US2558601A - Razor - Google Patents

Description

June 26, 1951 w. D. WINSLOW RAZOR Filed Feb. 25, 1946 INVENTOR (Max h. 1%

ATTORNEY Patented June 26, 1951 U N i T I;

STAT

1 Claim.

shaving may be accomplished by both pulling and pushing strokes.

In the operation of shaving, most men find it convenient and necessary to comfortable, close shaving of much of the bearded area of the face and throat or neck to practice some upwardly directed strokes in addition to the usual downwardly directed strokes. This is required by the contour of the surfaces to be shaved and by the direction in which the hairs of the beard grow in certain of these areas. The making of upwardly directed shaving strokes with the conventional safety razor, whether provided with a single edged blade or a double edged blade, is an awkward operation requiring a complete rearrangement of the blade handle in the persons hand and a twisting of the wrist and raising of the forearm and elbow to an uncomfortable position. This results from the fact that the cutting edge of the blade, or each of them if the blade is of the double edged type, is so related to the axis of the handle that downwardly directed pulling movement only is possible when the handle is held in the usual more or less vertical positionv Pushing the handle upwardly when it is held in such normal position will not dispose the blade edge in cutting relation to the surface which is to be shaved.

In addition to the foregoing principal objects, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a safety razor of simple, inexpensive and durable construction which will have some or all of the following features and advantages:

1. The combination of a blade holder and a double-edged blade having its two edged portions angularly related for differentkinds of shaving strokes and disposed symmetrically on opposite sides of a central vertex so that eitherportion of the blade may be mounted in the handle for use in making either of the two kinds of strokes. r

This feature permits periodic reversal of the relation of the blade to the holder so that wear of the two edges can be equalized, It also makes it unnecessary for the user of the razor to take care to fit a particular blade portion against a particular blade-supporting surface of the holder, thus considerably simplifying the operation of assemblying the blade and holder.

2. The mounting of a blade arranged for shaving by a pushing movement by the same means that mounts a blade for shaving by a pulling movement in the conventional way, so that only one blade-mounting means is required where both blades or blade portions are used.

7 3. The provision of a single guard for the two edges of two blades or the two edged portions of a single blade arranged for shaving by two different kinds of strokes, such as pulling and pushing strokes.

4. The shaping of a common guard member for two different blade edges in such a way that when the two portions which separately guard the two edges are both laid against the face, one of the two edges will be positioned in the correct angle for most comfortable shaving.

5. Various other features and advantages which will be evident to those skilled in the art from the following description and the accom panying drawing which, taken together, illustrate the principles of the invention embodied in a preferred type of construction.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view of a blade and holder constructed according to the principles of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective View of the blade and holder in assembled relation; and

Fig. 3 is a central cross sectional view of the assembled blade and holder.

The construction comprises, inthe illustrated preferred embodiment, a holder designated generally l, including a handle 2 of the more or less conventional elongated shape common in safety razors having at one end a generally transversely disposed plate member 3 which is conveniently but not necessarily made removable from the ban-- dle. In the preferred form of construction the plate member 3 has an unthreaded central opening which is received more or less loosely over a threaded stud 4 projecting from one end of the handle 2 and threaded into a tapped opening formed centrally in a blade clamping and guarding member 5. A blade member, generally desig nated ii, is interposed between the members 3 and 5 and is clamped between them by screwing the stud 4 into the member 5, as is common in safety razor constructions.

The blade member 5 is specially formed and includes two edged portions '1, 8 which are re lated at a dihedral angle which is best made of 3 approximately 120. The portions 1, 3 of the blade member S may be separate elements, but I prefer to make them integral portions of a unitary one-piece blade member, as shown in the drawing.

The plate member 3 is provided with two bladesupporting surfaces 9, It), one for each of the blade member portions '1, 8, and both are related at a dihedral angle equal to that formed by the blade member portions, which in the illustrated embodiment is approximately 120. The clamping and guarding member has similar angularly related surfaces on the face which forms its under surface in Fig. 3. Conventional pins or posts, which do not appear in any of the figures, may project from the under face of the member 5 into the openings ll formed in the plate 3, as shown in Fig. 1, after passing through openings l2 formed through the vertex of the blade. A

central opening 53 is formed in the vertex of the blade'to pass the stud for threading into the opening in the member 5, and all these openings and pin and stud elements cooperate to mount the blade in rigidly clamped position between the members 3 and 5.

The members 3 and 5 are suitably contoured along their outer surfaces, which are opposite their surfaces which contact the blade, to support and guard the blade near its outer edges,

where the blade is ground to provide cutting edges.

The blade-supporting surfaces 9, it of the member 3 are so related to the axis of the handle 2 that one of them, the surface 33 in the illustrated embodiment, projects almost radially from the handle axis, or preferably at a slight downward inclination of approximately 80 to the axis of the handle. The other blade-supporting surface of the member 3, which is the surface H3 in the illustrated embodiment, is inclined upwardly toward the adjacent end of the handle 2 so as to form with the axis of the handle an angle of approximately These values are not critical, but they are preferred because I have found that blade portions disposed at these angles provide good shaving action when the handle is held in the intended manner.

It will be observed, particularly from Fig. 3, that the blade portion l has its cutting edge so related to the axis of the handle 2 that good shaving action can be produced by this edge when the handle 2 is pulled down across a surface to be shaved in a direction and a manner similar to that in which a conventional safety razor is employed. It will also be evident that in this pulling position, in which the handle 2 is held at a slight outward inclination from the surface to be shaved, that portion of the member 5 which guards the opposite edge of the blade, which is the heavily beaded portion designated M in Fig. 3, will be engaged with the surface to be shaved. This arrangement provides a very convenient guiding or positioning means for producing the correct shaving angle for the edge of the blade portion 1. Obviously the thickness of the bead I4 may be made as great as necessary to cooperate with the edge of the plate member 3 adjacent to the opposite edge portion of the blade, designated 15 in the figures, to perform the described guiding function.

Shaving is thus accomplished by pulling the edge of the blade portion l downwardly in the usual Way. When an upward shaving stroke is to be made, it is not necessary to rearrange the handle 2 so as to extend downwardly instead of upwardly from the hand in which it is held, so that an upward pulling stroke can be made with the edge of the blade portion l, as in conventional razors. It is necessary merely to rotate the handle 2 a half turn about its axis, which will bring the edge of the blade portion 8 into shaving engagement with the surface to be shaved, and then push the handle axially upwardly. This produces shaving action by an upward pushing movement, and cooperates with the shaving action produced by downward pulling movement of the other edge of the blade member to produce a quick, comforable and close shave of any bearded skin surface, regardless of the contour of the surface and the direction in which the hairs of the beard project.

It will be noted from Fig. l, and more particularly from Fig. 2, that the blade member 6 is proportioned symmetrically about its vertex, indicated at it. That is to say, the openings l2 and t3 are bisected by the vertex and each of the portions 7, 8 is of the same width between its cutting edge and the vertex. This is a feature of importance in the preferred embodiment of the invention because it makes it unnecessary for the user of the razor to take care to fit any particular one of the blade portions 1, 8 against either one of the blade-supporting surfaces 9, H) of the holder, and also because it permits the blade to be periodically reversed in its position in the holder, so that wear of the two edges can be equalized.

The above described embodiment of the invention is given solely to exemplify the principles of the invention. These principles may be embodied in other and further modified forms, all of which are deemed to be within the scope and purview of the appended claims to the extent that they embody the principles defined by the claim.

I claim:

In a safety razor, a holder having an elongated handle and two blade-supporting fiat surfaces forming a dihedral obtuse angle at one end portion of the handle, one of said flat surfaces being inclined straight from the axis of said handle inwardly toward the opposite end of the handle at an acute angle and the other flat surface be ing inclined straight from the axis of said handle outwardiy toward the first named end portionof the handle at a substantially smaller acute angle, blade means having two edged flat portions forming a dihedral obtuse angleequal to that of the blade-supporting surfaces, and means securing the blade means to said surfaces of the holder comprising an angular clamping and guarding member having at one edge an inner surface positioned adjacent to one edged portion of the blade means and having at its opposite edge an outer surface for engagement with a surface to be shaved when the other edged portion of the blade means is engaged with the surface to be shaved WILLIAM D. WINSLOW.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,022,429 Madden Apr. 9, 1912 1,888,159 Campbell Nov. 15, 1932 1,923,439 I-lukill Aug. 22, 1933

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