I have just received a copy of the Robert K. Waits book Before Gillette The Quest for a Safe Razor Inventors and Patents 1762-1901
A wonderful enlightening book.
Single Edge Razor Acquisition Thread.
- Thread starter BigFoot
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A wonderful enlightening book.
Nope, anything by Robert K. Waits, bad ... bad ,,.... bad move .... must resist .... must resist the "oooh, look at that one, I want one of those" SYNDROME!!!
[Oh Lord, please beseech me, or strike me with a divine light ten ing bolt]
oh look a hamburger 
[Oh Lord, please beseech me, or strike me with a divine light ten ing bolt]
oh look a hamburger But shopping with one of the Waits ‘catalogs’ (catalogues) is such fun…even if just window shopping…Nope, anything by Robert K. Waits, bad ... bad ,,.... bad move .... must resist .... must resist the "oooh, look at that one, I want one of those" SYNDROME!!!
[Oh Lord, please beseech me, or strike me with a divine light ten ing bolt]
Enders Dollar Safety Razor with a brand new NOS blade. Tomorrow morning we will see if she cuts.
Cuts?
Have you got 911 on speed dial?
I've got two Enders "The Little One'' gold and nickel, the gold one is monogrammed MGM ... now the mind went wild ... is that MGM studios? or could it be a wholly grail and be Marilyn ? M........ some dopey would fall for either story? no?
And it was a total FAIL. No blood was shed but the Enders vintage blade was not good. I will move on to fiddling in a modern Injector blade.Cuts?
Have you got 911 on speed dial?
I've got two Enders "The Little One'' gold and nickel, the gold one is monogrammed MGM ... now the mind went wild ... is that MGM studios? or could it be a wholly grail and be Marilyn ? M........ some dopey would fall for either story? no?
Had the RAD tamed for most of the year, but found a brass GEM Micromatic and couldn't resist (didn't hurt that it was only $15 shipped). TTO works perfectly and I love the weight of brass. And instead of "plating," we get "patina." Now just need the nice USPS lady to drop off the dozen or so coated GEM blades I ordered. I tried a Clog-Pruf a year or two ago and could never get the angle right. Time to try again.
In those days of old, when men were bold, and underwear mas made of tin, an enders blade was pretty thin. [or thick, but thick didn't rhyme]
As it's already the New Year here, I can officially say I've won my first razor of 2024. 
Picked up a beautiful little Ever Ready 1914 I'd had my eye on.
I read a post somewhere on the forums about Dating GEM and Ever Ready razors and from what understood from it, the 1914 I got with the "Patented March 24/14" on the back had a relatively short production run of two years, 1917-1919. If that is indeed correct it and I've read it properly, it will be over 100 years old. Likely my oldest razor outside of straight razors.
I've kind of got the bug for these single edge razors ever since I got the British made 1912 like my Grandad's.
I think I'll collect the all over time.
I'd even been looking at the modern options like the PAA Starling and the Blackland Sabre. Any fans of those on here? I was tempted to buy the Sabre over the holidays but I couldn't decide which base plate to go with.. there is a 1 and a 2.. the latter having a larger blade gap and increased exposure making it the more efficient. I'd probably end up getting both as I'm indecisive and buying the extra plate added another £70 onto the total so I held back for the moment!
Picked up a beautiful little Ever Ready 1914 I'd had my eye on.
I read a post somewhere on the forums about Dating GEM and Ever Ready razors and from what understood from it, the 1914 I got with the "Patented March 24/14" on the back had a relatively short production run of two years, 1917-1919. If that is indeed correct it and I've read it properly, it will be over 100 years old. Likely my oldest razor outside of straight razors.
I've kind of got the bug for these single edge razors ever since I got the British made 1912 like my Grandad's.
I think I'll collect the all over time. I'd even been looking at the modern options like the PAA Starling and the Blackland Sabre. Any fans of those on here? I was tempted to buy the Sabre over the holidays but I couldn't decide which base plate to go with.. there is a 1 and a 2.. the latter having a larger blade gap and increased exposure making it the more efficient. I'd probably end up getting both as I'm indecisive and buying the extra plate added another £70 onto the total so I held back for the moment!
Yes. Big fan of the Sabre here. I think I have both plates, but only use the two dot one. Supposedly its in the works for a redesign.
I'm just flappin me gums, I like the people who see a patent date so assume it was made in that year.As it's already the New Year here, I can officially say I've won my first razor of 2024.
Picked up a beautiful little Ever Ready 1914 I'd had my eye on.
I read a post somewhere on the forums about Dating GEM and Ever Ready razors and from what understood from it, the 1914 I got with the "Patented March 24/14" on the back had a relatively short production run of two years, 1917-1919. If that is indeed correct it and I've read it properly, it will be over 100 years old. Likely my oldest razor outside of straight razors.
I've kind of got the bug for these single edge razors ever since I got the British made 1912 like my Grandad's.
I'd even been looking at the modern options like the PAA Starling and the Blackland Sabre. Any fans of those on here? I was tempted to buy the Sabre over the holidays but I couldn't decide which base plate to go with.. there is a 1 and a 2.. the latter having a larger blade gap and increased exposure making it the more efficient. I'd probably end up getting both as I'm indecisive and buying the extra plate added another £70 onto the total so I held back for the moment!
A patent can be applied for and production is already underway, or applied for and granted but production delayed. A patent is a patent for 10years? so a '14 patented item can be a '24 item?
I've just always wanted to express this, is all, draw your own conclusions, I often use my red crayon to draw mine, i like eating the green ones.
One of my favourite vintage razors. Ever Readies are noticeably more aggressive than their Gem siblings (Star tends to be even more so, in my experience). The 1914 Little Lather Catcher won't get you membership in the Lather Catcher League but don't let that twist yer frillies. In fact, I find the LLC to be the best of all the Gem and Gem-ish I've tried so far.
I have the Starling V2, the alloy one. I'm on the list for a V3 stainless, for which I have hopes. For me the Starling is best with the OC plate. I love the tight spacing of the teeth. I think that razor was my first effortless BBS; a real eye-opener. Guess you could say I'm a fan.
I had the Sabre with both plates. I really, really wanted to love that thing but it kept leaving me with second thoughts. I will be straight up and admit that's my thing; lots of guys get lovely shaves with it. I'm not truly objective about it, but it always felt to me like the L1 plate was just a tad too mild and the L2 plate was just a tad too aggressive. In the end I wanted an OC version. I also tended to get wrapped around the fact that a Gem blade for me has five decent shaves in it. The problem with that is that it throws off my preferred shave routine of six shaves in two weeks and bin the blade. Again, that's the way my brain is (mis)wired. When I notice stuff like that I can work on it; the problem is noticing.
Gem format in general feels like a bit more struggle to me. I seem to either get too mild or not mild enough shaves, except for that Ever Ready which is funny. I spent all of $2.50 on it; literally spent 100 times that much on the Sabre. The technerd in my head wants to believe that a Wolfman WR3 0.50 OC would be the perfect Gem-ish razor, but then again I'm reined in by my wallet.
O.H.
I'm just flappin me gums, I like the people who see a patent date so assume it was made in that year.
A patent can be applied for and production is already underway, or applied for and granted but production delayed. A patent is a patent for 10years? so a '14 patented item can be a '24 item?
I've just always wanted to express this, is all, draw your own conclusions, I often use my red crayon to draw mine, i like eating the green ones.
Hello Wombat! Yes, I think, what you say is what I say too.
Indeed, a patent granting year is going to be an entirely different thing to year of production although I can't say I've encountered anyone that assumed patent year means production year personally, outside of maybe.. you know the random online marketplace sellers who see a figure and assume that is when it was made.
Even if the patent or similar was expired I'd imagine the producer could still say they had it at one stage. Kind of like these sellers with Wostenholms and they think it was made in 1694.. because they see the etching saying "mark first granted 1694" when in reality the razor is likely 200+ years younger.
Like as I noted I'd been doing some searching to see when the "1914" model was produced as I was curious, and I found that it was apparently made from 1917-1919.. so that would be patent granted in 1914 and production delayed a few years until 1917.
Another instance would be the Ever Ready "1912".. which was then made under Ever Ready in Britain apparently well into the 1950s. Just a patent year and no bearing as to when the razor was actually produced.
Thank you very much for all that information!
I'm very glad to hear your opinions on the 1914 and that it being a good razor! I also had heard others say these things that some of the less expensive, commonly available ones were in fact some of the best shavers in their opinion. I'd like to maybe pick up some of the more elusive models some day too though. I'd been bidding on one of the British Streamlines a while ago but missed out.. I was sort of not sure I really wanted it or not so put a semi-low bid in.. and someone went higher.
I'm very keen to obtain one of the new Stainless Starlings! They're very reasonably priced also! Is there any way to ensure or reserve one? It seems they must have sold out very fast, the last batch they made? I joined the website and just registered for notification when they would be back in stock. I think it said they sold out faster than they thought they would so they have another batch being made at the moment. I really hope I get one next time!
The Sabre on the other hand.. I see what you mean about the plates. It's a shame they don't offer and OC plate for it too. I'd read that it is to be redesigned and rereleased sometime nex.. I mean this year! So who knows, maybe they will offer an OC plate with the new one. I typically like OC razors myself so it'd be nice to have the option on it. Maybe if I can secure a Starling from the new batch it will satisfy the GEM need!
I'd really like if there were more GEM offerings in the modern day. Not really very many to choose from though, is there?
Do you know of any others besides these two? Or are they pretty much the only options in the present market? It'd be nice if the Starling was a full time production.. the PAA razors often seem to be somewhat limited. Most of them that are offered eventually are unobtainable after a while. 
Thank you!
uhuh uhuh .. I've got soap from 1749, it's stamped so, right there in the soap. [smells a bit old too]
I took a ride over to one of my local antique shops the other day. I went there looking for vintage cast iron skillets, to my surprise they had in some more vintage razors. This Schick repeating injector type B was sitting in the case with a price tag of $4 on it! I wasn't letting that go for that price. I also picked up a later model ever ready 1914 but when I took the Vintage blade out of it the spring on the cap popped off the rivets. The rivet studs are still intact so I'm going to try to epoxy the spring back on.
Thief! What luck, congrats.
Yesterday I checked out another local antique shop. I picked up this nice Schick injector model E2
Schick repeating razors type B (also types A and C) are great razors. I'm currently shaving with a type A. Great razor. One piece of advice. Don't try to load a new blade through the mechanism in the handle. Why stress a nearly 100 year old mechanism. Instead just slide a new blade directly into the head. It can be removed the same way. Enjoy your type B.
