New Stuff - First Look

Lisa and I were in South Dakota in late June and early July.

As we always do, we stopped in every antique store we saw, and this is a first look at my booty.

More to follow when I get it all cleaned up.

I'm Back!

Geez...! Has it really been six months since I posted here!? That was a BAD sidetrack.

Anyway, I'm back. I've been shaving every 5 - 7 days in the mean time. Mostly with the Derbys. the current blades are getting close to being finished. I'll hav to come up with some way to objectively rate them. The only thing I have to compare them to is six month old memory of the Wilkinsons.

Lisa and I took a drving trip to S. Dakota in late June - early July. We stopped at numerous antique stores on the way there & back, and I picked up several old Gillettes, a very cool silver and glass shaving mug (probably actually silver plate), and brush.

I'll get photos and publish in a separate post.

More Cool New (Old) Stuff!

Lisa and I just got back from our annual trek - a week at the jewelry trade shows in Tucson. We took a day off mid-week and toured around town to several antique stores and malls. At one of our first stops I found these two treasures - a shaving mug, circa 1870 (so the tag says), and a travel shaving brush, vintage unknown. Please comment, and I'll get better photos posted when my camera batteries recharge.

Kindness of a New Acquaintence

I've been posting some lately on the forum on ShaveMyFace.com. I'd asked a few questions on blades, and had posted about finding the Gillette Tech mentioned below. A gentleman on the forum who goes by the tag of Squire was kind enough to send me sample packs of eight different blades, along with a stick of Arko shave soap, and some French cologne/aftershave.





Over the coming weeks I'll be testing the blades, soap, and cologne and putting my thoughts down here.

Squire, if you're listening, thanks a ton for your kindness and generosity! If any of you newbies following this blog haven't checked out the forum at http://www.shavemyface.com/, please do so. It's a great community of wet shavers!

New Goodies

Lisa and I took the day yesterday and sent spelunking in our favorite antique haunt, Stillwater, MN. I came home with some new-old goodies - a Gillette Tech razor and a silverplate shaving cup/ scuttle.

The gold tone Tech seems to be unused and in near pristine condition. There are just a few minor marks that seem to be from handling, certainly not from shaving use. I don't know a lot about these, and always thought they predated the butterfly safety razors, however, a quick check of the internet indicated that it could be a vintage as recent as the 1970's.

Here are a couple of photos for your viewing pleasure:

The shaving cup/ scuttle is another story. I don't know much about scuttles and thus, I don't know for sure how function follows form in this instance. It's two-piece, with a main cup and a shallow bowl insert that I assume is for a cake of shaving soap. Comments are welcome here, in case anyone has more info on origin or usage.

The halmark on the bottom indicates the cup was manufactured by the Eureka Silver Co. (I haven't researched it yet) and is quadruple plated. The number 260 is also stamped on the bottom near the halmark - perhaps a production run number?

Also, the initials JFY or JYF are engraved on the cup, obviously by hand as there is a slight tilt to the engraving orientation. I apologize for the slight glare in the photo.

Here are some photos:

Let me know what you think!