I could not resist trying to sharpen the old blade. I sent 30 minutes getting it looking good. I just shaved with it. I had no tugging, actually pretty smooth. I found that is is a mild razor. I will forgo messing with old blades and try new blades. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Aww... Just build a jig and hone and strop it and see how many shaves you can get before it disappears
I actually have a nice honing device. It is a vintage Warner Jones. I made a nice flat for it that I use lapping film on. It works great for the the old Carbon SE blades. It might just be the blade it was a bit wavy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
It is actually a great feeling and handling razor. I want to see if I can find a blade that can replicate height. The width I can trim to size. Thickness will not be that big of an issue. The tension will hold it fine. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Thank you @jmudrick for a detailed walk through a (non-Gillette) bit of shave history! To have uncovered an inaccuracy and set the records straight should put your name in the history books.
There are a lot of stories to tell outside the world of Gillette! Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
Sorry no just the handle. I have not tried that yet. I am waiting for your cows ear hair. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
The National Association of Retail Druggists were not impressed with the profit margin on the Mark Cross compared with the $5 Gillette.
Very interesting. So Gillette couldn't sell enough razors at two or three dollars. But jack the price up to five dollars, advertise the hell out of them, and suddenly they can't crank them out fast enough. Amazing just how effective aggressive marketing can be. I know that the Mark Cross is much simpler. But 1/10th the (original) price of a Gillette? Were they really intending to sustain that for the long term? Or just starting at a loss to get a foot in the door? That goes on to this day with internet wonders like Uber. But they don't have to snowball any retailers. Just investors.
"What we lose on each item we make up in volume" logic isn't really a thing is it. The Mark Cross did use a proprietary blade so imagined blade sales? Whatever the theory was it obviously didn't work out beyond getting a lot of razors out in 1913. Perhaps it was the aforementioned lack of profit margin for distributors that did screw things up. Why work as hard to sell 10 Mark Cross as you would to make the same money on one Gillette? Should be remembered that the $5 razor was never King Gillette's idea, it was his investors who outvoted him when the price on the Double Ring was first established.
https://razors.click/patents/US996837/ https://razors.click/patents/US1044863/ https://razors.click/patents/US1047617/ https://razors.click/patents/US1365212/
This was a blast I have to say. In my NOS Mark Cross I used my usual Schick Proline injector blade, in my well used one half a Supermax BDT DE blade. The latter required two half blades used as shims to fully secure the blade. While I've used the injector blade often, this was a first using a DE blade. It was a very pleasant surprise. The exposed blade tabs didn't bother and the shave was smooth if noisy and extremely close. Even with the two shims the Proline has the edge in rigidity which evidenced itself going ATG on my head with greater ease than the DE blade. It was also able to clean up a wee bit of stubble the Supermax missed on first pass. So I still give the edge to the Proline but in a pinch the DE hack works brilliantly indeed.
Mark Cross with twin BIC blades. I usually use an injector blade with the MC but the shave with the twin BICs is superb, just requires a few easy blade snaps. Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk
Thank you @jmudrick for a walk through razor history. Whether its Gillette or other history I enjoy the research and the information.
Thursday SEptember 23, 2021 Razor: Mark Cross Blade: Schick B Proline Injector Brush: Trotter Handcraft Soap: A&E Rèvolution AS 1: Humphrey's Alcoholado Maravilla 70 AS 2: A&E Rèvolution Splash Fragrance: Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb Consecutive Daily Shaves - # 1,051 Thread Resurrection and a thanks to Jeff for his research and bringing it to us to benefit from !
