One of the great joys of real, traditional shaving is the huge diversity of kit available. You could have many dozens of razors without having two the same, the same goes for brushes, creams/soaps and for blades. So each day it is possible to choose the exact shaving experience that you want. But if you were forced to narrow this down to just one of each then what would it be? Americans call this choice their “go to” selection.
Of course any “go to” will vary over time when there is so much quality and so much choice available. So someone’s “go to” kit today may well not be what it was a month ago or what it will be a month hence. It is just an ephemeral choice frozen in time. And it is very personal, what works for one person is unique. It may work for other people but it may not. So two good reasons to take the subsequent choices with a big pinch of salt.
Creams and soaps mostly just do the job, however there are a handful, like Mitchell’s Wool Fat and Cella Crema da Sapone that are exceptional. But if forced to choose just the one then right now it would be Taylor of Old Bond Street Avocado Shaving Cream. So lush, so lubricating, it forms a fantastic lather and seems very kind to the skin. There are other TOBS creams and their formulation is no doubt similar, but it is the avocado that seems to perform the best.
To apply this cream the brush has to be the $9.99Frank Shaving Finest. The combination here of soft tips, backbone and the ability to charge up with a huge amount of lather are a bit special, better even than their own, more expensive, silver tip. However there is one enormous caveat to this choice and that is that whilst I have used shaving brushes for many years and have accumulated a small collection, some famous names are absent.
For the razor the choice is a lot more varied, there is a huge difference between shaving with, say, an Edwin Jagger DE89L and a Merkur Bakelite, the whole shaving experience is changed completely. Far more than the changes wrought by any other element of the shave. Current “go to” is the 1972 Gillette long handled Super Adjustable. By the time Gillette made this exact razor they had been making adjustables for a very long time and it shows. The balance and weighting are so perfect that it has the agility of a far lighter razor yet the cutting action of a far heavier razor. The handle is just perfect in length, diameter and grip. And it is super smooth. I have tried the other adjustables, the Fat Boy, Slim and Toggle, but just now this is the best for me. However in mid September I am going to have a long run using my Mergress, perhaps more familiarity will elevate this back up to the top.
The blade choice is very simple indeed, Iridium Super from the St Petersburg factory. These really are to me the benchmark against which all other razor blades need to be measured. They are very sharp (but not the sharpest) and are very smooth with a great consistency from blade to blade. But, as with all the choices they may not be for you. I have a small stash of Personna 74s but have not brought them into this reckoning, that they are irreplaceable means they cannot be a daily use blade.
After shaving there is a near infinite variety of balms and moisturisers to choose from, some with fancy brand names, some with magic ingredients. But, just now, the Geo. F. Trumper West Indian Extract of Limes Skin Food comes out on top. And to be honest it would take a lot of beating. Whilst it is expensive you only use a little each day, so you can use this luxury product without breaking the bank. They make it in other flavours but for me the limes are nicely bracing after a shave.
So there you have it, these would be the “go to” choices if forced to choose today. But the really interesting thing is that, as I write this, I have never actually shaved with that exact combination. Maybe tomorrow.
This is actually pretty interesting. Obsidian is a form of volcanic glass that has no crystalline structure and as a result can easily form edges that are of molecular levels of sharpness. In other words incredible sharp. Mankind has been shaving for at least 5,000 years and this video shows that the tools are out there in nature if you know where to look for them. But I certainly know that my technique is nowhere near good enough to try this.
Regular readers on here will know of my high regard for the Lord L5 razor, made in Egypt. Though very simple it is well made and delivers a very fine shave. This makes me very enthusiastic about the concept of owning their L6 razor, which is even more highly regarded. The L6 has a different, Merkur like, head with scallops in the guard bar. Lord call the L6 the “Premium” razor and it is more expensive than the L5.
On the Lord website you can clearly see the “Metallic Model” L5 razor and the L122 packaging that it comes in. You can also see the L6 “Safety Razor Premium” and the L1822 packaging that it comes in.
So when on Amazon I found a Lord Premium razor with a picture of the L1822 packaging I ordered one. I was double convinced that it was the right razor because it was more expensive than the L5, which you can pick up very cheaply on eBay. So you can imagine my disappointment when the parcel arrived and it wasn’t the L6 that I had ordered, it was the cheaper L5 that I already own. Obviously I immediately wrote to the supplier who replied saying that the L5 and L6 were the same! A more forceful missive from me elicited a refund and they told me to keep the razor.
Back on Amazon I found another supplier advertising the Lord Premium razor with a picture of the L6 in its L1822 packaging. Amazingly they also delivered the cheaper L5 in the L122 packaging. This time I was more forceful in my initial complaint and received an immediate refund.
It is good that both these traders have now changed their adverts. To claim they were selling one thing and then to supply another is plainly illegal. Slightly worrying the first vendor said they had sold hundreds of the razors with no complaint. Presumably the customers were just unaware of the different models.
What I think has possibly happened here is that when the vendors first advertised they really were selling the Premium L6 razor in the L1822 packaging. But when they restocked they found that they could buy the L5 more cheaply and thus make more profit. And that the customers wouldn’t notice.
Meanwhile I still don’t have the Lord L6 razor that I want.
China has a population of 1,324,655,000, so there are very roughly 500 million men of shaving age. And an extremely popular means of shaving seems to be traditional double edged razors using the standard blade. So there may well be more real shavers in China than in the rest of the world put together! Obviously these shavers need equipment, which means that China has a rich razor manufacturing industry. Some of these razors find their way to the West, so we can get to play with them too.
So far I have come up with 11 main brands, but there are probably more.
Weishi safety razor
Weishi. These are pretty common, easily available on eBay. They even have an English language website. There are four different models, dependent upon the materials they are constructed from. We get the 2003, which is an all aluminium copy of a Gillette Super Speed. It is very well made and is a mild shaver which is sensitive to being at the correct angle, when you get it right it is very effective. This is the razor in the starter kit that I sell.
Shenglong. A heavier razor than the Weishi 2003, probably made from chrome plated steel. This is another Twist To Open (TTO) razor, but this time the knob is just under the head. This is a very aggressive razor indeed to use, to the point where it is difficult to shave with. I have not seen these on eBay and bought mine from a local discount store.
Ming Shi
Ming Shi. Highly rated this is another TTO, it is quite light and is made from stainless steel, zinc alloy, copper and ABS. This is sometimes sold under the Shaving Factory name and seem to have a close association with Derby in Turkey. On eBay it is sometimes sold as Ming Shui. It is a fairly mild shaver but not as mild as the Weishi or a Gillette Super Speed.
Flying Eagle
Flying Eagle. Made by the Kwang Yung Safety Razor Set Factory in Shanghai, this is a 3 piece Tech type razor, available with different coloured plastic handles (including pink!) as well as with metal handles. Most versions seen in the West come in a nicely embossed travel tin and it is reckoned to be a fairly mild shaver. Sometimes these are known under the brand names Suifupai and Seagull.
Concord
Concord. Another three piece Tech type razor that is well spoken of. It is quite commonly available on eBay, sometimes at very low prices indeed. Well made it is another mild shaver.
Junjie
Junjie. This 3 piece Tech has a mixed plastic/metal construction and seems to be only sold in the West by Uxcell. For $3.99! There was an earlier TTO Junjie model.
Shogun. Pretty similar to the Concord, but with a shorter handle. Not so highly spoken of.
Vincent. Sometimes known as Bigwig Rifeng. Another TTO razor with the knob at the bottom of the handle. It has received some scathing reviews and can be bought on eBay.
Nanjie. This looks very similar indeed to the Vincent.
Timor
Timor. This is available from Connaught in the UK (and some other retailers). Yet another bottom knob TTO, available in three different finishes. Connaught say it is Made in China for Giesen & Forsthoff (Solingen).
SHV65
SHV65. A gunmetal or chrome TTO bottom knob razor that is on eBay. The supplier is Lloyd’s Tobacconist & Engravers.
It is worth pointing out that these are brands and not manufacturers. So two or more of these may be made in the same factory, even on the same production line. Also this is in no way an exhaustive look at Chinese safety razors, this is just what can easily be seen from the West using the internet. I am sure that there is a lot more out there. If you know of anything please add it to the comments at the bottom of this article.
These razors are mostly very cheap to buy and they make a change from the usual suspects that most Western traditional shavers use. So which ones to add to the collection? Definitely the Weishi and Ming Shi TTO razors, these are well made and well respected razors in widespread use. With the Tech type the Concord can be bought so cheaply that it would be rude not to. The Flying Eagle is more expensive but the handle and tin box are a bit special so it is worth it.
This excellent humorous video really has a go at the big global shaving companies and their marketing strategy. But their propaganda works, tens of millions of people are taken in by it and then pay a huge premium to remove the hairs from their faces. Whilst those who are not lemmings and who are capable of their own judgement know the exact perfect number of blades to have in a razor. And the answer is one.
Just now there is a big popular movement towards traditional double edged wet shaving. Every vendor I speak to who serves this market is rushed off their feet. Items in current manufacture, like Merkur razors, can often be difficult to get hold of. Business is booming.
So with real shaving booming and a good percentage of its adherents wanting to own a few nice razors there is increasing pressure on the supply of old, classic razors. And that demand is pushing prices up fast. And the rarer the razor the faster the price is going up. So whilst a Flare Tip Super Speed is appreciating nicely a Fatboy is appreciating even faster and the price of a Gillette Toggle adjustable is rocketing. Eclipse Red Ring prices seem to have doubled in the last month. And the main market for these razors is eBay, where prices going into the hundreds of dollars are not that uncommon.
So now we come to The Razor Emporium and their current auction for a Gillette Old Type De Luxe Safety Razor Combination Set with a start price of $10,000. This is a rare and beautiful thing but is not really suitable for everyday shaving, it belongs in a museum. If you want a more useable razor then how about this 1905 Gillette Double Ring for just $600? Or this lovely Darwin for just £250. Or this Gillette Cavalier that went for $746.
But eBay isn’t the only market, there are antique fairs, car boot sales, charity shops etc. And in these markets the prices are often still a long way behind eBay, the problem is that you have to do all the hard work yourself and most times you end up with nothing. However last weekend I got lucky twice. An English rhodium plated Gillette Aristocrat in nearly new condition was mine at an antiques fair for just £20 including a brush travel tube and a vintage brass razor case I bought from the same vendor. Then on to a car boot sale that has been useless for me in the past and I found a Gillette Fat Boy and a Gillette black handled TTO at the same vendor. £3 for the pair of them. I didn’t even haggle.
So it seems that there are two routes you can take when building your razor collection. You can press the buttons and bid on eBay, competing against everyone else who wants these hard to get razors. Or you can do the soul destroying hard work and track round endless secondhand markets in the hope of turning up the occasional gem. Of course you have to have a bit of an idea what you are looking for and Mr Razor is probably the best photo guide we have.
Whichever route you go down, enjoy. And happy hunting.
Merkur of Solingen, in Germany, currently make three different adjustable razors, the Progress, the Futur and the Vision. Of the three the Progress is probably the most highly regarded, even though it is the cheapest and simplest. Shaving guru Mantic59, of the famous videos (see above) and blog says that it is his “personal everyday razor”. Some accolade.
However it is not perfect and an American engineer set to work to make it so with a number of modifications. When he had done this he wrote it up on a forum under the user name Mer. Obviously other members of the forum wanted their Progress to be similarly upgraded so Mer ended up doing this for $30 a go. The modified razor became known as the Mergress. It is possibly the best double edged razor in the world.
Then, of course, people wanted to buy a brand new Mergress. This was getting too much for Mer so he handed the whole new razor business over to Lee’s safety razors in America, who sells them for $89.95. There are two models, the standard Mergress and the XL, which has a longer adjustment knob (and therefore a longer handle) which makes the razor easier to handle.
Now you can’t just phone up Lee’s and order one of these, because he is usually out of stock. Demand for the Mergress is far more than the supply. Mer still makes every single razor himself, in small batches. So the system is to tell Lee’s that you are interested. Then when a batch comes in they email everyone who has registered intent to let them know. Whereupon it is first come, first served.
By the magic of telepathy my wife realised that a Mergress XL would make a good birthday present for me and by pure serendipity Mer made a batch just in time for the key date, it arrived with just days to spare. Obviously I used it for the first time on my birthday and I must admit that it is an impressive razor.
Real, traditional, double edged shaving is brilliant for geekiness. The four elements of razor, blade, brush and soap/cream. All available in myriad forms and with the infinite capacity to mix and match. Regular readers will probably be familiar with Merkur, Edwin Jagger, Parker, Lord, Weishi and vintage Gillette razors. Today I thought I would cover some of the more exotic razors that form part of this rich tapestry. So now lets delve a little deeper into what is out there.
The Merkur Vision is about £80. It is an adjustable TTO (twist to open butterfly head) that looks like nothing else on earth. It is an amazing piece of German engineering. But they didn’t get it right, the early ones had sloppy mechanisms so it had a redesign in 2000. This is a real Marmite razor some love it and some hate it, there seems to be no middle path.
Feather in Japan are famous for their incredibly sharp blades. They also make razors and recently introduced their excitingly named All Stainless. This is a money no object piece of precision Japanese engineering and it is fabulous and is very highly rated. But it costs $160.
The Germans are not to be outdone in the stainless steel department. So we have Pils and their creatively named 101. Machined from solid blocks of the stuff to a fastidious level of precision these are made in small numbers and retail at 175 Euros.
Now to America and some interesting artisan razors. Bob’s Razor works makes all sorts of low volume, hand crafted shaving stuff at reasonable prices. His famous razor is based on an old Gillette model with a heavy hand turned handle. It is called the Bull Mastiff and the handle is $45 and the head $25. These are only made in very small quantities and are very highly rated. Absolutely gorgeous kit.
So next to Thailand and ikon, they made a small batch of razors machined from solid stainless steel last year which were extremely aggressive. This year they have made another batch with the choice of two different heads and two different handle lengths and which are far less demanding of the user. They only wants $65 for these which is pretty good value.
Finally we go to New Zealand and the Goodfella razor which is $71 and has the interesting option of a black chrome head. Once again a real high quality product.
As you can see there is plenty of variety to be had from many different places around the globe. These top end razors may be expensive compared to a standard Merkur model or a vintage Gillette, but they are all beautifully made objects of desire.
The adjustable razors have a clever mechanism that allows the user to adjust the blade exposure, or aggression, of the razor very quickly. On these Gillettes this consists of a moveable ring going round the handle just under the head (though a small number were built with it near the bottom of the handle) which is numbered 1-9 (though some rarer models were 1-5). Virtually all the Gillette adjustables were also TTO. So to change the aggression of your razor all you needed to do was to slacken off the TTO mechanism a little and then rotate the adjusting ring, which clicked into the position chosen, then tighten up the TTO again.
Users mostly tend to experiment with the adjuster till it gives the results they needed and then just leave it in this one setting. But there are other use strategies. Because traditional shaving salami slices the hair in consecutive passes you can start with the adjuster set fairly aggressively, to take off a big slice, then dial it down to take off smaller slices in subsequent passes as the blade cuts closer to the skin. Another strategy is to dial down for those areas which are prone to bleeding from weepers, such as under the chin. Or you can just make up your own strategy and do what suits you. This is part of the variety and fun of real, traditional, shaving.
In all there were probably 14 different Gillette adjustable models, but here we will concentrate just on the three main models and one less common model. Once again there is a caveat that this is a simple introduction, not an academic paper.
The first to market was the 195 model, so called because it retailed at $1.95. We know it as the Fat Boy because of the fat handle need to accommodate both the TTO and the adjustment mechanism. It was also a heavy razor with all the features it offered. The Fat Boy is a great razor to shave with even today, it was only made for 4 years 1958 to 1961, so is less common than some other models. These features make it an extremely collectable razor, most traditional shaving enthusiasts either have one or want one. Currently in reasonable shaving condition they sell for about $35.
Gillette, like any successful company, sought to improve their products, so they managed to engineer the mechanisms to fit inside a narrower handle. This is the model we call the Slim and it was made from 1961 to 1968 and it is a little lighter than the Fat Boy. Fitting all that mechanism into a narrow handle wasn’t a total success, however, I have known two Slims to jam up their adjustment mechanism completely with the grime caused by shaving.
After the Slim came the Super Adjustable, this was a little lighter again, came with two different handle lengths and is easily identified by its the black aluminium handle. It was made from 1969 to 1986 so had a very long production run indeed, though there were design changes, such as the black plastic lower head plate which was introduced in 1977.
If you want an adjustable razor today you have to go to the German firm of Merkur and their three adjustable models, the Progress, the Futur and the Vision.
Now we come to the fourth, less common, Gillette adjustable, the Toggle. The toggle, quite simply, had a metal toggle at the bottom of the handle which worked as a lever to open the butterfly doors in the head (instead of having a TTO), this mechanism made them the heaviest of the adjustables. They were only made in very small quantities between 1957 and 1960 and they are extremely sought after by collectors. The supply coming to market is very small indeed, so if you want one expect to pay up to $400. Or you could get lucky and find one in a junk store for $5. This happens.
After reading all this you will probably want to see what they look like, so I can point you at two great websites. At Country Joe’s Collectable Stuff there is a section for identifying vintage safety razors, also his vintage razors for sale has lots of good photographs and gives you an idea of the market. Mr Razor in Germany has his History of the Gillette Safety Razor with some fantastic photographs covering most models (click on the thumbnails). He also has great resource of instructions for different razor models and he has an eBay store that is full of temptations.
As you can see, traditional shaving offers infinite variety and a huge range of fascinating, enjoyable experiences. Owning and using one of these vintage Gillette adjustables is a fantastic start to the day, you know you have done something special that is denied to most other people.
The above is a lovely advert for the three Gillette Super Speed models that existed in production alongside each other during the mid to late 1950s. I will now try and put this in context, but this isn’t some academic paper, it is just me, so don’t rely too much on the facts!
The basic Gillette model for many decades was the Tech, a three piece razor where the handle screws in to clamp the blade between the two pieces that make up the head. These are cheap and simple to make and the rigid construction has the potential of a good shave if it is engineered properly. Many manufacturers around the world still make copies of this three piece construction. The Lord razor I wrote about earlier is one such.
The problem with the Tech is that changing blades can be a bit fiddly, Gillette decided to make a more upmarket razor that overcame this. Thus, during World War two, the Super Speed appeared with limited production between 1942 and 1945. In 1946 full scale civilian production started and this original version of the Super Speed was available from 1947 to 1954.
The Super Speed’s defining feature was the butterfly doors of the shave head that allowed easy blade insertion, these were operated with a Twist To Open (TTO) mechanism via a knob at the base of the handle.
In 1954 the original Super Speed was replaced by the “Flare Tip” Super Speed which has a flared TTO knob. Then in 1955 Gillette introduced two variations on the basic model. The Blue Tip was lighter with an aluminium handle and it shaved less aggressively (so was favoured by women), it had a blue painted TTO knob. The Red Tip was heavier than the standard Flare Tip and was more aggressive, obviously it had a red painted TTO knob.
It is these three models, the Flare Tip, Blue Tip and Red Tip that feature in the advertisement video above (for $1.29 each!). The Red and Blue tips had a short production life, just 1955 to 1959. This is because in 1958 Gillette introduced the Fat Boy adjustable razor, where the user could dial in the required degree of aggression, this made the two Super Speed variants obsolete.
The standard Flare Tip went on being made till 1966 when it was replaced with the black handled Super Speed, this remained in production till 1986. So the production life of the Super Speed razor was 1942 to 1986, that is 44 years.
The Super Speeds are classic razors, readily available secondhand and all of them still give a good shave today. Many traditional shaving enthusiasts own one or more of these. Gillette certainly got it right when a 65 year old mechanical device can still hold its own today.
And just as the Tech was widely copied, so was the Super Speed. The Weishi is a Chinese made near copy that is constructed all in aluminium, for instance. So the Super Speed lives on.
