You need space above the soap to form the lather. Also you can use small containers to make MWF convenient for travelling with. After each shave the residue of lather left on top of the soap adds to the microclimate keeping your MWF ready to perform optimally next time it is used.
There seem to be three different sorts of bleeding caused by shaving. Firstly there are weepers, where a very thin layer of skin has been removed revealing the very fine capillaries just beneath. This is most easily done where there is underlying bone as on the jaw and chin. And it is just so easily avoidable, all it takes is pure technique. Weepers are caused by putting pressure on the blade. You really shouldn’t. The blade works best if it is just allowed to glide over the surface of the skin, removing the lather. No pressure is needed.
The second cause are nicks. These happen when the blade is presented to the skin at a sharp angle, so it digs in. Do this well and it can bleed a lot. Once again this is preventable with pure technique. You need to always have the blade at the correct angle. And to do this you need to take your time. On every occasion that I get a nick it is from going too fast. Real, traditional, shaving is an enjoyable ritual, so take it easy and bask in the self indulgent pleasure. Then you won’t get any nicks.
The third way to create blood it to take the top off something. A zit, wart, mole, scab or whatever else you have rising from the topography of your face. Mostly this is actually quite difficult to do. If the blade is at the correct angle then the blade guard should push the offending excrescence down into the skin so that the blade can pass right over it. Or you can just remember where it is and shave round it.
As with many things in life good lubrication helps a lot. This is why it is worth creating a really good lather with a good quality shaving cream or soap and a brush. And remember that good does not mean expensive, Palmolive shaving soap sticks are excellent for around 50p. Don’t use aerosol foams and gels. And always use a sharp blade, they are so cheap that there is no need to compromise.
If you are new to real, traditional, double edged shaving then start with a mild razor like a vintage Gillette Tech or the Weishi that I have in the starter kit that I have for sale. This may be ideal for your entire shaving career, hundreds of millions of men have always used mild razors. Once you are confident of your technique you can progress to more aggressive shaving with maybe an adjustable razor or a slant bar, but there is no compunction to do so.
If you have cut yourself, what next? Well it will look far worse than it really is, this is because your head has a very good blood supply, to feed your brain. Also the act of shaving causes all the small capillaries in your skin to dilate with the heat. So the first action is to rinse your face very thoroughly with cold water and so make those capillaries shrink. Don’t just splash it once, you are trying to reduce the temperature of your skin, so do it well. This will massively reduce most bleeding caused by shaving.
If you still have blood there are three well proven methods to stop it. Firstly you can press the wound for a few seconds with a wetted styptic pencil, this works like magic. A variation on this theme is the alum block, which some people rub all over their face after every shave. Secondly you can place a bit of tissue on the wound. It will stick there and by vastly increasing surface area will make the wound heal itself very quickly. Just peel it off after a few minutes before anyone important sees you. The third method is to use a little bit of Vaseline. This, basically, blocks up the leak.
Finally let’s put this in context. Hundreds of millions of men over the last 100 years have shaved every day using traditional, real, double edged safety razors. And most of them survived the experience. Because it is simple and intuitive. However it does reward good technique. You can become a better shaver, and the better you are then the less likely you are to bleed. In fact you should very rarely cut yourself.
