Quote Originally Posted by DHMStr8 View Post
"This doesn’t answer your question but as far as WWI goes, this was the time when the Gillette was taking off. Many doughboys would have been issued safety razors because they were more compact and easier to maintain in the field."

That brught back a memory! My grandfather fought in WWI, and many, many years ago my grandmother showed me the shave kit he "brought back from the war". As I remember, it was a little olive-drab pouch that contained a Gillette comb-edge DE plus a pack of blades in the original paper wrap. The razor head unsrewed from the handle so that everything fit just right in the pouch; in other words the pouch was obviously made to fit the razor. The pouch was stamped "US", so I assume the Army issued it to him.

(I'm not that familiar with DEs so you experts may know better than I do what I'm describing.)

Of course at the time I was a teenaged punk and had no interest in that sort of thing, and it's long gone now!
I think during the great war Gillette had won a contract to supply the US army with razors I read this some where but a figure of 3,000,000 units supplied was quoted so as ever Gillette had found another way to make a little more cash.

I agree with the other posts about care of a straight in the old days keep em sharp and rust free and accept that carbon steel changes colour like the season of the year.