Thread: How to Use a Razor

The thing that struck me was that these directions would be read by guys that did know how to shave (at least by the standards of the day), and I suspect Sears didn't intend for them to be a source of comedy. There's very little of the sort of marketing exaggeration one would expect from the era predating deceptive-advertising laws (I've got a Shuredge whose directions claim it never needs stropping!), and while I immediately assumed the bit about laying the razor flat on your face was due to preemptively defensive lawyers, those sorts of lawsuits (e.g. the McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit) were still a good 60 years in the future when these instructions were written.

It seems likely that Sears really did think that these were reasonable instructions that wouldn't get them laughed out of the room and that would deliver a decent shave if followed. It may be that these directions were designed for somebody that had never shaved before, and that experienced shavers did it the way we do. But I thought they were interesting since they were intended for the common man (probably a beginner) and not a professional barber under professional tutelage.

Edit: Perhaps I was simply more observant this morning after typing up this post last night, but when I was shaving this morning I noticed that the spine was rarely more than a half width above my face, and actually lay flat on my face quite a bit as I varied the angle over my face. I knew my angle had been dropping in recent months as my edges have been getting sharper, but I guess I just never really realized how shallow it had been getting. I wonder if I could handle a long-term Feather relationship now...