Mourning a Loss

[Ming the Merciless]

Life is full of joys and sorrows, and tragedies can be great or small.  Sometimes so small that other people roll their eyes when you ask for sympathy.

Well, here's my mini-tragedy.

I left behind at the gym the razor I've used for twenty years, in a style I've used for forty.  The razor is no longer made, although blades for it are.

Are any of you so attached to your present razor that its loss and unavailability to go the the drugstore and get a replacement would merit more than a shrug and a "Well, it's time to try a new model anyway"?

My "old style" razor has some offerings on eBay, and I've bid on one, but am not willing to go too high.  After all, it's just a razor, and results should count more than tools used, right?  I can't believe that people are willing to pay near three figures for versions of this razor!  I'm willing to go to maybe fifteen dollars (including shipping).

Time to take a shower and try for the first time a to-date-in-its-box-in-the-drawer razor (one that is still out there to buy).  I'm astonished at the cost of blades for this razor compared to "Old Faithful."  If, however, this new-fangled razor gives obviously superior results to my old standby, I may be able to quickly throttle my grief at that loss.

[Mikekoz13]

Did you go back to the gym and see if they may have put it aside? That would be my first plan of action.

If not...... then it will be time to move from the 80's to the 2000's. I'll recommend the Personna M5 razor sold at WalMart..... a superior razor for a vey fair price ($6 and that includes two extra blades). I pack of 4 replacement cartridges is also less than $6.

And it's made in America............

[Ming the Merciless]

Yes, I did search all the adjacent lockers, including the one I must have left it in on my next visit to the gym.  No luck.  And the attendant seemed someone unable to understand the problem, and appeared to know nothing about even a lost and found department, at least the attendant was unable to produce a comprehensible reply.  Not that the attendant was inaudible, just that there was no ability to produce a logical and/or coherent sentence.   Possibly this person has risen beyond the person's level of competence.  After a while, you give up. I'm quite sure someone saw it, thought it a negligible item, probably a disposable (it lacking the racing stripes and blatant logos the current crop of non-disposables seem to possess) and tossed it in the trash.

My out of the box "new" one is a Schick Quattro, and I must say it seems to provide no better a shave, and no faster, than the single blade antique I was using.  Not worse, however, if a single experience is a valid trial.

I may try the Personna.  "Cheap" should be my real middle name.  The price of the fancy new blades leaves me semi-breathless.  The cost of one of the blades for my old was maybe fifty cents each, and they last for a couple of weeks or more.

When SBGs write about how long a blade lasts, I suppose it has something to do with how much hair remains.  If it's just a MPB horseshoe remnant, a blade will last longer than does the same blade for a BBC chap like myself.

[FR8TRAIN]

Ming, dare I ask what kind of "old style" razor this was. With blades at such a cheap price, I would think that it was an old safety razor.

[Ming the Merciless]

Well, I have no objection to an unveiling of my antique obsession.  Here's a site about it:

http://www.safetyrazors.net/schick/schicktech.htm

It's a Schick Injector razor, an item that had about a seventy-year run.

When I heard it had been discontinued I bought enough blades to last about five years, but I see they are still available in at least some drugstores nearby.  But, of course, buying one of the razors at conventional retail is out of the question.  Hence my (semi-optimistic) recourse to eBay.

It's clear that shaving does not really advance significantly through the technology of its instruments.  If a Schick Injector gave a good shave in the 1930s, and had given me good shaves for most of my adult life (I'm 65), the only reason that a "new razor" appears on the market is to increase the profits of the blade manufacturers.  Why make a perfectly usable blade for pennies, when you can make a bloated multi-edge one and peddle it for dollars?  Ah, the wonders of a capitalist economy!

I could be wrong, but I'd imagine that many here on SBGs have never even thought that "old style" razors work(ed) just fine.  If I were a truly BOLD Sly Guy, I'd learn how to use a straight razor, buy a strop, a brush, and a bowl of soap.

[FR8TRAIN]

It's clear that shaving does not really advance significantly through the technology of its instruments.  If a Schick Injector gave a good shave in the 1930s, and had given me good shaves for most of my adult life (I'm 65), the only reason that a "new razor" appears on the market is to increase the profits of the blade manufacturers.  Why make a perfectly usable blade for pennies, when you can make a bloated multi-edge one and peddle it for dollars?  Ah, the wonders of a capitalist economy!

I could be wrong, but I'd imagine that many here on SBGs have never even thought that "old style" razors work(ed) just fine.  If I were a truly BOLD Sly Guy, I'd learn how to use a straight razor, buy a strop, a brush, and a bowl of soap.

I completely understand and sympathize with you on your loss. I recently purchased several Gillette DE razors from auction on ebay and paid no more than $11.00 per razor. I am anxiously awaiting their arrival. While I understand that a DE is different from an injector, the single edge concept is the same. Additionally, the cost of the blades are mere pennies a piece compared to the latest multiblade contraption.

I would be willing to pass on of these fine "old style" razors on to you to help you cope with your loss. Just send me a PM and we can work out the details.

Here's some shots of them.

[RyanJP]

Sly helping the Sly, that's brotherhood at its finest IMO 

[ldrider51]

Yes, the old injector razors gave a nice shave. I'm not so sure that the current 4 or 5 blades are better than one mania is so true compared to one of them.

I used one for many years. I see the blades at Walgreens for them. I think they may be made by Personna.

Losing one of those you've had for years would be a loss.

I feel your pain.