Injector & SE Party !!!

I have a Gem micromatic with the open comb and allthough it is an extremely close shaved, once you master the angle, cuts and weepers are all but nonexistant.
I , like you, love the old stuff.
Im glad you found an old one you are comfortable with.

 

The Very First Schick Type A Serial # 106.

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Very nice Gary!!

 

Cool Luke....so when are you going to start sending yours around??


Hey man, sounds like this Cobra was written in your destiny.... I have a feeling you'll be getting great shaves with wild and reckless abandon in no time...

 

I just tried a Clog Pruf for the first time....Fantastic is all I can say....simply fantastic....I've been a big fan of the OCMM but now I'm a big fan of the CPMM aswell...

 

I posted this picture on the Gratuitous Razor Pic thread, but I wanted to put it here to...
For those that don't know, this was designed by the genius August Scheuber...He started getting patents for designing women's purse latch snaps. He designed some revolutionary snaps for the Zinn Co.which made all kinds of metal things. So when the Zinn family and Reichard form the GEM Cutlery Co. Scheuber became a monster razor designer. This one was called the Junior Bar Lather Catcher and is one of the prettiest razor ever.

 

I'll have it passed around when I'm gone and dead. I don't think my girls would ever use it...so no use keeping it for posterity.

That GEM Jr Bar is a real beauty! It looks like it has been replayed because I have never seen the silver look so nice on one! I really like the shave the Jr Bars give, it's nice and mild, yet effective. But I digress, that's a beautiful photo!

 

In 1909 August Scheuber designed and applied for a patent on a razor that would be called by the year it received it's patent...the 1912 razor....It was possibly the greatest razor design of all time...It was in continuous production from 1911 until after WWII...I know they were still being made in 1947 by Gem, Star, and Ever Ready...Heres a pic of the first incarnation...

 

These first additions of August's masterpiece were the first disposible SE blade razors with a blade cover...
They were called the 1912 Damaskeene Razors till 1919 when the name Damaskeene was dropped...They are highly sought after and like all 1912's great shavers...They were called Damaskeenes and they had an advertisement for using Damaskeene blades stamped inside their heads...check it out...

 

Got a nice J1 injector from my Secret Santa with some NOS Schick blades. Sorry for the fuzzy cell phone pic. I've got to start breaking out the decent camera.

 

Some nice history on the early GEM razors, Lloyd.

 

Thanks my man. You and the cats at TOST have taught me so much about these wonderfdul shavers...thought I'd spread a little of that around here for those that aren't already hip to these Masterpieces of Functional Art...

 

I just showed a couple masterpieces above of August Scheuber's. But the Safety Razor thing actually started around 1875 in a one room shop owned by the Kampfe Bro's...The company was called 'Star'. This one was pat'd in 1880. These razors used a blade similar to a Gem single edge but were a tad thicker they weren't disposible, you honed them like you would a straight.

 

Jerry Reichard worked for the Kampfe Bros for 23 years. He left and joined with the Zinn family, in 1898, to form the GEM Cutlery Co. If you remember August Scheuber worked for the Zinn family's metal parts factory designing ladies purse spring latches...So now he is free to design razors...But all his patents at this time are in the name of the Zinn Family or GEM Cutlery. By the turn of the Century GEM is the most famous and popular safety razor. These razors are called Lather Catchers because of the metal scoop under the head that would catch the lather while shaving. Remember that when these came out every home didn't have running water, and most self shavers used a bowl, a pitcher of water and a mirror on their dresser to shave. These Lather Cathers were lovely art nouveau pieces that at first used the wedge razor blades that you resharpen but then GEM made the GEM Junior that used disposible blades..
.

 

Now Jerry Reichard was a busy cat...He worked for the Kampfe Bros for 23 years. He started GEM Cutlery with the Zinns in 1898. He left GEM and started the Yankee Co. with August Scheuber. They also started R&S manf corp. and Yankee changed their name to Ever Ready but still kept the rights to the Yankee and R&S brand names. In 1906, Ever Ready and GEM became partners and were called the American Safety Razor Co. And in 1908 they opened their first factory in England... So things were just smokin' for these cats and the pat'd s were flying. They wanted to introduce, a disposable blade razor with a blade cover set for a Dollar. The idea was revolutionary and a huge success....

ASR owned the rights to GEM, Ever Ready, Yankee, and R&S manf...In 1909 August applied for a patent on what would become the 1912 razor...and in the same year JB deMesquita (Treasurer for ASR) applied for a patent on a new design where the top blade cover actually hinged at the front and snapped shut at the back of the head. Kind of a reverse flip-top affectionately called around the shaving boards 'the Shovelhead'. This design would become the '1909 Yankee Razor', the 1909 'New Ever Ready' and with a few tweeks, 15 years later would be the ER 1924. In 1919 ASR Co. merged with 'Star' and became ASR Corp. And later acquired Personna, and They were always Gillitte's biggest competitor. The quality and shaves of their products speak for themselves...I don't know why they didn't win the 'Razor' Wars...You cats check them out and you be the judge....lol

ER1909 'New Ever Ready

GEM 1912:

and in 1914 the 1st president of ASR; Joe Kaufman; patented his masterpiece the 1914 Little Lather Catcher which was also the last lather catcher type razor to be manufactured...
ER 1914

ER 1924

These are just a few of ASR's most popular pre-Depression Era razors...later we'll check out the 1930 Micromatic...Boy does that one open a Pandora's Box...lol

Hey!! Why not one of you cats, thats been diggin on the OCMM so heavy lately take the ball here and do a thang on the 3 micromatics....I love em but I don't want to steal all the thunder on this...

 

King Gillette was a salesman by trade and simply understood marketing far better than ASR. He understood in the WWI it was better to get in solid with the US Government and offer a consistent product for the solders to take to the front. When they returned over one million had Gillette razors and were life long DE users. A good design with great marketing, defeats a great design with poor to average marketing. King Gillette was an individual who in many ways helped to designed modern marketing. The marketing machine that King Gillette built is the real reason why Gillette far outsold ASR products in the early 20th century. The marketing machine later was used by the company to maintain dominance over Schick and Wilkinson Sword in the US market in the second half of the 20th century and is still in play even today.

 

Yeah Gary......You can be so profound at times......I'm copping this lick, and I'm going to plagiarize it often....like, from now on this is something I said.....heh, heh...

But you nailed it...This applies to so many things today...even in music and the arts, everything...

 

Thanks my friend!

 

Look man!! This is a family forum....When a razor is really that HOT/FINE...Any Centerfolds should come with 'Parental Guideline Warnings'........
So look everybody......In the future, no more showings of Luke's 500 till after 11:00 PM

Luke.....you should know better man...