Has anybody ever heard of "Opal" shave sticks...???

I got this from a friend of mine a while back who deals in antiques...

It's an all black plastic body with a screw-off cap and a "push-up" bottom...

there is a gold sticker on the side of the tube that says:

OPAL
Shave Stick
HB100

I haven't been able to find anything online about it.. I'm wondering how old it is and if it's worth anything... It smells nice if it's nothing special,, I'll shave with it.... Or should I hang on to it as a 'collectable"....???

Thanks...

For sure I'm not an expert on shave soap, but if you couldn't find anything on line about it, I'd say go ahead and use it. Never heard of it though.

never heard of it - pics?

Here are some pictures... Excuse the awful quality... All I have is a digital camera keychain that they gave me in a bar....

Not bad for a free digital camera... on a keychain.

Interesting find. Let us know how it performs if you end up using it.

-Andy

Thanks for sharing. It's great

NervousBreakdown said:

It's an all black plastic body with a screw-off cap and a "push-up" bottom...

there is a gold sticker on the side of the tube that says:

OPAL
Shave Stick
HB100

Click to expand...

I thought I'd resurrect this thread, since I picked up a similar Opal HB-100 on ebay this week. I probably overpaid: $15 shipped. But the soap appears unused, and the container looks nice. I had hoped to refill the container with Palmolive or Speick, but its diameter is a little too small for either without some trimming or re-milling.

The soap smells like tallow, and feels a bit soft. I'll try it out for tomorrow's shave, and see how it works.

As I understand it, Opal was mostly known for their brushes. I checked Google Books for old ads, but couldn't find anything except a Brooklyn address. Possibly they didn't advertise much, or possibly their ad text didn't scan well enough for me to find it.

Oh, pictures? All right.

I have an Opal Brush which I re-knotted. Just thought I'd throw some pics in...

Yes, I've read much more about Opal brushes than soaps. I wonder if Opal rebranded someone else's soap for this stick, just to sell it alongside their brushes? It would be interesting to know more about the history. The only reference I've been able to find is in the New York Directory Co. "New York and surrounding territory classified business directory, Volume 50" from 1967, which merely lists their NYC address and phone: 832 Broadway, ALgonquin 4-7517. I can't even be sure that's the same company, but it seems likely. If you know Manhattan, that address is next door to Strand bookstore.

In 1949 there was a Pal Shaving Brush at the same address, with 3 employees and headed by an Adolf Schneider, and the same company was listed in the 1948 patent gazette. The jump from "Pal" to "Opal" seems reasonable to me, but I can't find out much about the Pal company either. To muddy the waters, Colgate-Palmolive India has also used "Pal" as a brand for shaving products. But for the Broadway company, I suspect that most of their brushes (and soaps) were sold from that shop and so weren't advertised.

Anyway the first shave was typical of old tallow soaps. The stick loaded easily on my stubble, even though it has a pretty small diameter. I don't really have enough light in my bathroom for good pictures, but I snapped one anyhow. The Rooney 3/1 super worked well with the Opal stick, creating a creamy lather with good cushion and very good slickness. I didn't realize how slick it was until I put down the camera, picked up the brush again - and dropped it into the sink. No harm done. I had enough lather for 4-5, but finished a DFS in three.

I am at risk of driving up prices for old shaving soaps, so remember the downside. Like most old tallow soaps, this stick has no scent left apart from the aged tallow itself. Imagine if The Art of Shaving or DR Harris decided to market a new fragrance to capture the kindergarten nostalgia market: old crayons and silly putty. Enjoy!

I may be a litte late on this subject, but here goes. Pal and Opal (pronounced O-pal) are the same company. Adolph was my grandfather. He had to add the "O" after it was discovered that there was already a company called "Pal" that made shaving cream. Opal didn't make the shaving sticks for very long; they were an experiment of my grandfather's. The company closed in the 1970's after my grandfather died.
I'm going to look out for one of those sticks. My dad would get a kick out of it.

Thank you very much for posting, and welcome to B&B!

Can you give us any more information about when the sticks were produced, or how they were made?

You are welcome. I'll see if anyone knows anything else about the sticks. It's nice that these are being appreciated.

very interesting

I know nothing about this stuff, I just want to say that this makes for an extremely interesting read!

Correction: Apparently there was probably a blade company called Pal. So much for shaving history.

happened to grab a stick of this on da bay recently, teed up for today's shave.
so resurrected the thread with good history.