Gillette Double Edge Razor

Buy Your Dad an Old-School Safety Razor

Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Grandparent’s Day and even Parent’s Day. What do they all have in common? If you answered that they are cynical cash-ins by greetings card companies and a great way for PR flacks to hawk the same plastic crap year after year, then you’d be right.

If you you think that they’re a wonderful way to thank your parents for putting up with you for so many years, then you’re wrong. But as you’re going to go ahead and waste money on your dad this Sunday anyway, why not get him something good for a change? Like this classic travel razor from Merkur, a miniature version of a razor so good that it has been on sale for 50 years.

There are no gimmicks here, just a nickel-plated and chrome-plated brass safety razor which unscrews into sections and fits into a tiny leather pouch. The blades are the old-school kind with two edges, and they are clamped between the screw-closed jaws so just the edges protrude behind a guard.

You’ll be saving pops money, too. Blades come in packs of ten which cost around four bucks each, or even $5 for 100 Compare this to Amazon’s $60 list prices for 12 and 15-packs of modern cartridges like the Mach 3 or Fusion from Gillette.

Luckily, my father sees through this nonsense and refuses to let me buy him as much as a card. Then again, he is as stubbly and scruffy as his son, so a razor would be as useless as buying shampoo for a bald man.

Available now, from around $40.

Merkur Travel Razor [Manufactum via Werd ]

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Gillette Double Edged Razor

Gillette Double Edged Razor

We have gone from 1500 brands and models with just 6 marks (with the same format) and only 6 colors, while the flavors of ice cream have been multiplied by 300. Achaeans should this investment. Foreshadowing?. People who follow the current debate on environmental issues become familiar with the concept of biodiversity, which is the sum total of all life forms on earth, most of whom still do not know by name, and also many of which are disappearing. May seem distant and insignificant beings, but they are all part of the web of life. Think of the history of razors, and imagine the long list of brand names and models. Robert Wait's excellent book "The Safety gillette double edged razor Reference Guide" contains information on more than 1300 brands and models. The Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog of 1900 showed even 16 different models from the razor. If your grandfather had entered the store in 1920 that would have made a dozen safety gillette double edged razor to choose from, and models galore. Gillette, Autostrop, Gem, EverReady, Wilkinson, Enders, Durham Duplex, Schick, Probak, etc. Even among the gillette double edged razor would not have been a wide variety of models: New Standard, Bostonian, Big Boy, Tuckaway, Brownie, Richwood, Traveller, etc. But if you go to a store today, how many different brands and models shave you see? Gillette, with about 2 or 3 models, Schick, with about 2 or 3 models, and thus several brands of disposable. So what is it? Three or four brands and a dozen models of the razor? And most of these systems would be shaving systems very similar to the basic designs, there is nothing as radically different as the four leading brands of the late 1920's, Gillette double edge, single edge AutoStrop free stropping, Schick and American Safety Razor Enhanced new single border. And of course the odd interesting round Collins razors or the heavy double-edged Durham Duplex. The question then is: Are we all sheep waiting to be cut from the same cloth? There are more brands of cars that are brand razors today. More types of Wrigley chewing gum Gillette razors. And it has not always been this way. Are we doomed to simply be a choice of one or two slightly different razors (in a wider range of colors)?. The other question is: Why does this happen? Is not this the time of changing global marketplace? There was a news article about two years ago said the number of different products on the world market already exceeds the number of species of life on earth. Or simply means that more and more extensive control of our economy increasingly large multi-national conglomerates leads to a lack of innovation, choice and quality?. However, for the sake of future knife collection, I hope that the deteriorating state of diversity is not a precursor of things to come. May become extinct!. You can use these HTML tags and attributes:. . .

Fair in behalf of Actors' Fund of America, official souvenir, May 1907

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