Is the Safety Razor PC?

[litl rooster]

  http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=151043788

[St. George]

Not even remotely close to the time frame in question.

'Marlin' blades show up almost as often as 'Pal' and a couple of others - though nowhere nearly as often as 'Gillette' does.

Marlin made a number of unusual things - as did Colt and Winchester and so on and so forth - to generate revenue from sources other than firearms production.

They even produced barrels for the M1 Carbine during WWII.

Their uniqueness is geared towards the collector of 'Marlin' items.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[ChuckBurrows]

See here for a short history of the safety razor from 1762 to the late 1800's
http://www.razorandbrush.com/perkam.html and for even more info see this site and database http://www.shaveworld.org/shaveworld_web/shave_safety_razor.php

It includes the history of the Star Razor patented by the Kampfe Brothers in 1880 and according to the info it was widely sold and used.
Unlike the later Gillette it did not use a disposable blade, which is what really made the Gillette such a big seller and is a different critter altogether - in fact methinks with all due respect to my learned colleagues - there is a confusion between the first general use of the safety razor and the later disposable blade safety razor. This has become somewhat of an apples and oranges discussion - the Gillette razor business model being one of a having a disposable blade that needed to be replaced rather then re-sharpened (early days of our current throw away society!) whihc only peripherally has to do with the safety aspect.
IMO, based on the seemingly well researched information (it's always best to cross reference as much as possible) on those two sites alone, "safety" razors of the Star type were not only being made in the 1880's, but were in fact "common" enough to fit that particular criteria. Therefore IMO, if one could find a usable/reasonably priced safety razor of the early types such as a Star they may be "PC" and the documentation is available, being "PC" is of course always dependent on: who, where, when.  
"Competitors were encouraged by the success of the Star.  Between 1880 and 1901, over 80 safety razor patents were issued in the U.S. alone.  Gillette's 1904 patent inspired an even greater explosion of safety razor creativity, but that is another, and much longer, story."

FWIW - Period catalogs are usually a good resource, but cannot always be depended on to verify when an item was first introduced or how common it was. For instance the Stetson BOP hat was first produced in 1865 and became very common in the west of the 1870's, but was not sold by Wards in either their 1874 or 1878 catalog. In fact Wards only offered a couple of wide brimmed hats suitable to the Westerner, one in 1874 and then added a second in 1878 - both of their brand. It wasn't until the 1880's that they offered a larger selection and IIRC, didn't offer the Stetson until even later.

Anyways hope that gives everyone something to ponder on...........

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[French Jack]

I happen to have a "Safety" razor I inherited from my grandfather.  It is not the usual disposable blade like the Gillette or Schick.

It is made like a regular straight razor with a removable guard for one side.  The blades are long and fit into the razor in the same position as a straight razor blade.  It has a blade sharpener, in which you place the blade, and turn the crank.  Both blades and razor are in a red morocco case.  The name is Durham Duplex, and the earliest patent date is in the 1880's.

[Forty Rod]

I know a man who collects old razors, especially Rolls razors.

Some of those things are valuable.

[Don Nix]

My Dad taught me to use a straight razor when I sttarted to shaving. To him it was something a man had to master. I later got one fron a barber supply with a disposible blade and used it until I went into the Army.
in the Army ,we were required to own a safety razor for your foot locker for inspectons.
 I never liked the new disposibles because they clogged and used a saety razor for years.
 I still use a brush and mug soap. it takes a little more time  but it feels good and the shave is closer.
 All the older built houses used to have slots built into the medicine cabinets that opened up under neath the house.
 When you needed a new blade you just disposed of the old one by pushing it thru the slot in the cabinet and it would fall underneath the house.
 When  I was young my Dad was an electrician and when it was necessary to run wires underneath the house it was my job to crawl beneath the house and tack up the wires. I always had to look out for piles of  old rusted razor blades that would cut you to shreds.
It was not my favorite job.