Razor

For other uses, see Razor (disambiguation).

Collection of Modern Safety Razors - Gillette Fusion Power, Gillette M3Power, Mach3 Turbo Champion, Schick Quattro Chrome, Schick Quattro Power, Gillette Mach3, Gillette Sensor, Schick Xtreme3, Schick Xtreme SubZero, and Schick Xtreme3 Disposables

A razor is an edge tool primarily used in shaving.

Early razors

In its simplest form, a razor is a blade attached to a handle. Razors have been identified from Bronze Age Britain. These were made of bronze and were generally oval in shape, with a small tang protruding from one of the short ends.

Straight razors (also called cut-throat razors because of their potential lethality) with open steel blades were the most commonly used razors before the 20th century. However, they are now chiefly used by barbers.

Safety razor

The safety razor was developed in 1875 by the Kampfe Brothers, the first safety razor manufactured in the United States was known as the Star. Early razor blades needed continual sharpening, becoming worn out and expensive; however many still consider them superior.

Double Edge (DE)

There are several different types of DE razors. Straight, Slant and Asymmetrical. The straight is just as its name suggests the blade runs straight across the length of the head of the razor and peeks out a small amount to make contact with the skin. The slant differs from the Straight in that the bar that makes contact with the skin is at a slant rather than straight. Slants are harder to use than the straight type but typically yield a closer shave. Asymmetrical are not symmetrical and allows the blade to stick out further on one side than the other. Also available are travel razors, something that is not available in modern razors at all, where the razor disassembles into smaller parts and are placed into a leather bag for ease of transporting. There are also adjustable razors, another item that is not available in modern razors, where a dial can be turned to adjust the gap between the blade and the bar in order to adjust the shaving properties of the razor.

DEs are no longer manufactured in the US, but are still extremely popular and most are made in Europe by Merkur. These are readily available in the US through various retailers. DE razors have experienced somewhat of a come back of late with consumers frustrations with the ever increasing prices of razor blades, the ever decreasing quality of the modern blades as well as the availability of the blades in certain parts of the US. People that use DE razors believe that the DE is vastly superior in its shaving quality when compared to other types of razors (with the exception of the straight razor). DE blades are frequently available in even remote parts of the US in drugstores and convenience stores everywhere. People that have tried DEs have frequently remarked that they will never go back to an expensive modern razor ever again.

Reconditioned and new DE razors are frequently available in most major metropolitan areas of the US and Europe. Some of the brands available include: Gem, Gillette, Shick and Merkur. For additonal information about DE razors please visit http://www.badgerandblade.com and http://www.shavemyface.com/forum.

DEs are often known as Saftey Razors, because of their inability to kill like Straight Razors can.

Single Edge (SE)

A still older type of razor typically available across the US from antique dealers are controversial. The blades are cheaper but the debate remains if the resulting shave is as good as those obtained from the DEs. An example of a company that sells the blades is Treet which are available from CVS drugstores. SE razors have a claim shell type of design where the head snaps open from one side on a spring so that the blades may be loaded.

Straight Edge

These are the type of razors that have been in use for centuries and are widely regarded as the best possible shaver regardless of the type of razor. The Straight Edge is simply an extremely sharp knife attached to a cover that the blade slips into. Advantages are the excellent quality of the shave that one can obtain from them, reduced razor burn, acne, and other skin blemishes due to the exfoliating effect, and many enjoy the challenge of mastering a skill that yields these results.

Disadvantages include possible cuts due to slips, detailed maintenance through honing and stropping to keep the blade sharp and straight, a learning curve as straight razor shaving is no longer a skill passed from father to son, and the time it takes to perform the shave.

Disposable blades

File:Infini-T.jpg

Parody of Schick's arms race with Gillette. Philips Cool Skin did a similar parody with the "Quintippio Megashave" which can be seen at [1]

Female razor with disposable blades

In 1901, the American inventor King Camp Gillette, with the assistance of appropriately named William Nickerson, invented a safety razor with disposable blades. Gillette realized that a profit could be made by selling a razor with inexpensive disposable blades. This has been called the Razor and blades business model, or a "loss leader", and has become a very common practice for a wide variety of products; for example, game console manufacturers will often sell hardware for a loss, then make up for it by collecting a cut of the money made on software sold for the system. To realize his idea, Gillette applied for a patent on December 3, 1901, which was awarded as patent US775134 on November 15, 1904. The company manufactured its first razor in 1903. Gillette's particular innovation for safety razors with disposable blades beat out competitors. Gillette's thin blade was covered by the razor housing, thus protecting the skin against deep cuts. This enabled the majority of people to safely shave themselves for the first time. Before this, shaving was done often only by family members or barbers.

Gillette manufactured carbon steel blades up until the 1960s. These rusted after the shave and necessitated the user to use a fresh blade for each shave. In 1965 the British company Wilkinson Sword began to sell blades made of stainless-steel which did not rust and could be used repeatedly until blunt. Wilkinson quickly captured the British and European markets and Gillette was forced to switch its production lines to stainless steel to compete. Today all blades are made of stainless-steel. Since Gillette held the patent for the stainless blade but had not acted on it they were accused of exploiting customers by forcing them to buy the rust prone blade.

Other innovations from the 1960s were the replaceable blade cartridge containing the blade which reduced the risk of the user receiving a cut from the unprotected blades used up until then. These took the form of a cartridge with the blade fixed within a plastic enclosure of the type still in use today. Gillette also manufactured a cartridge with a steel strip which could be wound on to expose a fresh section of new blade.

Plastic disposable razors and razors with replaceable disposable blade attachments, often with two or three cutting edges (but sometimes with four and as of recently, five cutting edges), are in common use today. Still, the double-edged blade continues to have adherents, for reasons of cost (4-7 shaves from a blade costing as low as US$0.12 vs. as high as US$3.50 for one of the latest multi-blade cartridges), comfort (some find the multi-blade cartridge hard on their skin), and pleasure (those now using the double-edged blades find such shaves, usually done with a shaving brush and shaving cream or soap, to be pleasurable).

Razors are generally marketed in men's and women's versions; the exact difference between the two varies from color only for most cheap disposable razors to completely different design principles. By and large, men's and women's razor blades and disposable razors are interchangeable; however, there is sometimes a difference in ergonomics -- women's razors either have a longer handle for longer reach or a paddle-shaped handle to allow for a lengthwise grip.

Specialized designs also exist, for such things shaving the head or the bikini line.

Electric razor

File:Electric razor.jpg

This electric hair clipper requires no soap or shaving cream.

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Old electric shaver

Old electric shaver "Dnepr"

The electric razor (also known as the electric dry shaver) is a common electrical shaving device with a rotating or oscillating blade. The electric razor does not require the use of shaving cream, soap, or water. The razor is powered by a small DC motor, and usually has rechargeable batteries, though early ones were powered directly by house current. Some very early mechanical shavers had no electric motor and had to be powered by hand, for example by pulling a cord to drive a flywheel.

It was patented in 1928 by the American manufacturer Col. Jacob Schick. The Remington Rand Corporation developed the electric razor further, first producing the Remington brand of razor in 1937. Another important inventor was Prof. Alexandre Horowitz, from Philips Laboratories in the Netherlands, who invented the very successful concept of the revolving electric razor. It has a shaving head consisting of cutters that cut off the hair entering the head of the razor at skin level.

Early versions of electric razors were meant to be used on dry skin only. More recent electric razors have been designed which allow for shaving cream and moisture.

Manual Beard Clipper.

Some of the modern styles of electric hairclippers include the bulk hair clippers which are used to remove a bulk of the hair being shaved, the main hair clippers on which guards are attached to achieve a perfect length all over the head and the mini clippers which are used to trim the edges of the hair cut.

Other razors

A single-edge razor blade is manufactured to emulate double-edge disposable shaving blades, for various applications where the blade is required to be hand-held. Unlike double-edge blades, single-edge blades have only one sharp edge, usually having a reinforced back edge with no sharpness at all. In addition, they are often a more rigid steel and much thicker, as well as being less sharp (but with much sharper non-rounded corners). They are used in carpentry for detailed work, sanding, and scraping (in a specialized holder), in mechanical drawing for paper cutting, in plumbing and finish work for grouting and cleaning, for removing paint from flat surfaces such as panes of glass, and in many other applications. Razors are also sometimes used in bread production to slash the surface of an unbaked loaf; in this usage, they are referred to using the French word lamé.

A utility knife is a common tool used in grocery stores and other places. Such a knife generally consists of a simple and cheap holder, typically flat, approximately one inch wide and three to four inches long, and typically made of either metal or plastic. Some use standard razor blades, others specialized double ended blades or snap-off blades. An X-Acto brand knife, a type of utility knife, is smaller and more precise and usually used for arts and crafts.

A potato peeler is a metal blade attached to a metal, plastic or wooden handle that is used for peeling vegetables, usually potatoes.

Razor wire is a mesh of metal strips with sharp edges whose purpose it is to prevent passage by human beings. Razor wire is sharper than the barbs of barbed wire, though not as sharp as a true razor.

See also

• Main : Shaving, Dry Shave, Beard, Facial hair, Barber, Haircut, Leg shaving, King C. Gillette, Timeline of invention
• Companies : Braun, DOVO, The Gillette Company, Wilkinson Sword, BIC Corporation, Philips, Remington Rand, Headblade
• Miscellaneous: Aegean civilization, Occam's razor, East Cambridgeshire

Figurative uses

A boat or ship made of metal is sometimes said to "made into razor blades" after it has been scrapped.

External links

• ShaveMyFace.com - The World's Most Comprehensive Guide to Wet Shaving
• RazorCentral How to use a straight razor
• Comprehensive guide to shaving with a safety razor
• Internet Museum of Safety Razors
• Electric Shaver Page
• Electric Razor Rap
• Guide to Maintaining a Safety Razor
• How to get that perfect shave
• Biographical sketch of Jacob Schick