Friedrich Mohs, a German mineralogist, invented his eponymous scale of hardness in 1812. It compares substances by their ability to scratch each other, with diamond at the top with a score of 10. This is quite important to us traditional shavers because it gives us an idea about the potential longevity of our razors and also is very useful to know when re-plating a razor.
Gold is pretty soft with a Mohs of 2.5. Lots of razors from many manufacturers have been gold plated and it is totally unsuited to the job, I have two gold plated toggles and they have worn in the key contact areas. Gold might be OK for a razor you are going to just display and look at, but it isn’t what this blog is about. It has rocketed in price recently to $1,275 an ounce.
Silver comes next with a Mohs of 2.7, which isn’t much better, and it has the unfortunate tendency to oxidise to dull grey. At one stage Gillette silver plated a lot of razors but it has fallen out of fashion today. It is relatively cheap though, at $21 an ounce.
Nickel was Gillette’s plating material of choice through most of its classical production and many of those razors are still pristine today, so it is surprising to find that it has a Mohs of just 4. Nickel is $23,000 per tonne so is very cheap indeed.
Palladium is next, used by the Joris razors from France, this has a Mohs of 4.75. To put this into perspective human tooth enamel has a Mohs of around 5 so it is pretty similar. Currently it is $557 an ounce.
Rhodium is massively expensive, currently over $2,000 dollars an ounce (but it doesn’t take much to plate a razor). It has a Mohs of 6, which is the same as Titanium. Gillette plated some of their most special razors with this, I have a British Aristocrat #66 Coronation razor and it is very bright and shiny indeed. Rhodium is becoming increasingly popular for re-plating old razors.
Chrome is the plating of choice for a lot of modern razors from the likes of Merkur, Muhle and Edwin Jagger, it has a Mohs of 8.5 so is pretty hard, but we all know from our experience with cars just how it can be subject to tarnishing if it isn’t done just right.
Of course metal hardness isn’t the only factor when it comes to metal plating, however it does have a huge bearing on durability which makes the Mohs information useful to know.
I have a very keen interest in art and for some years now have run an online community for artists, Artforums.co.uk. So this picture is interesting as it combines two of my hobbies.
This picture was exhibited at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2008. They said: “It is impossible to describe Antonio López García simply as a painter in the “realist” school. His masterful paintings of the prosaic, familiar places of his world and of the family and friends comprising it reveal an unusual sensitivity to his subject. Through uncompromising study of his subjects, he has imbued the commonplace with a haunting and extraordinary character, seen in his exceptional depiction of light—at once brilliant and subdued, ethereal and fleeting, and palpable.”
Of this picture one critic said: “Sink and Mirroris a combination of two paintings: the sink at bottom, the shelf with the mirror at top. Since the bathroom is narrow, the artist had to place himself very close to the subject, causing visual distortion of the vertical lines delineating the tiles. Rather than correct this, he has created a middle area, a sort of neutral band, in which the lines of the preliminary sketch are left visible as a record of process.”
What is for sure is that it shows the accoutrements of real, traditional shaving. A double edged razor, a shaving stick and brush, a couple of blades and some aftershave. All very typical of 1967 when it was painted.
Absolutely fascinating stuff and interesting to compare with the Edwin Jagger brush making video I posted earlier. This one is in Portuguese, but you can still see what is going on. The Edwin Jagger video didn’t show knot manufacture so taking the two together gives a good overall view of how our shaving brushes are made.
Our first full day was the 8th of July so we have been going a little over two months. In that time we have attracted 8,953 visits (thank you everyone), with the average visitor reading 2.12 pages (which is a lot with 10 articles per page) and staying for 4.14 minutes. This total is about half of my one day visitor record at Bruce on Games which gives some idea of the potential out there for a blog to reach people. Bruce on Shaving has a long way to go, but the upside is there, far more of the world’s population shave than play video games.
There are 86 articles written (who, if anyone, has read them all?) and there are 93 approved comments, which is still disappointingly low, maybe I should engender more controversy. The most popular article has been the low priced starter kits for sale (which are still available), followed by one about Frank Shaving brushes.
The number one source of visitors is search engines which means that this site is performing well from an SEO perspective. It also shows that we have not been referenced enough by other sites yet, an indication of just how short a time this has been going. Analytics shows traffic coming from just 147 sources, another result of being new on the block. I have done no advertising and no proper marketing since the initial press release. So the steady traffic growth is largely organic.
It is interesting to compare blogs with forums from a traffic perspective, I run Artforums.co.uk so have a foot in both camps. Blogs build a lot more traffic a lot more quickly. Already this blog has more daily visitors than a lot of active, long established forums and if growth continues it will relatively quickly have more traffic than a substantial forum.
I think that this is because a lot of people have been burned by forums, they often tend to be quite nasty places populated by anonymous cliques who readily revert to sociopathic behaviour. Very few are moderated with sufficient intelligence to prevent this.
Blogs, however are a largely passive experience for the user, all they have to do is read, commenting is not necessary to keep the show on the road, although it does add to the proceedings. Any inappropriate comments get binned which keeps the place civilised. It is up to the blog owner to keep on generating the content that the visitors want.
I will try and update next month. In the meantime don’t be shy about having your say on here. And if you can link into here from a website it would be greatly appreciated.
The big global shaving brands are in business to make as much money as possible for their shareholders, this is their duty in life. To do this they need to extract the maximum cash each week out of the billions of men who shave.
At the beginning of the 20th century King Camp Gillette invented the bait and hook marketing strategy, selling the razors, which only needed to be bought once, at a loss, then making a big profit on the blades, which were patent protected and needed to be replaced regularly. The only fly in the ointment was when the patents ran out, which they did in the 1930s, whereupon anyone could manufacture double edged (DE) blades. Gillette then maintained market dominance by product quality, brilliant marketing and the inertia and efficiencies of their sheer size.
In 1971 Gillette went back to patent protected blades and the bait and hook business model with their Trac II (G II in Europe) twin bladed cartridge razor. The system razor was invented and Gillette stopped making DE razors in the West, they could make vastly more profit in their patent protected walled garden. The Trac II was followed by the Atra, the Sensor, the Mach 3 and finally the Fusion in a system of planned obsolescence that keeps the patents fresh (they didn’t want to get caught again) and which has ever increasing cartridge prices and therefore profits.
Gillette’s marketing department have the job of persuading their customers to make the continued upgrades and to pay out progressively more money, they do this on a country by country basis depending on what they think that the population can afford. For instance in India just now they are making the initial push away from DE razors to low cost system razors, as the population become yet more affluent Gillette will bring planned obsolescence to the market with new and “better” models.
In the West the supply of DE blades dwindled as the bait and hook business model of the system razors succeeded, whist in the rest of the world different markets were in different stages of development according to their wealth. So when globalisation and the interwebs came along and the retail barriers between markets broke down people in the West were suddenly able to buy a wide range of quality DE blades from all over the world.
Of course Gillette want to have their cake and eat it. Whilst trying to force the men of the planet to use their system razors they still have factories all over the world churning out DE blades for those who cannot afford the cartridges. Their St Petersberg factory in Russia, for instance, manufactures eight different brands of DE blades.
So now to the meat of this article, what are the chances of DE blades becoming extinct? On the one hand you have the immense power and wealth of the global shaving companies who want the out of patent DE blades to be killed off. These blades, quite simply, ruin their business model and reduce the amount of profit they can make for their shareholders.
But the factors that keep DE blades going are far more powerful:
The blades are out of patent so anyone can make them. The machinery and processes for doing so are well understood. This is not rocket science.
About half the world’s population live on a dollar a day or less. These people cannot afford a $4 system razor cartridge every week. Even a 10 cent DE blade is a lot of money to most.
We live now in a global market, it is becoming difficult for big global companies to behave differently in different countries. I mainly use Iridium DE blades made by Gillette which were never intended for the UK market, they must be horrified that these are crossing borders in huge quantities to be used instead of system razor cartridges.
There are lots of quality DE blade manufacturers around the world competing with the big global companies. There really is lots of healthy competition and most of these companies have very low cost bases so can make a healthy profit out of DE blades.
Customers in the West are getting wise to the bait and hook, planned obsolescence business model in ever increasing numbers. Just look at the resistance there has been to the switch from the Mach 3 to the Fusion, despite massive marketing efforts. And now we have the real, traditional shaving resurgence in the West, which is absolutely booming as evidenced by this and many other websites.
So, in balance, DE blades are not going to be extinct any time soon. However there can still be good reason to stock up on your favourite blade because individual brands can succumb to commercial pressure just as in any other business. A few hundred Iridiums don’t cost much and take up little space.
My parents retired to Spain about 30 years ago and so I have been a frequent visitor ever since. One result was being exposed to the fantastic Spanish bath soaps, Magno (from La Toja). Heno de Pravia and Maja. Every trip some of these would be in the suitcase for the return journey. And then there were the clothes of Adolfo Dominguez and his classic aftershave, Agua Fresca, one of the world’s greatest citrus perfumes which has been my favourite for decades.
This time, however I decided to see what was on offer for the traditional shaver. The number one dominant influence is La Toja shaving sticks which are for sale everywhere and which are truly excellent to use. Just like Palmolive shaving sticks in England there is a wide variation in the prices that retailers charge for these. In one shop I found an old stock stick that had different coloured packaging (dark brown) and a slightly different formulation.
La Toja also make a shaving cream in huge 150ml tubes which comes in classic and sensitive flavours. The only other Spanish brand of shaving soap/cream I could find was LEA, but the big global brands were there including Gillette cream.
When it comes to Spanish after shave balm I already had the Adolfo Dominguez after shave emulsion. This time I bought some of the La Toja “Extra Sensible” balsamo which is “con salses minerales y aloe vera” and which is rather good. There was also some BEA after shave balsam from the same company that do the LEA shave cream.
When it comes to aftershaves it will come as no surprise to find that once again La Toja are in the market with a very nice traditional smell that is “frescor y cuidato”. Also very evident in the shops was Williams Aqua Velva which is “frescor tonificante” and which has a pleasant and rather unique smell. Finally I found some Floid aftershave which is “mentolado suave” and which is very nice indeed.
The purpose of this article is not to list Spanish shaving stuff, it is to demonstrate the variety, fun and adventure that a traditional shaver can have when they travel. A similar article to this could be written with a trip to Germany, Italy, America etc in the West and, possibly more interestingly, with a trip to Turkey, Egypt, Russia, India, China or Pakistan.
Finally, due to the wonders of globalisation and the interwebs, you can buy just about everything I mentioned online.
Feintechnik GmbH Eisfeld are a German manufacturer of all sorts of razors and blades, alongside multibladed razors they also make DE blades which are sold under the Croma name and several other different brand names. This is one of several promotional videos they have made, but this particular one has several shots of the manufacturing process in the factory.
I have written on here before about the Ace fogless shower mirror which uses a patented water reservoir to stop it misting up in the shower. The problem with this device is that it is only sold in the USA, it seems that we Europeans don’t appear on Ace’s radar. To get over this I arranged a transatlantic swap with an American real shaving enthusiast, in return for some tallow shaving sticks that are unavailable in America he sent me the mirror. And now it has arrived.
First impressions are that it is just large enough to do the job and that it is very nicely made. Finding the right place for it in the shower was the next task, somewhere where there was plenty of light and where the ergonomics worked. Then it was a case of reorganising the shelf in there to accomodate the extra kit.
First go was this morning. Using a Mergress XL with a Derby blade and a Simpson’s Duke 3 in best badger (10 times the price of a Frank Shaving finest) with Taylor’s of Old Bond Street Eton College Collection shaving cream. The mirror’s reservoir filled up very quickly and easily from the shower head and everything worked exactly as advertised, there was zero mist on the mirror and it was very easy to shave with.
Three benefits were immediately apparent compared to shaving at the sink, firstly it is possible to adapt a two handed shaving technique with the left hand feeling for the stubble and the right hand wielding the razor, this would make an immense mess if you tried it outside the shower and is very effective for getting the best shave. Secondly it is very easy to rinse the face very thoroughly of all lather, including behind the ears! And thirdly everything remained nice and warm throughout the shave.
With further practice this can only get better so the Ace mirror definitely brings a whole new element to the traditional shaving experience.
Here are some more of the early Gillette advertisements that I have scanned in. The first three look like quarter page adverts from Punch magazine from before World War 1.
The first is exhorting, presumably womenfolk, to buy men razors for Christmas, a bit brave of Gillette when giving a blade as a gift is traditionally bad luck. This razor as gift concept obviously worked because it is not uncommon to come across totally unused vintage razors, especially travel sets. The men presumably put the gift in the draw and continued using their old razor. Ingraining this gift concept in the collective conscience was good marketing because it reached new customers who would then be forced to buy the expensive patented blades for posterity.
The next advertisement is another dig at the cut throat razor and the use of barbers. It is telling men to shave themselves and is telling them how much more convenient it will be, how presentable they will be after just three minutes with a Gillette razor.
This third advertisement is getting closer to a true product advert. They use the left hand side to trumpet the superiority of the safety razor with some features and benefits whilst having veiled digs at the competition. Then the right hand side has the product, and for the first time the price. And what a product, triple silver plated in a Morocco box at the immense price of a guinea, or 21 shillings, this is not aimed at the mass market.
Finally we have a much later advertisement and from a different periodical. From the Sketch in Christmas 1926. You can see that this is a much more sophisticated advertisement. Once again they are banging on about the Christmas present angle, just like De Beers banged on about buying diamond engagement rings. And it worked for both companies. Even today you see big Christmas gift packs of system razors appearing at retailers in Q4 each year. One very nice point is that by 1926 they have a royal warrant. By Appointment to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. That would be the very clean shaven Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor, who 10 years later as Edward VIII abdicated as king. There was no royal warrant to the king in 1926 because George V, Edwards father, supported a very fine beard and an even finer moustache.
Alum blocks and their slimmed down form, styptic pencils, have a long history in traditional shaving. The blocks are used after a shave, rubbed over the entire face and the pencils are used as an astringent to prevent bleeding from small nicks and cuts. Alum is crystallised hydrated potassium aluminium sulphate, also the ammonium and sodium salts are very similar, and what causes the doubts about it is the presence of the metal, aluminium.
When I was young a lot of the pots and pans in the kitchen were aluminium, it is perfect for the job because it is light and conducts heat well, yet now you never see aluminium used in cooking. This is because it is toxic to our nervous system and bone structure. In addition Wikipedia says that the use of aluminium in antiperspirants is “controversial” as it is a possible factor in breast cancer and in Alzheimer’s disease, with brain plaques of sufferers showing an elevated presence of the metal. There is an article about aluminium toxicity here.
Although the use of alum in shaving is external, human skin is not impermeable and the action of shaving causes many small cuts and abrasions that do not bleed but which would ease the absorption of aluminium into our bodies. And of course styptic pencils are used directly on bleeding cuts, which must transfer some of the chemical into our systems.
There are alternatives to using alum for cuts. As I wrote in an earlier article about bleeding and shaving, a thorough splashing with cold water will stop most small nicks and weepers, the cold constricts the capillaries supplying blood to the surface of the skin. Anything still bleeding after this can be stopped by putting a small piece of paper tissue on it, this enhances the natural clotting mechanism by vastly increasing the surface area that it is working in and the tissue can then be removed after a few minutes.
Of course it is up to you, if there were a medically proven danger then alum would already be banned for human external use. However medical knowledge is very far from perfect and often lags a long way behind what is actually happening in the world. You choose.
