Thread: Free Book PDF from 1905: "Shaving Made Easy"

I guess I have been doing alot wrong. I take a hot shower beforehand, rub an oil on my face before lathering, put my thumb on the tang, lead with the toe end of the blade on the strop.
Hopefully all this will greatly improve my experience.
I just went and read part of the second book posted here, the Barber's manual. They recommend hot towel to soften the beard. WTH?
Now I don't know what to do.

I have not read the book yet, but here's my input as a chemist. Cold water will soften hairs just as well as hot water, it will just take more time to do so, because in hot water, molecules are bouncing much harder and thus the softening process will be faster. Hot water will open pores and to my experience this also means that the hair in its sack has a greater range of motion. Cold water will soften the hair, but it will also work in a vasoconstrictor like way. (This is why we splash with cold water after a shave, so as to close small nicks and provide relief from any razor burn.) The blood doesn't flow to the top layers of the skin anymore and also the nerve sensors in that skin tissue are not very functional when they're cold. I could imagine that the patience that is necessary to soften hairs with cold water will pay off when the much less sensitive skin gives the feeling of an "easy" shave later on.
I'll have to READ these books first.

Thank you for posting this! Funnily enough I was browsing on ebay earlier today and this book can be purchased there on a CD-Rom and there are also booksellers who sells printed versions of this very same book. Glad I found the free version! Money saved to pay for more razors!

Okay, so I have read the book by now and can say that it's nice to see that even over a hundred years ago, there was already so much knowledge available. I haven't tried the cold water method yet. I'm still trying to determine my best blade type, so I'll need to experiment with that first. That is a much coarser determination than the subtle difference of hot or warm versus cold water in shave preparation. I have been browsing in the online files of the LIbrary of Congress too. Picked up some nice other barber manuals in pdf format. If there's any interest, I can post them here. (if allowed of course).

Originally Posted by sashimi

I have been browsing in the online files of the LIbrary of Congress too. Picked up some nice other barber manuals in pdf format. If there's any interest, I can post them here. (if allowed of course).

Posting a link to them would be fine but do it in a new thread. They will get lost in the shuffle if you post them here.

I've been shaving happily with cold water ever since the OP of this thread introduced me to the concept.

I'd love to see the links!
--Shoki

Sometimes I do hot,sometimes cold and sometimes whatever the tap is giving so to speak. I've found I've had good results with all.Guess that means if I get shipped off to the trenches,I'll be okay eh !!? ....

Originally Posted by LuckyCynic

Wasn't quite sure where to put this so I suppose in with the newbies but I bet anyone will find this interesting.

Often times it seems that some books just are left without a publisher and their copyright runs up. What happens then? Well, they are argued to become "open media." Recently whilst snooping for old time classics, I bumped into this relic ready for download from the Internet Archives. It appears to be the Library of Congress's scan of a 1905 book called Shaving Made Easy: What The Man Who Shaves Ought To Know.

I haven't read too much of it but its roughly 80 pages and appears to be a quick but thoughtful read- and from the early 20th century, it sure has some of that old school class to it. Of course, the 20th century (and so far, the 21st) have had some pretty important shaving developments but if you want to take a stroll back in time, this appears to be a good way to do it.

PDF Link. ~2.5Megs.
Original Link/view it on PC screen.

Anyhows, enjoy!

This is the best artical I have seen on shaving and care & maintenance on razors yet ! Great read for everyone !

This is really an exceptional find. Thank you very much for sharing your find!

There might be an explanation that has been missed here! If this is true than we can use BOTH hot and cold water and benefit from both-there was an old movie where these two gangsters were talking about shaving,the movie was called "Millers Grossing",a really good movie and might explain this whole hot and cold thing. I agree that hot water is nicer on the skin but in the movie the Boss is explaining to one of his underlings that he should use cold water BECAUSE it contracts the metal of the razor-thus making any small imperfections in the blades edge come together.
This makes sense since it does just that-so if you soften your beard with hot water and run under cold water the edge should be better as it will contract and tighten up the edge...Ive tried it,and gotten good shaves...just food for thought,YMMV
Griz