This is something rather nice that you can do with traditional, real shaving. Gillette have been the dominant manufacturer of shaving equipment on planet earth for about a century. During all of that time they made fantastic, well engineered, very high quality double edged safety razors. Nowadays these are reserved for developing countries where the bulk of the male population cannot afford several dollars every week for a system razor cartridge. But for many decades they were the prime Gillette product in Western markets as well.
Gillette double edged razors are made to last, their potential life is virtually indefinite. I have a 1930s Tech that I use regularly, many people still use razors made before World War 1. So there are tens of millions of these razors hidden away in attics and garages that, after a quick cleanup, would still make fantastic shaving razors today. I have a small collection of these, which I use, and have written about the Super Speeds and Adjustables on here before. Tens of thousands (maybe more) of real shaving enthusiasts seek out and use these razors, their prices go ever upwards on eBay.
One very interesting feature of Gillette razors is that with very many of them you can tell when it was manufactured. So you can buy one made in your birth year. From 1904 to 1931 each razor carried a serial number. Though from 1921 to 1931 this was just for the top models. And there was a brief period in 1927/8 when there were no serial numbers. If you have a serial numbered razor then you can easily look it up against online tables to get its manufacturing date.
From 1931 to 1950 there were no distinguishing marks, then in mid 1950 they started again with a new system. There is a letter of the alphabet for the year and a number for the quarter within the year. The first razors under this system were marked V3. They worked their way through the alphabet till 1955, when they started at A again. Then in 1980 they started at A yet again. With this system you can buy a razor within a 3 month window within which your birthday lies.
Looking at some of my razors there is a red tip Super Speed that has B2 stamped on the underside of the head, this razor was made in April, May or June of 1956 and it still shaves perfectly today. I have 2 Toggles, a D1 and an F4, they are from Quarter1 1958 and Q4 1960 respectively. And for a more modern razor there is a fantastic S4 long handled Super Adjustable which is from Q4 1972.
When you see Gillette razors advertised you will often see the date code included in the description. Some people collect the date codes. So, say, the Fat Boy was made for just four years and it would be quite simple to accumulate one made in each quarter that it was manufactured. By chance both of mine are stamped F4.
As with everything to do with personal shaving date of birth razors are a personal thing, to some people they are important and they hunt them down, other people just can’t be bothered. It is up to you.
Nearly forty years ago now I had a chat with a cutlery retailer in Liverpool who specialised in supplying the many chefs in the city. He told me that Sabatier knives were the best and that they came with two kinds of blade. The carbon steel blades were for professional chefs, they were much sharper but demanded far more care, if they were left wet they would quickly rust, for instance. The stainless steel blades were for housewives, easy to look after but not capable of taking the same sort of edge as a carbon blade.
Now, of course, it has all changed. Chefs use stainless steel knives and Sabatier are no longer the pre-eminent brand.
The safety razor industry invented by King C. Gillette at the beginning of the 20th century had a novel business model, known as bait and hook. The razor itself sold at a loss to use the price elasticity of demand mechanism to get the maximum number of customers on board. Once they had bought their razor they needed a constant supply of the patent protected blades which sold at a big profit. This business model has been imitated by other industries, notably the video game console industry, where the basic console is often sold at a loss, but its manufacturer makes a big profit on every game sold. Other users of this business model are the cellphone industry and the computer printer industry.
With Gillette’s model the shorter the life of a blade the more money he made, so he made the blades of carbon steel which would rust very quickly. Maybe requiring a new blade every day. Of course you can stop the rust by removing the blade from the razor and keeping it in a bath of alcohol, but who can be bothered? So it came as a revolution in 1960 when the British firm, Wilkinson Sword, introduced stainless steel blades that lasted much longer. This forced all the other blade manufacturers to do the same and the carbon steel blade was dead (nearly). According to Wikipedia stainless razor blade steel is: a martensitic stainless steel with a composition of chromium between 12 and 14.5%, a carbon content of approximately 0.6%, and the remainder iron and trace elements.
If you want to try an old fashioned carbon steel blade today you still can. Treet in Pakistan make two types the “Blue Special” are in fact black and the “Dura Sharp” are the same blade with a PTFE coating. These are very easily available online from Amazon, eBay or specialist retailers like Connaught. Because they are different to stainless steel blades some people don’t like them at all. Other people think they are fantastic. These carbon steel blades really divide opinion amongst DE shavers, so they are well worth trying just to find which side of the fence you are on.
So where now? We are spoiled with many different manufacturers of excellent DE blades from around the world. The technology for making these to a high quality at a low price has been mastered. In fact there is no excuse whatsoever for a bad blade. But still we are stuck with the old business model and it is possible to make blades a lot better than what we now use. The main problem is productionising new technology in order to hit price points that consumers will accept.
There is a technology that is somewhere between steel and diamonds. That technology is ceramics. Kyocera in Japan make kitchen knives out of zirconia (this has a hardness of 8.2 mohs compared with steel at 5-6 mohs and diamond at 10 mohs) , which holds its edge ten times longer than steel and which is impervious to corrosion. They even make an electric machine for sharpening these, a technology that could be adapted to razor blades. However these blades don’t bend which makes them incompatible with most current DE razors. So whilst there is potential here we are unlikely to see it. And when an enthusiast tried to make his own ceramic cut-throat razor he couldn’t get it to work.
Kyocera themselves have looked at the possibility and this is what they have to say about it:
How come you don’t make a shaver?
Too dangerous! A metal razor blade has a relatively “rounded” edge (under the microscope) which prevents the blade from cutting into the skin. A ceramic razor blade, however, does not have a rounded edge and slices into the skin. Thus, a ceramic shaver would be too dangerous to use. Several engineers in Sendai who tested prototypes can confirm this painful fact!
So there you have it. Looking at the reality it seems that the technology of the blades we use for DE shaving is stuck in a rut. The only viable way out would be if someone had another go at making tungsten steel blades, but in artisan like quantities.
A couple of months ago I was putting together a traditional shaving starter kit for a friend who has high moral scruples concerning the impact that his existence has on other animals. So perhaps I can share with you the issues involved.
With the razor and blade there are no big issues, obviously. These are made of metal. The only possibility for concern would be waxes and glues used in the packaging of blades, but the same applies to the packaging of just about everything in our lives.
The real problem is in making a lather, many of the best shaving soaps are made from tallow, which is animal fat and the best brushes are made from the hair of badgers that have been killed as vermin, mainly in China.
The tallow can be avoided by using creams, which are mainly made of plant oils such as palm oil. Maca Root cream from The Body Shop is a prime example.
Another way of retaining the high moral ground is to use tallow soaps where the tallow was produced without harming animals, such as the wool fat extracted from sheep wool shearing. On Mitchell’s Wool Fat soap’s packet it says “No animal suffers in the preparation of this bio-degradable product”.
And finally you can buy your soaps and creams from artisan makers who have their own high ethical standards. Nanny’s Silly Soap Company say: “I provide a range of soaps all of which are vegetarian, and most of which are vegan. The non vegan ingredients used in some of my products are honey, goat’s milk and tussah silk (wild harvested after the moth has emerged).”
With brushes badger hair is recognised as being by far the best. The first way to avoid harming animals is to use a brush with a synthetic knot, where the hairs are made of plastics derived from petrochemicals, but they are nowhere near as good as badger hair brushes. There are a number of different models of these available. Luckily “Siv” on one of the forums has done a full analysis of ten different offerings. The best value for money is the Body Shop brush and this is what I bought my friend. The best overall is the Taylor’s of Old Bond Street brush. If you have a close look at one of these you will see that the individual hairs have been mechanically flattened to vastly increase their surface area.
A better way to have a good shaving brush without harming animals is to use a horse hair brush, these are made from hairs that come from grooming live animals. The resultant brushes are really excellent and have been described as being 85% badger and 85% boar in their properties. They are common in some countries such as Turkey and Spain. I have one of these which I cannot fault. And they offer a big range of brushes made from horse hair.
So there we have it you can enjoy the luxury and pampering of real, traditional shaving whilst retaining the self satisfaction of retaining your moral superiority. But you will never get to enjoy the supreme excellence of a Simpson’s Chubby 2 in Best Badger.
Sometimes it looks like the big shaving companies have an excellent sense of humour and that their marketing departments are just stringing the world’s males along for their own amusement. So it is hardly surprising when real comedians strike back. And remember, many a true word is spoken in jest.
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.
I have written on here before about Frank Shaving brushes from China and how they are remarkably good quality for not much money. The value is so good that I decided to buy a second $9.99 Finest badger brush from iantang19821024 on eBay. It took less than 2 weeks to arrive and is just perfect. Now they come in stout cardboard boxes with good brush care instructions in English. A nice touch was that the stand supplied was black to match the faux ebony of the handle.
Ian Tang tells me that his brush turnover has tripled since he started receiving publicity on shaving blogs and forums, which is hardly surprising considering the immense value he provides. What is nice is that many people who have now received these brushes are writing their experiences up and are reporting quality of product and service similar to what I have reported here.
The facts are quite simple, virtually all the badger hair in the world used for shaving brushes comes from China. Making the hair into knots is not rocket science but is labour intensive, so it is hardly surprising that most of the badger hair knots that go into brushes are made in China where they have low wages and the raw materials. There are very, very few workshops in the West that now make their own knots. Yet badger hair brushes are traditionally expensive, luxury items. So retailers in the West still charge a lot of money for their brushes even though the knots (and also often the handles) are bought quite cheaply from China.
What Ian Tang is doing on eBay is allowing you to buy direct and cut out the middleman and the huge premium you have to pay for a fancy name on your brush. I am in regular email correspondence with Ian and he seems very keen to continually improve his products and his service. For instance he now offers a range of different handle styles (at least 6 now including a long handle) and also different knot sizes. Also if someone asks for a specific brush specification: handle shape, handle material, hair type and knot size, then Ian tends to make up a batch and add them to his store. So the range of his offering is continually increasing.
So I will now tell you my current opinion if you are looking to buy a shaving brush. If you are on a very tight budget then go to your local discount shop and buy a £1 to £2 boar bristle brush. It will do the job after a fashion. If you want something a whole lot nicer then buy a Frank Shaving brush. If you want the best buy a Simpson’s. And the reason that I continue to write about Frank Shaving here is because of the immense value that they offer to any traditional shaver.
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.
Gillette started production of safety razors in 1903, when they sold just 51 in the year. In 1904 they sold 90,884 and by 1908 they had factories in America, Canada, Great Britain, Germany and France. They were feeding a huge pent up demand for men to get away from cut throat razors. And King Camp Gillette was a believer in strong marketing, something that was possible because of the large profit on the blades.
I have come across a few early UK Gillette advertisements and have scanned them in, these are from Punch magazine, a famous humorous and satirical magazine that ran from 1841 until its closure in 2002. Its readers would be from the middle to upper classes of what was then a very stratified society.
The first advertisement is from March 5 1913 and is aimed squarely at the cut throat razor with the headline “Try the 3 Minute Gillette Shave” and the copy about how easy it is to use, then finally the tag line on the logo “No Stropping No Honing”
Next we have a new advert from April 2nd 1913, less than a month later and they have new artwork and copy. But the Headline “Think when You Shave” and the subsequent copy are still targeted squarely at the cut throat razor, which this time gets named as an “ordinary razor”. Quaintly they talk about “self-shaver” because then most of their audience would have had their shaving done for them by their barber.
The following are two wartime adverts. In the real paper these adverts are half the size of the ones above and this time they seem to be simple public information messages about the availability of different kinds of blades during wartime austerity. But in reality they are more than that, these are brand reinforcement, keeping the Gillette name in front of the public during the hostilities.
So I have taken temporary leave of this country, for a couple of weeks in Menorca. But don’t worry, there are some articles pre-programmed into the system (including this one) that will pop up in my absence. And there are over 60 articles on here, surely not many people have read them all. And please continue to add comments, I will still be logging on regularly to see what is going on.
