Collecting Vintage Safety Razors + Other Shaving Collectibles
Want to collect something that you can also use? How about vintage single or double edge safety razors. Hundreds of different safety razors have been made over the years. Safety razors were made in this country by Gillette, Gem, Ever Ready, Schick, Valet, Enders and many others. Many different brands were made in other countries as well.
Gillette started in 1903 with a three piece razor consisting of a two part blade holder with a screw on handle called the Standard, Old Type, New Improved, New and the Tech. Different models and improvements were made over the years. Then they went on to a twist to open (TTO) type razor with trap doors in the 40's called the Super Speed with many variations. The adjustable razor was made in the late 1950's where you turned a dial on the handle which adjusted the blade angle. They also made a Techmatic in 1965 which used an injector blade but only lasted a few years. And a few one year only razors such as the TV, Toggle and the 195 model.
Gem and Ever-Ready used a single edge blade with a flip top blade holder. There also was Valet which had it's own style blade and a stropper setup to keep a nice edge on the blades. Schick made an injector razor and a double edge razor. There were other companiesover the years, but most didn't survive.
You can collect just the razors by types or try to collect them with original boxes and cases. Some of the neater antique razors came in nicetins with beautiful graphics. Also interesting are the smaller travel types. Razors don't take up a lot of space, well not unless you let them. :-)
And then there are blades. Now here's an item that takes very little space to collect, razor blades. You can collect by the little boxes that hold 4 or 5 blades, counter display boxes which hold maybe 20 small boxes and colorful display cards of packages or you can just collect singlewrapped blades (or just the wrappers). If you collect just U.S. razor blades there are hundreds or more and if you go into worldwide collecting there are several thousands of different blades made over the years.
How many razor blades fit in a shoebox?
There are some nice graphics on many of the boxes and blade wrappers. Lots of color. Prices can range from $1.00 to maybe $25 - $30 for the rare ones. But you can collect hundreds of blades in the under $5.00 range. Even collecting the small boxes of blades you can amass hundreds for under 5 or 6 dollars.
Oh, and then there shaving mugs were mainly used in the 1880-1930's era. Most men in those times went to their local barbershop for a daily shave. The earliest mugs 1880-1891 had dull gold lettering. These mugs were generally 3 1/2" in height. From 1891 to about 1929 was the heyday of antique shaving mugs. Shaving mugs from that time period usually feature bright gold lettering and are about 3 3/4" high. From 1930 on mugs were still being made but did not have the same quality as the older mugs. Usually called "aftermarket" mugs. Most shaving mugs look like a large size coffee cup. They can be categorized as Personalized, Floral, Decorative, Fraternal and Occupational mugs. There are also categories for early advertising and for souvenir shaving mugs. Personalized mugs bear the name of the mug's owner, usually in gold Gothic script. Floral mugs as the name suggests had the name of the mug owner and floral decorations. Decorative mugs had scenes of animals, geometric designs, comic pictures and any number or other scenes such as pretty ladies, etc.
Fraternal mugs feature the personal name and the logo a fraternal organizations the Masons, Oddfellows, Knights of Columbus, etc.
Occupational mugs are the most valuable and sought after and have the person's name and a picture representative of his job oroccupation, e.g. plumber, carpenter, farmers, etc. Antique advertising mugs are not personalized but carry the name and/or logo of a shaving product such as "Williams Shaving Soap" etc. Souvenir shaving mugs depict a place visited and were given as gifts or savedas souvenirs of a trip.
You also have shaving brushes, shaving advertising and the list goes on. Happy hunting.