TheShaveDen

What is it about razors that I find so fascinating? Why have I accumulated so many of them? It hasn't been about getting a better shave, or at least not for a long time. When I first picked up a Merkur 23C some two and a half years ago, the quality of my shave took a big step forward. Things continued to improve, but if it was all about the quality of my shaves, I could have stopped a year and a half, and some fifty or sixty razors ago.

Technology is not just about big impressive things or complicated design. It's about small simple things that perform small simple tasks, tools which we take for granted, but which we would miss badly if we didn't have them. Sometimes we have a moment of revelation. We look at one of these simple objects, a pen, a knife, a razor, and we don't just see a tool. We see the thought that went into them, the problems that an inventor had to deal with, and how he went about solving them.

My principal enthusiasm has been for vintage safety razors. Today, most safety razors (and I'm including cartridges here) are produced by a few major players. When the concept first took off, however, in the late Nineteenth Century, everyone had an idea for one, and many of these made it to market, however briefly. The designs, when we take the time to appreciate them, can be marvels of ingenuity.

Take safety bars, which help maintain the blade angle as the razor moves over the face. For myself, there is nothing to beat the perforated design used on the Gem Junior Bar and the later 1912s, but there have been other solutions. Open comb designs were seen on the early lather catcher SEs, and on the first Gillette DEs. These in turn gave way to further experimentation with long and short comb variations. Solid guard bars became more common in the 1930s, and turned out to work quite well; they were perhaps less prone to damage, and also less expensive to make.

Loading a blade is simple and easy enough with a three piece razor, but take a moment to appreciate the operation of the butterfly doors on a TTO DE razor. Or the operation of a Gem Micromatic, the automatic loading of an old Schick magazine repeater, or the external magazine on the later injector models. For that matter, there are the ribbon blades introduced later, with sections of cutting edges all strung together, and advanced with the twist of a knob.

A given razor may be too mild for one person, too assertive for another. One solution is to sell a variety of models, as with Gillette's Blue Tip, regular, and Red Tip Super Speed models. Then again, there are adjustables. Such a simple idea, a razor where it is possible to change the blade gap. Creating a mechanism to do this reliably was less simple. My Gillette Fatboy was made some 51 years ago, and each click of the adjuster knob still sets the blade gap to a precise interval, and keeps it there. The adjustment mechanism on a modern Merkur Progress is more "analog", I understand, not clicking into a preset value, but it still permits the user to select a gap that suits his individual taste.

An advantage of straights over safeties is the possibility of indefinitely maintaining the same blade. This was addressed by some wedge blade safeties like the early Kampfes or the later Rolls. The Auto-Strop razors and some others had mechanisms for at least prolonging the life of a disposable blade. Even a disposable blade, however, incorporates a lot of thought and technological innovation. One of earliest technical difficulties that King Gillette had to face was making a usable DE blade from very thin sheet metal. Later improvements in the quality of metal used, and in coatings for it, have prolonged useful blade life. A variety of aftermarket honing and stropping devices have been sold to increase the useful life of ordinary blades, with what success I won't judge here.

Innovation has not stopped with the single blade safety; considerable thought has gone into cartridge design as well. Even if you think that five blades in a row don't work as well as two, or just one, working out the details of a multi-blade cartridge took a lot of work and experimentation. The result has been a variety of designs which dumb down the process of getting an acceptable shave, often cost too much, and which don't work all that well for some of us. Let's face it though, they work quite acceptably for many people, and there are a number of affordable choices. It's possible to prefer the classics without being a snob about their humble descendants.

Or even more heretical, what about electrics? The modern Norelco, with its rotary heads, or foil shavers like the Braun or Remington, represent decades of technical innovation. The developments in battery and electric motor technology are stories in themselves. I know that I don't care for electrics because I've tried them; they simply didn't perform well enough for me, but for a while I wanted them to. They seemed like such a good idea, and in fact they are a...

It was the winter of 2007 and a drive that neither of us would ever forget. On this drive, we solidified our relationship, we met the in-laws, we attended a funeral, and we connected. Our return home was uneventful, we stocked up on a few snacks, and made sure we had all of our belongings and set off towards Florida by way of Arkansas. It was late and we had a long drive ahead of us. After the funeral of my nephew, I was feeling a little reflective and Jeff accommodated me. Our relationship was young, an infant really, and out of the blue, at 9pm at night, I declared, “I don’t want to live a disposable life anymore”. And there it began …

Disposable by definition is designed to be used once and then thrown away. It’s kind of a sad existence if you ask me. But these days, so much of what is ingrained in us is just that, designed to be used and thrown away. Tissues versus handkerchiefs, coffee filters versus a percolator, paper towels versus a hand-towel, designed for convenience and disposal. We no longer rely on a rooster to wake us up, we have an alarm clock, and if you are me, it’s your Smartphone. We stumble out of bed, make our way to the bathroom and several things happen. We can flush our toilets, we can turn a knob and we have hot water, I flick a switch and there is light. Convenience. We can’t/won’t live without them. Cotton swabs, tissues, etc., all a convenience and disposable.

Flash forward four years and the “disposable” life is still a hot topic here in the Stryker house. In my opinion sometimes, in some things, we give in just a bit too fast. Take that pair of shoes that just doesn’t seem to fit quite right; where did all the cobblers go? Instead of finding out why the shoe doesn’t fit, we just go get a new pair. No worries, there are plenty to be had. And that pair of pants, who needs them? They might not fit quite right, but who needs to find a tailor? Let’s just head to the mall and get more.

This was my mentality for years; it was the way I was raised. It was convenience, new technology, and new frames of reference. Just throw it in the trash, it will be picked up on Tuesday and taken away. I was at that point in my life, during this drive from Oklahoma to Florida, where I was sick of it. Throwing things away, that is. Where did the substance go? Where were the items we can’t live without? Jeff and I had a long talk on that drive home. Mostly the talk was subjective and we had a few good laughs at our memories of what was acceptable to “throw away”. But an unsaid commitment was made, that by choosing to join lives, we would try to have a life that wasn’t SO disposable. So, where did we start?

Furniture – when did it become the norm to walk away from furniture? When it was sold at the 5 and Dime? We visited an estate sale not long after we returned to Florida. The sale was in Polk City, at a retirement trailer home that seemed to have 10 rooms from all the additions; we found a bed and a dresser and our legendary Trivial Pursuit game. It was a start and we have continued to add to it to this day.

Plants – Jeff brought home several plants one day from work. A co-worker said they were outgrowing their pot and she didn’t want to do anything with them so she threw them in the garbage. Jeff brought them home and we replanted them. The ivy from the group is the most surprising. It not only survived but has found a foothold in the stucco and is growing up the wall, the rest are thriving on our lanai along with our third generation pineapple.

In my case; socks. Of all things, socks. The seams hurt my feet, rub me the wrong way, or don’t fit my small feet correctly. I have been to enough antique shops to have bought a sock darner by now, but I haven’t. It’s easier to head to Wal-Mart or Target and get more socks. I’m working on this one.

The one area Jeff and I can both say we have committed to no longer leading a “disposable” life is shaving. There is little waste and we are able to reuse items. Whether it is the razor, the blade, the brush, or the mug; they are all reusable.

Of course, the blade will go by the wayside after a handful or two of uses, but that is not always the case. There are varieties of razor that have a perpetual self-stropping, self-sharpening blade such as a Rolls or a straight razor. I haven’t mastered either one of them, but there’s always my bucket list.

I can’t say that we entered this lifestyle to save money, it was more of a philosophical discussion that struck a chord in each of us, but I do think we are both zeroing in on the items that we prefer, shave-wise anyway. I have lamented this of late, the Lord L6 is a razor I can see me using for many moons to come. I can't say that I wouldn't add to the brushes or creams/soaps that I have but for sure, there is only one mug I will ever use.

Have I personally mastered the non-disposable life? Nope. Do I think I will ever have a completely non-disposable life? Nope. It is not reasonable in...