Thread: What did grampa do ??

I've been lurking here for a bit looking at information as I fancy trying my hand at straight razor shaving; it would fit in nicely with another hobby of mine (living history) and it's about time I got around to learning it. A razor arrived yesterday and I am awaiting a moment when there's enough time and the right amount of beard to have a first go (probably this weekend). I recently switched back to DE blades from cartridges after spotting the Merkur 1904 reproduction.

Originally Posted by MickR

Not every country was serviced by King Camp Gillette. During WW1 there were also people from Germany, Australia, Britain, Turkey etc. Now Britian and Australia may have had shaving gear supplied by Gillette, but I doubt it. However I don't know for sure. I'm pretty sure the Germans and the Turks weren't supplied with the new fangled DE but I could be wrong there too. My point being not every nation used King Gillette's new invention since it was only in production from 1904 or 6 and WW1 started about 10 years later.

As far as I can tell the Gillette safety razor was only issued to American forces, and the standard for other nations was the straight razor. I've seen it asserted by those more familiar with WWI than I am that safety razors can sometimes be found in excavations of trenches so presumably some soldiers were buying them privately.

P.S Just had a thought, When did the Roller razor come out? That may have been another razor used in that era.

If you mean the Rolls Razor then information on the internet seems to suggest that they appeared in the 1920s, but I'm far from an expert on the matter.