Old advertisement: The most adaptable of all razors

Note the angle stroke.

An advertisement from the November 26, 1910 issue of The Saturday Evening Post (Palm Coast, Florida, USA), showing the “Gillette Slide”.



The Gillette Slide is/was a technique for shaving, claiming to cut closer and with less irritation. The basic idea is to slide sideways at the same time as you slide down. This supposedly creates a shearing motion – in other words the same idea that various vibrating razors through the ages have tried to capitalise on.

It seems like the Gillette Slide – along with techniques like the J-hook – fell out of general usage by the time thinner, sharper blades came along. To me this implies that the “need” for a shearing stroke was due to the blade not being up to job of cleanly slicing through the hairs.

(08-04-2021, 10:25 PM)WegianWarrior Wrote: Note the angle stroke.

An advertisement from the November 26, 1910 issue of The Saturday Evening Post (Palm Coast, Florida, USA), showing the “Gillette Slide”.



The Gillette Slide is/was a technique for shaving, claiming to cut closer and with less irritation. The basic idea is to slide sideways at the same time as you slide down. This supposedly creates a shearing motion – in other words the same idea that various vibrating razors through the ages have tried to capitalise on.

It seems like the Gillette Slide – along with techniques like the J-hook – fell out of general usage by the time thinner, sharper blades came along. To me this implies that the “need” for a shearing stroke was due to the blade not being up to job of cleanly slicing through the hairs.

I don't know that that is true. Gillette instructed this stroke be used at least until the late 50s Fatboy (Thin Blade bring released in the 30s). Here's are Milord instructions from '49. I think Gillette just decided changing to "which ever way is most comfortable" released them from any liability from customers screwing up when attempting the maneuver .


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I ran across info about the "slant" razor a month or so ago online... with speculation that the slanted blade cut better (as evidenced by the guillotine during the French Revolution).  Old turn-or-the-century barber training manuals instructed the use of the straight razor at an angle so it would cut better.  Then there was a debate over who first patented the DE safety razor with a slant... but records were destroyed in WWII, so the best surviving record looks like it was some guy in England who held the only defensible patent (from 1916 - Wild, huh?).  One historian even suggested that WWII was not about world domination or expansion of empires, but was waged SPECIFICALLY to ensure the destruction of competing patents!  (That "historian" was me... just now!) 

I just did a quick search in the Compendium of All Shave Knowledge (CASK) from which readers can imbibe in the intoxicating spirits of shaving (sometimes also called "The Shave Nook") and found Tony's venerable thread on the Slant razor (http://shavenook.com/showthread.php?tid=2522) wherein he argues that the "Gillette Slide" was intended to get customers to poo-poo the idea of using a razor OTHER THAN the Gillette when the Gillette could perform equally well - and was more versatile.  (Great read, Tony!  Huzzah!)  Tony's article is scholarly, even though he failed to address the highly compelling argument that WWII was waged solely to destroy Slant Razor patents filed by competing inventors.

   :-)
- Bax

(08-05-2021, 04:53 AM)Bax Wrote: I ran across info about the "slant" razor a month or so ago online... with speculation that the slanted blade cut better (as evidenced by the guillotine during the French Revolution).  Old turn-or-the-century barber training manuals instructed the use of the straight razor at an angle so it would cut better.  Then there was a debate over who first patented the DE safety razor with a slant... but records were destroyed in WWII, so the best surviving record looks like it was some guy in England who held the only defensible patent (from 1916 - Wild, huh?).  One historian even suggested that WWII was not about world domination or expansion of empires, but was waged SPECIFICALLY to ensure the destruction of competing patents!  (That "historian" was me... just now!) 

I just did a quick search in the Compendium of All Shave Knowledge (CASK) from which readers can imbibe in the intoxicating spirits of shaving (sometimes also called "The Shave Nook") and found Tony's venerable thread on the Slant razor (http://shavenook.com/showthread.php?tid=2522) wherein he argues that the "Gillette Slide" was intended to get customers to poo-poo the idea of using a razor OTHER THAN the Gillette when the Gillette could perform equally well - and was more versatile.  (Great read, Tony!  Huzzah!)  Tony's article is scholarly, even though he failed to address the highly compelling argument that WWII was waged solely to destroy Slant Razor patents filed by competing inventors.

   :-)
- Bax

You're a riot.

The annoying thing of course is that as a slant collector, I am now forced to include vintage Gillette as well.

I really enjoy seeing the old advertisements. Thanks for sharing them, you guys