My interest in old Double Edge Razor Blades started 17 years ago when I
was 16 years old. When my grandfather died I helped my mother clean his
apartment. I found in my grandfather's bathroom his old Gillette safety
razor and his old unused Wilkinson blades. Not just one package, but about
30 packs, each pack containing 5 blades. These items were for me "love at
first sight". I decided then and there that I will use these items in
memory of my grandfather. From that day I have collected this kind of
item. I have always used every opportunity to visit flea markets, second
hand shops, antique shops and shows, perfume shops, pharmacies etc.
looking for old razor blades at a good price that I can add to my
collection. In the last 10 years I have had the chance to travel a lot
around the world mainly to USA, Europe, Asia - so most of my collection
comes from these continents. Actually I am writing this article from the
other half of the globe - from beautiful New Zealand. Until about a year
ago I thought that I am the only "crazy" person in the world who collected
this kind of item, but then there was a dramatic change regarding my
collection. I was introduced to eBay! Searching eBay I was amazed to find
out that there were dozens of collectors like me all over the world and at
the every moment that you are reading this article there are hundreds of
blades on eBay for sale. This is how I also I found all the other
collectors that I now know - more than 50 collectors from around the globe
-- the USA, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey, Sweden, Holland, UK, Russia,
Argentina, Chile, Czech Republic, Spain, and Poland.
Well back in time before my grandfather bought his razor blades, the
first manufacturing of the blades began at the beginning of the 20th
century by the world-renowned salesman named "King Gillette".
He thought how to make the life more easier for the men who had to
shave every morning. Prior to this time, people used the straight razors
which had to be sharpened or stropped every few days . “King Gillette”
wanted to invent a razor which people would be able to change easily the
blades in few seconds every time they felt that the razor wasn’t sharp
enough. Thus he invented the "safety Razor" that has Double Edge Razor
Blades that can be replaced easily. One surprising fact I learned when I
discovered eBay was the number of collectors I met there who collected
safety razors and not the blades - but this is perhaps a subject for
another article.
Since the invention of King Gillette many manufacturers started to
manufacture this type of blades all around the world. The famous ones are
Gillette from USA and around the world, Wilkinson and Vallet from the UK,
Persona and Pal from USA and many more.
Even today when most of the population in the world uses modern razors
and blades like the Gillette Mach 3 and Sensor and other modern brands
like Schick and Wilkinson and many more there still are a lot of people
around the world using old razor blades to shave. So, many manufacturers
are still manufacturing these blades every day in huge quantities. In
Israel we have a plant in Nazeret (where Jesus was born) named Persona,
owned by an American company. This plant manufactures every day a million
Double Edge blades! Amazing! Most of their production is for export around
the world, but not all. I, for example, shave every morning with an old
razor and old blades. It's a great and safe shave every time - "like a
baby face". Because of me, my father and a good friend started to shave
also with the old blades.
An American collector that I know told me that he knows for a fact that
they are about 40-50,000 different kinds of razor blades made in USA, and
another 50-60,000 kinds from rest of the world – so in total collectors
can find up to almost 100,000 different blades. My collection in
comparison is a small one - I have only about 500 different packs of
blades. My blades are from all over the world from more than 30 countries
and 5 continents. When I started a year ago connecting with people on eBay
I was amazed to find that there are collectors with 4,000, 10,000, 20,000
blades in their collection, mainly from USA and Europe – an amazing fact.
Perhaps even more surprising to me is the fact that some of the collectors
from USA are women who started many years ago, even before I was born, to
collect blades.
Another very interesting fact was to discover was that many collectors
are collecting not the full packs like me, but the individual blades with
the small graphic wrapping envelopes. In every pack of blades there are 5
or 10 blades with these graphic wrapping envelopes (rarely they also come
with packs of 3,4,6 blades).
Those collectors collect them in nice albums like stamps, because their
size is like stamps. These blades are called "RBW" - which means Razor
Blade Wrappers. The graphic wrappers of the blades are usually the same as
the graphic on the front of the pack/box of blades. Other collectors like
me collect the full packs of blades.
Usually the really valuable items are the old beautiful ones from the
beginning of the 20th century with nice and special graphics on them,
circa 1910-1930. Many are rare and very hard to find. An example of a rare
one is "Tommy" from the British times in Palestine in the 30's (the Israel
of today).
I found this item in a Flea Market in Tel-Aviv. The price was $1 US
because the seller didn't know that it was a rare one. Usually blade packs
can cost between $1 to $4, the rare and valuable ones will cost from $5 to
$30. So as you can see, it's not a too much expensive hobby.
When I just started to collect I collected the plastic packs like the
Wilkinson's packs I found in my grandfather bathroom, but within a year,
after getting to know other collectors, I realized that the plastic ones
are too modern and not worth collecting. The real interesting blades
packs, that most of the collectors collect are made out of card board and
those card board packs should have inside them nice graphic wrappers that
were manufactured before 1960 and look the same graphic on front of the
pack.
One indication for the importance of this kind of collectible would be
that a few years ago, a book was published by a gentlemen named Mr. Phil
Krumholtz from USA The book is called - "Collector's guide to American
Razor Blades". In this book there is a lot of information on blades that
were manufactured in USA. The blades are shown with a lot of very nice
pictures. The book gives also information on the Manufacturers that were
and still are in the USA and also identifies and gives values for the
items.
I would like to end this article with a personal approach to the
readers: "If you are a collector of razor blades or have any interest in
this article - don't hesitate to contact me with any questions. You are
welcomed to contact me by e-mail: abyms@hotmail.co.il. I will be happy to
meet new collectors and friends from around the world to exchange
information about our collections and trade our duplicates.
