Safety Razor of the Month, September 2012 - Military Sets

This month, instead of going for a particular kind of razor I thought it would be interesting to explore the shaving sets made either directly under military contracts or marketed to soldiers and sailors usually heading off to war. Some of the most well known, of course, are the Gillette sets from World War I, and it was undoubtedly World War I and the need for a properly sealed gas mask in the trenches that made the clean-shaven man a more common sight. But there were military sets -- double- and single-edged -- from plenty of other makers and from other eras, too.

One of the things I'm most interested in personally, at least as far as the U.S. military goes, is the apparent change in shaving kits being considered personal gear and the responsibility of the individual soldier or sailor himself to provide, to being issued, at least by the Army. I've seen these "Property U.S. Army" sets from at least Gillette and AutoStrop, and possibly others. If anyone has any reference material to point to there regarding the timing for this shift and some of the more specific reasoning behind it I'd love to see it. It seems a little odd that the government wouldn't have standardized on a particular type of razor to make standard issue so that they could then just focus on one type of blade. But maybe the issue was that no one company could have geared up to provide the needs of the entire wartime force... It'd be nice to know some more there.

So let's see what you all have got. Maybe you're lucky enough to have a set that was used by a family member. Or maybe you've just picked one up along the way. Maybe you've come across an interesting factoid related to military shaving. Anything's fair game!

I'll start with this little nugget from the December, 1918 issue of the Gillette Blade: During wartime production, Gillette was producing 35 miles of shaving edge every day! And that was even before they had the huge Building E plant finished, which would be eight floors devoted solely to blade production.

Here is My 1919 Bulldog set, before and after pics )

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...Before-and-After-pics-Unbeliveable?highlight=

This set came from NY, it was sold to me on Ebay, when i asked about the history of this set, I was told by the owner that it was his Grand Fathers Military set, he did tell me his Grand father served in the war, So i know i have an original Military set that was owned by a soldier that served his Country )

I would be interested to know when the shift back to personal item from issue item happened also. They are hard to find, but there are currently military issue DE razors. I'm not sure if they are issued to GIs or to civilians in disaster areas (Katrina, Issac, etc).

ERVARGASNY said:

Here is My 1919 Bulldog set, before and after pics )

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...Before-and-After-pics-Unbeliveable?highlight=

This set came from NY, it was sold to me on Ebay, when i asked about the history of this set, I was told by the owner that it was his Grand Fathers Military set, he did tell me his Grand father served in the war, So i know i have an original Military set that was owned by a soldier that served his Country )

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Wow, they look awesome

Here is a Khaki Set I recently acquired. Serial J764, which I believe is 1919. Property of the US Army stamped on khaki case, and on the the underside of the blade guard. I also have a booklet that details various things about the Armed Forces including salutes, ranks, and types of vessels.

just found this from a member of another forum

DutchmanRiver said:

just found this from a member of another forum

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Psssht... it's a good start.

GOOD topic chosen! This is interesting and as usual I have questions. Yes the Gillette company won the Big contract in WW1. For the U.S forces that is.
I guess that the central powers must had the same need for close protecions. What razors were protecing their men from the gas??

Here is another one; yep the Gillette had the grand contract but GEM was still a competitor. I guess as part from the adverts we see "now" they ran a "aggressive" campaign towards the civilians and the soldiers that "had an option". Any comments of this?

I keep on chatting to myself a bit..
In all the books I have read about WW1 I have only seen pictures of straight razors "in action". (Allies as well as the central powers). Making me belive that the shaving equipment was personal gear with the obvious exception of the U.S troops.
This was still the norm for at least the Germans in WW2. Have anyone seen old military razors issued by other states than U.S??

cwlsmith said:

Here is a Khaki Set I recently acquired. Serial J764, which I believe is 1919. Property of the US Army stamped on khaki case, and on the the underside of the blade guard. I also have a booklet that details various things about the Armed Forces including salutes, ranks, and types of vessels.

View attachment 271893View attachment 271894View attachment 271895

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I'm interested if anyone else has one of these little booklets from Gillette?

if not, I wouldn't be opposed to scanning the pages in so that you all could see how awesome it is.

cwlsmith said:

I'm interested if anyone else has one of these little booklets from Gillette?

if not, I wouldn't be opposed to scanning the pages in so that you all could see how awesome it is.

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It looks very similar to the one from 1917 that Razor Emporium had up in their print archive, until they broke that section of their site a month or so ago, but either they didn't scan that page that's showing in your photos or the one you've got is different from theirs. In any case, I don't think there's anyone reading this thread who wouldn't be interested.

cwlsmith said:

I'm interested if anyone else has one of these little booklets from Gillette?

if not, I wouldn't be opposed to scanning the pages in so that you all could see how awesome it is.

Click to expand...

MacDaddy said:

It looks very similar to the one from 1917 that Razor Emporium had up in their print archive, until they broke that section of their site a month or so ago, but either they didn't scan that page that's showing in your photos or the one you've got is different from theirs. In any case, I don't think there's anyone reading this thread who wouldn't be interested.

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Yes, please scan with many thanks in advance.

-jim

I purchased this set from a nice fellow I met on a popular auction site who specializes in military memorabilia. Sorry for the disproportionate images.

Great thread! As I am a huge US war history buff, I have a Gillette bakelite cased set....but have never seen the sets you fellows have! I am coveting!

regularfella said:

Does this set qualify? Got it from The Vintage Razor Shop. I'm not sure of the history of this particular set but it seems like something that would have been sold in the PX.

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They might very well have been sold in the PX, but they would have also been available for purchase or ordering elsewhere in the civilian world. A good bit of the marketing effort around the time that that Service Set would have been sold was targeted at people back on the home front to buy a razor and have them sent to their loved ones serving abroad.

Generally speaking, a shaving kit seems to have usually been considered personal gear and was the responsibility of the individual to bring himself. The sets that are specifically marked "PROPERTY U.S. ARMY" are the exceptions, where it seems that the Army purchased lots of razors from various manufacturers to issue to the troops. In Gillette's case those appear to have all been Khaki Sets.

According to their own lore, that Gillette Service Set in particular was developed using the input from at least one member of their sales staff who was called up for duty on the Mexican border during the hostilities there before WWI. I'm still looking for the article I read that told the story, but in the meantime here's an ad for the Service Set that tells part of the story (click to enlarge):



Also, here's a great letter in the September 1918 issue of the Gillette Blade from a Gillette employee who was serving in the War -- that whole issue is worth a read, and is full of other similar letters. He talks about having gone over with a Service Set but then also having been issued a Khaki Set. Click through to see it in context and to read more of that issue:

regularfella said:

Does this set qualify? Got it from The Vintage Razor Shop. I'm not sure of the history of this particular set but it seems like something that would have been sold in the PX.

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very nice set! Only the blades are wrong. I know this Service Set only with "Made in USA" razors. I´ve never seen a Service Set with "Property US Army" razor.

Since we're entirely Gillette-heavy, here's a photo of an AutoStrop Military Kit that I pulled out for another thread. Note that it also has "PROPERTY U.S. ARMY" on the wrap and on the razor head itself, so I assume that AutoStrop had a similar contract with the Army and that these sets would have been issued to soldiers just like the Khaki Sets. And below that is an ad for the kit from the January 1918 issue of American Magazine since it was also for sale to the general public.

Now we are getting somewhere ELSE. Spectacular Porter!

regularfella said:

Hmmmm. Weird that the razor in my set is silver plated. Probably not an original part of the set since the ad clearly says that they were heavy nickle plated.

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It seems as the Bull dog Military set was Silver or Nickel plated (1918 WW1)

Henrik said:

I keep on chatting to myself a bit..
In all the books I have read about WW1 I have only seen pictures of straight razors "in action". (Allies as well as the central powers). Making me belive that the shaving equipment was personal gear with the obvious exception of the U.S troops.
This was still the norm for at least the Germans in WW2. Have anyone seen old military razors issued by other states than U.S??

Click to expand...

This a good question, i even notice that portrayed in the movies. Absence of DE in war movies. I have a "Who can name movies or TV shows w De shaving scenes" and still no DE scenes.