Oh yeah, I remember them. We had one of those cabinets in the bathroom. Very common back in the day. I've never thought to just how many razor blades wound up in the wall though.

 

Well I have to admit this news to me. I remember Dad using an old Gillette razor (double edge) and mixing up shaving cream in a cup with a brush. I have considered getting a straight razor but I guess I'm scared of cutting my throat. :embarassed:

 

OLSKOOL, we're showing our age here, but yeah,I remember those, used to shave with a double edge myself!! T Rex

 

I am new school when it comes to razors, no less than a 4 blade for me. Harry's send them to me every month.
I am super cheap in many ways, but don't like to cut myself up and spend 12 minutes doing it!
BTW, my house still has the wall slot.

 

Old Tech vs New



I started shaving in the bad old days with my dad's straight razor. After multiple unfortunate incidents he bought a Gillette double edge safety razor for me to use, which although much less hazardous, was not entirely trouble free. I'd hate to think I had to go back to shaving with either of them. I also am new school with a Gillette Fusion Pro Glide. The blades are relatively costly but a close, smooth shave with no nicks, cuts or razor burn justifies the expense. I also own a brand new, never used Case XX straight razor that I keep in a display case as a reminder of the past.

 

Back in the day! Fifteen years old working with a carpenter, he had me tearing down walls in older houses. Tongue and groove boards, once I got to bathroom after removing all items, I started on wall and like you said the wall was full of old razor blades! It was amazing to see them between walls! The carpenter told me how they got there! So At fifteen I learned about slots in old medicine cabinets. I also discover a bean can full of money behind one wall in a all cypress house we tore down! T-bruce grabbed that can out of my hands so fast, I didn't have a chance to see what was in can! Coins for sure, it was a little heavy and jingled.

ca'jun56

 

I had an Old Spice mug and brush. You could buy round bars of Old Spice shaving soap, and give it a vigorous foaming up with the brush. My Dad and I had separate mugs and brushes. It was a rite of passage when you got your own mug. I wonder if they still sell the soap.

 

I used 'em for years. Saved money for ammo and guns. Smelled nice too. I still remember the Old Spice ads and the tune. I still use Old Spice aftershave. Dejavue, the slot for old razor blades was in my childhood house originally built in the 50's. (The 1850's)

AC

 

remember them well! matter of fact the last house I lived in Richmond ( 10 yrs ago) was built in 1939 or so and still had the slot in the cabinet in the bathroom.
I quit shaving back in 1981 when I left the Institute so no need for razors.

 

Looking back at this thread reminds me of my uncle, now, I'm 71, my uncle is 85, the last time at his house, I used the bathroom, and noticed that he still uses a soap mug and brush, his brush sat there, looking slam wore out, all sideways and such, I looked over there, and he had a brand new brush in the box, and I remember thinking, at 85, what in the world is he saving the new brush for, LOL T Rex

 

Because he will most likely need it when he turns 90. You young kids just do not understand????

 

:hmmmm: I have never heard of the disposable slot in the medicine cabinets.

Did anyone ever rub the double edge blades on the inside of a glass, (Honing) to get a few more shave's out of it? :laugh:

 

I just bought a new safety razor here https://www.westcoastshaving.com/
I don't have a slot in my medicine cabinet, I always thought it would suck to be the guy who remodels bathrooms and has to clean out all those old blades.

 

I just bought a new safety razor here https://www.westcoastshaving.com/
I don't have a slot in my medicine cabinet, I always thought it would suck to be the guy who remodels bathrooms and has to clean out all those old blades.

Same with me! I've got a 'trash box' near the mirror so I can just leave everything there

 

I still use mug & brush at home. Wally World has the soap. I'm still using the razor we had to have in our footlocker back in Army days.
A Gillette razor cost $1 when I was a kid. New thought about it at the time but my old man must have had a lifetime supply of them, with us kids buying them for him on Christmas, Fathers Day and Birthday. I still have some of the Gold Fish spoon lures they use to put
in with razor for Fathers Day.

 

Sure, I remember. I have an old unit in storage in my garage that has the slit. I wonder how much of a rusty mess that pile of blades turned out to be.

 

The house I grew up in was built in 1953. All 3 bathrooms had a cabinet with the slot. The sheet metal was stamped with "used blades" under the slot, so I kinda knew what they were for without having to ask. I also remember the medicine cabinet at my grandparents apartment, probably built in the 30's, had the slot. Not wanting to look stupid to my father, I eventually asked my grandfather why they put the slot there, for surely just chucking them in the garbage is easy enough. He said they were still too sharp and dangerous to put in regular garbage. Pop-pop always kept some of his used blades and put tape on one side, the used blades were still very sharp and handy for cutting cloth (he was a tailor) and other projects.

 

Back in my yoot, I moved into my grandparents house after they were out of it. I pulled the medicine cabinet out to repaint it, and there was a huge pile of rusty razor bladed behind it!

The dryer vent went through the floor into the crawl space under the house. I crawled under there once for some reason, and the decades of lint buildup on the ground looked like a Currier & Ives winter snow scene painting! It was surreal.....

 

At 71, I still LOVE to do the DIY projects. Two years ago, gas dryer started to make some belt noise while running (8yo at that time). No one seems to read the owners manual and I was guilty *It's just a dryer.*. While I had the dryer disconnected and disassembled, I couldn't believe all of the lint that got past the filter! I spent an extra hour vacuuming out the lint and ran an old radiator brush up the exhaust tube. Glad I did. That's where dryer fires usually originate. YouTube has a video for everything. Repair Clinic dot com does the same and has parts for order.

 

My house in Virginia built in 1949 had a slot for blades.

 

Remember the "swish swish" at the end of a Wilkinson Sword commercial?

 

Back in the day there were methods for re-sharpening or honing double edge razor blades. My dad had a very find little honing stone that he carried with him in the army, 1940-45. It was dark brown and was a very shallow V shape. I just threw it away the other day, as it had deteriorated and was no longer suitable for sharpening anything.

I also remember various kinds of strops with a special frame that held the blade while it was passed along the strop. Strop wasn't leather, though. And I believe I remember one that used a wheel turned by a crank to hone the blade. Several of my uncles had one sort or another, but I don't think any of them ever used the sharpeners.

Personally, I've never seen the point of the multi bladed razors. I remember Mad Magazine doing a spoof on them. At the time, there were only double bladed razors. But they were spoofing with a four bladed razor--"The first blade pulls out the whisker, the second cuts it off, the third cuts it off again shorter, and last blade pulls the whisker out by the roots."

Anyone remember the Schick(?) Injector Blades? (Used to sporting mag articles about how to use those blades to make broadheads for hunting.) Or the Gillette product with the rolled up band that was advanced when a new edge was needed? I will say that the stainless blades were a great advance. Many times the carbon steel blades were rusty by the next day, even if they were still sharp enough for a shave, which wasn't often.

 

I remember the Schick injector blades--used them for awhile in the 1970s until I couldn't find replacements. I then went to the Gillette safety razor until those blades were hard to find. I then shaved with the Gillette Track II and then the Atra---the first razors that I recall that had the two blades. I actually still have an Atra that I bought in the mid-1980s.​

 

I still use a safety razor - Wilkinson Sword blades. The blades run me about 20-25 cents each, and I buy them in lots of 100. That lasts me about 18 months. A bar of shaving soap lasts me 6-8 months.

If you want your razor to stay sharp, the thing to do is not necessarily to strop them, but to make sure they're DRY when you're finished shaving. I rub the edges on a towel 8-10 times per side when I'm done shaving. It's the micro-rust that forms on the edges of your razors that makes them get dull, not cutting hair. If you didn't get rust on your razor blades, they'd last 1000 years.

Using a safety razor takes a little practice. Most men are accustomed to having to exert some pressure on their disposables. For safety razors, you barely need to press at all, just let the weight of the razor do most of the work. Oh. And very short strokes.

 

I remember them and have taken a couple out during remodels as well.

 

I remember those medicine cabinets, grew up with one in the house. I'm still shaving with a double edge razor and a mug and brush, and still think it's the best shave going. How anyone can use those electric razors is beyond me!

 

I am sure that most of us have heard of the powers of the pyramid. I had a friend that had a little pyramid that was approx 8 inches tall and when his shaving blade would dull he would put it in the pyramid and he claimed he could shave again with it the net day and it would be fairly sharp. He carried a folded up dollar bill in his billfold that was folded to the shape of a pyramid for good luck.

 

I use the same type razor. Double edge is a lot better than disposable junk. I've got a nice old reconditioned straight razor I like as well!

 

Damm, I didn't think I was that old, but I remember all this stuff. Of course when my dad taught me to shave he just had some pieces of flint and rain water.

 

I grew up in a small military town in the 50's-60's,deer hunted there for many years after.There was a tavern in that town that went back to 1860's/1880's,not sure but very old place.In the early 1990's it was purchased and an extensive remodeled which involved removing the back bar.It was a long back bar,probably 30+ feet long.There had been a tradition in the old days to throw your change over the back bar at the end of the night.When they removed the back bar the change was 2-3 feet deep behind the bar,they shoveled it into 30 gallon barrels,there was thousands of coins there all the way back to civil war era.Wished it was mine

 

Yep I too remember the slotted cabinets, and I still use these...

..but I'm so tight I don't buy mug soap, I just use left over hand soap and those little soaps you get in motels........