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WetShaving
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18 users here now
This is a community of enthusiasts, hobbyists and artisans who enjoy a traditional wet shave: brush, soap, and safety or straight razor. We are a part of the WetShaving community found on Reddit, Discord, and IRC.
New subscribers welcome!
Please visit our wiki, which is always and forever a work in progress.
πͺ Check out these alternative front-ends for this server:
https://gem.wetshaving.social/ - a nice modern interface
Our sister Mastodon instance is https://wetshaving.social/.
πͺ Track the uptime of our various services here:
https://uptime.splettnet.com/status/wetshaving
πͺ Community Rules
Rule 1 - Behaviour and Etiquette
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Be Respectful. Do not bully, flame, or harass others.
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Malicious comments are not allowed but heated discussion and salty banter is okay.
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Low effort replies and complaints about content will be removed.
Rule 2 - Content Guidelines
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Mail Calls, Simple Questions, and SOTD posts belong in the recurring weekly threads.
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Posts must have sufficient content to generate a meaningful discussion.
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Images, links, or videos must include additional text that summarizes the topic.
Rule 3 - Reviews and Disclosure
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Use [First Impressions] in the title if your experience with the product is limited.
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Use the [Review] in the title if you can provide comprehensive details with enough familiarity to answer follow-up questions.
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Disclose how the product being reviewed was acquired (e.g., PIF, loan, or purchase). If the product was provided to you directly by the maker or vendor free of charge or at a discount, you must disclose this fact even if the item will later be returned to the maker or vendor.
Rule 4 - Advertising
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Vendors are to keep marketing within the biweekly Deals/New Products threads.
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Non-vendors may post topics about products if it will foster a compelling discussion.
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Rule 5 - Inappropriate Content
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Non-shaving related NSFW/L content is not allowed.
Rule 10 - Moderator Discretion
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founded 2 years ago
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Hi folks,
Been shaving my head with DEs for years. The shinier the better!
Well, I just picked this razor up at a boot sale, knowing basically nothing about vintage razors. It was cheap, and I like the ornate handle, so "why not?", I thought.
However, I tried a DE blade in it and it didn't fit. Does anyone know the name for the blade this accepts? I assume it takes a SE blade, but a standard one looks too skinny.
I've seen people on the Internet talking about "Gem" blades. Not much comes up for that when I search UK suppliers, so I wonder if there's another name for them?
Maybe you can't get them any more...
Any advice? I'd like the give it a spin.
Cheers
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A travel razor usually either have a very tiny handle β like my, admittedly tiny all over, Laurel Ladies Boudoir Razor β or a handle in two parts β like my Merkur 985CL. But James Alex Denby Watt had a different idea. He patented a collapsible, hexagonal razor handle in 1930 β and it worked well enough to be part of a production razor.
More on that later β lets first look at the handle.
As can be seen from the drawing, it operates on the same principle as the combined travellerβs drinking cup and shaving mug we looked at a couple of years ago. It is segmented and hollow, and each segment will lock into the ones above and below it when it is extended. This means that the collapsible handle will only be one segment long when collapsed.
It also makes for a very cone shaped handle. James gave his handle a hexagonal shape, with slight indentations along each edge. This would, I think, both prevent the pieces from rotating in relation to each other as well as providing a better grip.
Patent drawing for US patent 1,749,051
Additionally, James suggested that the individual segments could be knurled, aerated, ribbed, grooved, pierced, slotted, punched, or otherwise toughened in order to provide a better grip.
This, however, do not seem to have been done in the production razor that utilised this collapsible handle; the Compax.
As a side note, the Compax was a very interesting razor in its own right. It was an adjustable single edge razor, that came with a stropping machine built into the box, and β naturally, a collapsible handle. You can fine some info and a lot of pictures right here.
I see no reason why this collapsible handle couldnβt be made with standard threads and used with almost any razor head. It could turn any razor into a travel razor.
You can read the full patent for the hexagonal collapsible razor handle over at Google Patents.
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