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I'm Hopefully About to Get a Big Haul of Gear Soon

I haven't been down to my grandparents in a while and I haven't been down there since I started with the DE but I'm hoping to go either today or tomorrow but more likely tomorrow when my Grandmother returns from Turkey (I've no idea where she even went to there) as she'll need a lift back home which I can hopefully hitch a ride on.

My grandfather has a secret stash of shaving stuff in his games room while some stuff is displayed. I clearly remember 2 vintage shavettes which I was curiously looking at but I didn't know what they were at the time but now that I do I might see if I can have a go of them.

Pics are going up of whatever I might be lucky enough to receive from my Grandfather. :thumbup1:
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
I'll distract him and you snatch the goods.

I mean...stealing from your grandfather! Oh the humanity!

:lol:

I'll be looking forward to the pictures as well! Even if you don't get anything it would be cool to see his collection.
Maybe ask him a few questions on how it was done back in the day?
 
I can tell you pretty much right now Toothpick.

Up until the modern cartridge wars most men here were DE shavers. Flair tips were the most common as far as i can tell but that's only based on a small number of people.

Most Irish men who started shaving with a DE here before the cartridge scourge referred to DE razors and blades as Wilkinson Sword razors and/or Wilkinson Sword blades as there weren't really any other brands of blades commonly available in Ireland or at least Counties Dublin, Meath & Wexford anyway. As for soaps if I remember correctly, the only one people like my Grandfather could get their hands on was something along the lines of "Colgate" but I don't remember if that was the right name.

Carts caught on fairly quickly here as soon as they were released. A man I've called "The Chief" since I was able to speak (my dad called him Chief and I loved to copy my dad when I was little so I did. He was the Chief of my dads clan called Tuatha Na Gael back in the day) has always used carts and he's now in his mid 60's.

More research is needed because I'm still pretty curious.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
I can tell you pretty much right now Toothpick.

Up until the modern cartridge wars most men here were DE shavers. Flair tips were the most common as far as i can tell but that's only based on a small number of people.

Most Irish men who started shaving with a DE here before the cartridge scourge referred to DE razors and blades as Wilkinson Sword razors and/or Wilkinson Sword blades as there weren't really any other brands of blades commonly available in Ireland or at least Counties Dublin, Meath & Wexford anyway. As for soaps if I remember correctly, the only one people like my Grandfather could get their hands on was something along the lines of "Colgate" but I don't remember if that was the right name.

Carts caught on fairly quickly here as soon as they were released. A man I've called "The Chief" since I was able to speak (my dad called him Chief and I loved to copy my dad when I was little so I did. He was the Chief of my dads clan called Tuatha Na Gael back in the day) has always used carts and he's now in his mid 60's.

More research is needed because I'm still pretty curious.

Fascinating stuff! Seems as if even back in the day the corporate giant was in control of men's grooming.
 
Fascinating stuff! Seems as if even back in the day the corporate giant was in control of men's grooming.

Don't worry, there's a lot of older men and women down around my Grandparents area that I plan on asking a lot of questions. I'm sure more than a few of us B&Bers are known as "It's that guy that's obsessed with shaving" so 1 more wouldn't hurt as long as I learn something cool.
 
A few cool items down here that I've managed to get a look at. Pics will follow over the next few days bu from the top of my head that I can remember:
-An UNCRACKED ball end tech.
-A seemingly merkur but definitely version of a travel tech.
-A shavette labeled "Magic" in excellent condition. It's got a white handle and looks similar to a modern Dovo with it's plastic insert although this razors insert is metal.
-A few beyond repair straight razors, some of them are so horrible that they look a little like they exploded somehow.
-1 straight razor that looks like it could be saved but a very very minor nick at the top of the edge. It could probably be converted to a Spanish edge to save it.
-Some broken white handled adjustable butterfy razor that seem like black handle adjustables just with a white plastic handle instead.
-Another couple of razor that look similar to a tech but probably aren't.
-A very strange Wardonia metal razor but it's baseplate is black plastic.

I'll try and get pics up ASAP, maybe I'll get a go of that cool shavette at some point.
 
very nice Anigai! quite the haul.
edit: are most techs cracked in the handle? mine isn't
 
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While i am by no means a tech expert(at least this type lol) I am maybe right about this. You can find a lot of war era ball end techs with cracked handles. Some people theorize that they crack due to the metals composition due to lack of supply during the war.
 
While i am by no means a tech expert(at least this type lol) I am maybe right about this. You can find a lot of war era ball end techs with cracked handles. Some people theorize that they crack due to the metals composition due to lack of supply during the war.
ah i see, I'm not sure of the date of my ball-ended tech
 
I believe the cracked handles to which you refer are not the Tech but rather the ball-end Old-Type without the one-piece handle. You can see how they are assembled and how they fail in this repair thread: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...cked-handles-shafts-in-Gillette-Old-Types-etc. I can't find it right now, but I've also seen a site where the plastic body of a ball-point pen is used instead of an aluminum tube.

Wow that's interesting to know, I double checked those razors in my head to make sure they were actually Tech's. I'm 100% that one of them was a Tech but the other 2 I can't remember.

So as for the haul I couldn't bring myself to ask for more than a loan of a Magic branded Shavette. There was a saveable straight razor but I've no equipemnt at all for that.

Here's a pic of the razor
$Shavette[1].jpg
I didn't want to waste one of the only English Wilkies i had so I snapped one in half that had only 1 shave on it and used that in it. I've yet to use this shavette though and it looks like they are still produced so it's not really worth anything.
 
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