Thread: Where did men get razors 100 years ago?

You are at least essentially correct. That was the best marketing move in history. The rationale was that the GI's needed to have clean-shaven faces for their gas-masks to fit properly.

Originally Posted by Tobico4

...Materials were very valuable and labor was very cheap; that reality caused things to be very different than they are today. I have a "trade gun" (flintlock shotgun) that has hand made parts of great complexity (to make them rigid) out of extremely thin material (to save brass)...

Another example...even some of the most "crude" furniture a couple hundred years ago had dovetails, mortice and tennons, etc. Joinery techniques you will only see now in high-end furniture. One of the reasons is that the craftsman's time was cheaper than buying nails and screws.