A Safety Razor Compendium
a review of Robert K. Waits' Razor Cyclopaedia
by Giovanni Abrate
In addition to the excellent listing of thousands of razors, the E-Book also includes some chapters that cover in great detail the history of certain companies that have played an important role in the development of safety razors. These companies are:
Now I can finally access an easy and comprehensive timescale of all Gillette razors, with plenty of clear pictures and clear and concise text!
Just to give you an idea of the completeness of the information provided in this work, if we go to the Kampfe Bros. chapter, there are four pages dedicated to showing the variations in the early Star Wedge razors made between the years 1880 and 1919!
Here's just one of them:
This is typical of the high quality of the illustrations contained in this excellent E-Book. Keep in mind that the images reproduced in this article are at reduced resolution, when compared to the original illustrations in the E-Book.
In addition to the detailed histories of these selected companies, Mr. Waits also provides as part of his book a few additional chapters, namely:
These
are all chapters of great interest. I was fascinated by the chapter on
Soviet razors: most of the razors made in the Soviet Union were exact
copies of Gillette or German models. Some appear to be very well made!
There is even an interesting modern slant blade razor, called the Luch.
The slant angle seems quite formidable!
The chapter dedicated to razor collectibles is equally fascinating and covers a wide number of items, from razor blades, to blade banks to toy razors and much more. As always, the quality of the color images is superb. This is a portion of the first page of this fascinating chapter:
The section dedicated to U.S. Patents covers 83 pages packed with illustrations, showing all the Patent applications between 1864 and 1904, followed by another 15 pages covering all the listings for Patent applications between 1905 and 1960!
This is THE reference book for anyone interested in the history of safety razors; every razor collector should have it. After browsing through the nearly 600 pages of text and images, the selling price of this monumental work appears to be a bargain. The E-Book is sold directly by the author for $44. In coffee-table printed format, this would be a $100 book!
The CD is very well made, with an excellent search feature.
For your convenience, we provide a link to the author's website where the book can be ordered.
I have all the printed books on the subject of razor history and I can safely state that nowhere else is such a wealth of clear information available as in the Safety Razor Compendium.
Robert K. Waits has done a wonderful job: thanks for a great book!
a review of Robert K. Waits' Razor Cyclopaedia
by Giovanni Abrate
Robert
K. Waits is the author of a very comprehensive listing of the world's
safety razors. His work is called "A Safety Razor Compendium" and is
published as an E-Book in the CD-R format, with the actual text (and
pictures) coded in the .pdf format, with an excellent built-in search
capability.
All pictures shown in this review are taken from the Compendium, but are shown at reduced resolution. The actual E-Book is quite a monumental work: there are 587 pages of detailed descriptions, complete with thousands of color and black and white pictures.
To test the completeness of the listings, I looked up some of my most obscure razors. One of these is the Italian C.E.M. razor, a plastic cheapo that I bought new in Italy over 30 years ago.
A quick search in the Compendium and there it was, in color, the third from the top in the left column:
It even shows the cardboard box, just like the one I have!
All pictures shown in this review are taken from the Compendium, but are shown at reduced resolution. The actual E-Book is quite a monumental work: there are 587 pages of detailed descriptions, complete with thousands of color and black and white pictures.
To test the completeness of the listings, I looked up some of my most obscure razors. One of these is the Italian C.E.M. razor, a plastic cheapo that I bought new in Italy over 30 years ago.
A quick search in the Compendium and there it was, in color, the third from the top in the left column:
It even shows the cardboard box, just like the one I have!
In addition to the excellent listing of thousands of razors, the E-Book also includes some chapters that cover in great detail the history of certain companies that have played an important role in the development of safety razors. These companies are:
Now I can finally access an easy and comprehensive timescale of all Gillette razors, with plenty of clear pictures and clear and concise text!
Just to give you an idea of the completeness of the information provided in this work, if we go to the Kampfe Bros. chapter, there are four pages dedicated to showing the variations in the early Star Wedge razors made between the years 1880 and 1919!
Here's just one of them:
This is typical of the high quality of the illustrations contained in this excellent E-Book. Keep in mind that the images reproduced in this article are at reduced resolution, when compared to the original illustrations in the E-Book.
In addition to the detailed histories of these selected companies, Mr. Waits also provides as part of his book a few additional chapters, namely:
The chapter dedicated to razor collectibles is equally fascinating and covers a wide number of items, from razor blades, to blade banks to toy razors and much more. As always, the quality of the color images is superb. This is a portion of the first page of this fascinating chapter:
The section dedicated to U.S. Patents covers 83 pages packed with illustrations, showing all the Patent applications between 1864 and 1904, followed by another 15 pages covering all the listings for Patent applications between 1905 and 1960!
This is THE reference book for anyone interested in the history of safety razors; every razor collector should have it. After browsing through the nearly 600 pages of text and images, the selling price of this monumental work appears to be a bargain. The E-Book is sold directly by the author for $44. In coffee-table printed format, this would be a $100 book!
The CD is very well made, with an excellent search feature.
For your convenience, we provide a link to the author's website where the book can be ordered.
I have all the printed books on the subject of razor history and I can safely state that nowhere else is such a wealth of clear information available as in the Safety Razor Compendium.
Robert K. Waits has done a wonderful job: thanks for a great book!
© 2007 by Giovanni Abrate - All Rights Reserved