The Elgin - The razor of the international man of mystery

Yeah I'd say there's pretty much always at least an Elgin or two on eBay at any given point.
People do seem to, in my eyes, over value them quite a bit thinking that they are more rare than they are.
I paid $40 for these two and w/ case, instructions and nine wrapped blades that's probably on the lower end.
One should be able to pick one up, with a couple of blades, for $30-40 but it seems collecting razors has become a very popular thing these past few years.

 

Has it?

 

I'm a big fan of stating the obvious.

 

Assuming of course that they are not the same thing.

 

I'd join in the bashing but I don't want to be cut out of the will.

 

Interesting razor. Enjoy!

 

Oops, I was thinking of the Enders Razor Company....

 

For one reason of the other I added a third Elgin to the collection - this one a little bit different.

The boxes looked pretty similar;


..but I noticed some small differences, (the latest acquisition being the top box below) - see the missing thumb-notch and the stamp "Pat Pending"


Opening up the box and taking out the razor there are some apparent differences;
(newly acquired razor on top).
As you can see below the 'art decoish' metal inlays are missing and the end on the left hand side (that holds the razor does not have the same 'pointy' design).
It is also approx half an inch shorter


It's also interesting to see that the instruction page has some design/content differences - but that they both has "Patent pending" on the pages:


The most significant differences are on the razors themselves;

As you can see the newly acqured one (here on the bottom of the photo) doesn't have the black color in the logo (it could potentially be rubbed off) and that handle is very different.


So, yeah, long-story-short: Bought another Elgin and loon it's different than the other ones I got.

 

Really cool razors.

 

Very nice sir....Look like folding Injectors...Yeah Pap in an Injector blade .....
Billy

 

"Lucky" for me this one also came with a slew of NOS blades.....think I got 15-20 of them now

 

Stinger... 22LR shave?

 

Gotta love Google, I found this thread and I happened across this lawsuit from 1938, it seems the razor company had nothing to do with the watch company. If they were, they didn't get along very well!

I just seen most of an Elgin Razor on eBay and was intrigued, I figured they must have been based in Elgin, IL, less than an hour drive from me. The watches are famous but I've never seen the razors. I'll probably keep my eye out for one, just because it looks really unique and it is from my regional area.

 

Since it's SEptember I decided to try another one of my SE razors that have seen little, or as in this case no, use.

Fortunately I got a slew of NOS blades for the Elgin. Picked one out and opened it up.

Nicely wrapped so that I started telling me it would probably be ok to shave with...


Some slight.....'discoloration' [read: rust] on the blade.
It's still good...it's still good....


Dunked it in some alcohol for a few minutes, wiped it down and well, the edge looked ok so why not? What's the worst that can happen?

Just to provide a sense of scale - this is not a large razor - here it is next to a Gillette Fatboy:


After all that prep-work I just had to use it for my shave this "morning" (which in reality was around noon) today.


How did it go?
Weeeelllll......I did have 2-3 days of stubble for the poor lil thing to mow down so it might have had the odds stacked against it a bit.

It felt like shaving with a toothpick.
There is very little to this razor as far as size and weight goes and that does make it a bit harder to let the head of the razor do the job with little to no pressure on it.
I got through shaving one side of my face with a WTG pass. It was a bit tuggy and it didn't leave me as clean shaven as I'm used to after one pass.
I decided to end the experiment there (hey, it's my face ) and picked up the Mongoose which delivered a clean shave in no time.

If I were stuck behind enemy lines with nothing but this razor and a pack of blades (cleverly concealed into the handle of course) I would absolutely be able to conduct my spy business fairly clean shaven. Sure it would take me a bit longer and it wouldn't be as effortless and enjoyable as it could be.
But, if that's the price I have to pay to sneak away with Anastasiya..and Natasha...double-agents in more ways than one - I think I'd be good with that.

 

You just might get an Injector blade to fit in that Sir....

Nice Bird....:rah:

Billy....

 

You know...good idea...I might try that!