The Ronson safety razor is a relatively weird shaving contraption. I’ve been messing with it, and wanted to share some of the results with my shave brothers here at TSD. Is this a weird razor, or what?
They’re hard to find, but one can use a regular DE with a similar mod to what is done to a DE blade to use a Gibbs adjustable. However, I’ve been using a Schick injector blade as was suggested by a shave buddy who refers to this razor as his favorite. It’s a bit fiddly, but does work well.
I’ve never used mine. It just sits quietly in my shave museum. I’ve got some blades so I suppose I should give it a run one of these days. It seems like it’s too bulky for under the nose.
You’re probably right about the nose, John. I have a goatee, so that’s not an issue for me. But the razor shaves beautifully. You should give it a shot sometime. I don’t own any safety razors that I don’t use.
There were a lot of "kewl" gimmicked safety razors made, some fairly successful, some that were very way out and obscure. Some worked okayish, some still have their fans, like the Valet Autostrop, the Rolls, the Shake-Sharp, the Durham, and more. Most are superior to an ordinary DE or SE razor only in the kewl/gadget factor or the non-throwaway blade. Hey, nothing wrong with that. Some fascinating stuff out there, just not all that practical for the most part. Why are there so many minty Rolls razors? Because a lot were bought as gifts but never used or used only once or twice by the recipient, and they were just too kewl (and they were gifts!) to toss. I have several wedge safety razors of various self-stropping and non types, but I haven't actually used any of them in probably 10 or 15 years. Even my Rolls sets, I don't hone or strop in the case. I hone on the same hones I use for straight razors, and ditto the strops, cause that just works better. I have never owned one of those Ronson self stroppers. Seen pics, that's it. Fascinating piece of gear, though. Thanks for posting!
The Ronson works with a standard injector blade with some fiddling or a modified standard DE. With a standard DE One just needs to nip out a rectangular section in the center of both blade tabs. I’m planning on trying it with stacked DE blades at some point, just out of curiosity. A FB shave brother shaves with one as a daily driver using injector blades.
Thanks, Gary. The razor was part of a huge Ronson collection in an estate in British Columbia. It’s in excellent condition.
You’re welcome. I have a Rolls, but only used it once. An experienced Rolls collector at a Shave Collectibles Meeting I attended last October honed the Rolls I purchased from him. It was a pretty rough shave. I gave it a week, but it just wasn’t for me.
The Ronson is sure a interesting looking razor, it had a lot of thought put into it to make it a self sharpening razor. That is what some of us like about Vintage razors, they are just interesting to look at and if lucky use one like this one in the modern times. Thanks for sharing your experiences with this interesting razor Jeff.
You’re welcome Ron! I have really been enjoying shaving with this razor. My favorite vintage razor, though, is the Shake Sharp.
There is one of those near me. I have never bought it due to the proprietary blade issue. It is a beautiful razor. Ive always been tempted to buy it.
The Ronson doesn’t require proprietary blades. It works beautifully with regular Schick Injector blades.
How does that work? It's been awhile since I looked at it. How do you load an injector blade into it?