US2367517A - Safety razor - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 16, 1945. J MURQS 2,367,517

SAFETY RAZOR Filed March 29, 1944 IN V EN TOR.

Patentecl Jan. 16, 1945 SAFETY RAZOR Joseph Muros, Cambridge, Mass, assignor to Gillette Safety Razor Company, Boston, Mass., a

corporation of Delaware Application March 29, 1944, Serial No. 528,526

3 Claims.

This invention relates to safety razors of the type in which a thin flexible blade is clamped for shaving between cooperating blade-flexin members. The invention consists in an improved razor of this type in which the end corners of the blade edge are shielded in such a manner that the user is safeguarded from the possibility of scratching or cutting any part of his face thereby.

In safety razors as heretofore constructed the user, in shaving areas adjacent to the nose or cars, has occasionally nicked or scratched projecting portions of his face upon the sharp corner edges of the blade. Various attempts have been made to remedy this defect in the organization of the razor. For example, it has been proposed to build up a projecting lug in front of the blade corners and while this expedient has been fairly satisfactory from the standpoint of safety, it has proved objectionable in that it has masked off and rendered inoperative a substantial portion of the normal shaving edge of the razor blade, and it has also interfered with the desirable use of the shaving edge out to its corners. Moreover, safety lugs placed in this conspicuous manner are unsightly and impart an antique appearance to the razor inconsistent with the streamlined designs now in popular favor. Lugs underlying or overlying the corners of the blade have the same objection and also are objectionable in that they tend to catch hairs between themselves and the blade and pull.

I have discovered that the edge comers of the blade may be completely and effectively safeguarded and all the objections of the early construction avoided by providing the guard member of the razor with lugs which are flush with the skin-engaging face of the guard member, or with the line of the guard teeth, but which extend upwardly and inwardly and are outside the blade edge corners, thus effectively preventing any projection in the contour of the face of the user from contacting the blade corners, while at the same time leaving the entire shaving edge of the blade fully exposed and available for the shaving operation.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purposes of illustration and hown in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the razor as seen from above, on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 2 is a corresponding view in end elevation of the razor head;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view showing a corner of the razor head on a still larger scale; and

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view in end elevation in the-same enlarged scale.

The invention as herein shown is embodied in [3 of thin fiexible steel .004" to .007" in thickness.

The blade has a reentrant recess in each corner and these recesses define elongated unsharpened portions M at both ends of the blade. The blade also ha an elongated medial slot IS with a central and intermediate enlargements shaped to fit the stem of the cap and blade-locating projections of various shapes in different safety razors for which the blade is adapted.

The cap I2 is slightly narrower than the blade and has a transversely concave blade-engaging face for flexing the blade in cooperation with the guard member. It has also a pair of short bladelocating ribs l6 which are herein shown as fitting the ends of the blade slot l5. The corners of the cap are provided with thickened reinforcing lugs l'l.

The guard member II is substantially wider than the cap l2, being generally rectangular in outline and provided in its centre portion with a symmetrically disposed diamond-shaped depression [8, the walls of which impart stiffness to the guard member as a Whole, while the depression itself provides clearance for the blade-locating rib l6 of the cap. The guard member is shaped to present a pair of longitudinal fulcrum i shoulders IS. The material of the guard beyond or outside the fulcrum shoulders [9 extends downwardly and outwardly to form a longitudinal channel 20 at each side of the guard and beyond each channel is formed a guard, herein shown as a bar 2| partially set off from the body of the guard by elongated slots 22. The outer or skin-engaging face of the guard bar 2| has a smooth curvature outwardly and downwardly and transverse scoring. When the razor is assembled for shaving, as suggested in Fig. 4, the blade i3 is deflected by the cap over the fulcrum shoulder l9 so that its sharpened edge stands above and slightly to the rear of the guard bar 2| and over the channel 20. The blade is normally adjusted to have an edge exposure of about .004", that is to say, its edge extends that distance beyond a line drawn tangent to the edge of the cap l2 and the curve of the guard bar 2|.

.All that has been described heretofore is old and well known in safety razors of the Gillette type. The essential features of the present invention consists in providing protective lugs such as those indicated herein by reference character 23, in a position opposite to the end corners of the-cutting edge of the blade but so located as not to obscure the cutting edge itself or in any way interfere with the approach of the cutting edge to hairs in the forward movement of the razor. The manner of supporting these protective lugs 23 is of secondary importance so long as they are located as above described and do sults will be secured by forming the guard member l l with project ng ears and then swaging the material inwarldy to form the lugs 23. In this operation the outer skin-engaging curvature of the guard bar 21 is retained from end to end without interruption and the lugs are located opposite to the ends of the blade edge and spaced therefrom by more than the thickness of a hair so as to eliminate all danger of pulling. The full channel length of the razor is also retained and the shaving edge of the blade i3 is unobstructed from corner to corner. The edge corners of the blade, however, are eflectively guarded so, that they cannot by any movement of the. razor be brought into contact with the skin of the face and this is true even though the user may. back off the guard tosome extent to secure a greater edge exposure for close shaving.

Although guard bars 2! are shown in this illustrated razor it will be understood that the invention may be equally well embodied in razors having guard teeth at their edges instead of bars.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described an illustrative embodiment thereof in detail, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A safety razor comprising a guard member presenting an outwardly curved skin-engaging guard surface, a flexible blade, a cap holding the edge of the blade above said guard surface, and lugs flush with the skin-engaging surface of the guard member and extending upwardy and rearwardly from the guard member to positions opposite to the end edges of the blade and spaced therefrom by more than the thickness of a hair.

2. A, safety razor comprising a guard having a guard bar at its longitudinal edge presenting an outwardly curved skin-engaging surface and a channel within said bar, a flexible blade, a cap shaped to hold the edge of the blade in shaving position adjacent to the guard bar, and protecting lugs flush with the skin-engaging face of the guard bar and extending upwardly and inwardly beyond the ends of the blade thereby shielding the end corners of the blade edge.

3. A safety razor comprising a guard member presenting a. curved skin-engaging surface and a longitudinal fulcrum shoulder, a flexible blade, and a transversely curved cap flexing the blade over. said shoulder, the guard member having a

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