Davies Rythmic adjustable, made 1930s in Glasgow, Scotland

[Northstonehill]

As we want this site to be complete I wanted to post this here also.

The razor & case
According to Waits the Davies Rythmic was patented in the UK on 15 january 1936 by William James Davies, British patent number 466228. And it was subsequently manufactured at the Davies Razor Company, Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street in Glasgow Scotland. Material is nickel plated brass and it weighs in at 74 grams.

This strange beast takes standard blades and is an adjustable. Below I have attached a link to a short video I made to show the adjustment and loading functionality. It is quite unique: The bottom plate lowers and then rotates 90 degrees so that you can load the blade. Reversing the action pushes the blade upwards and flexes it and thereby giving it rigidity. There is a dial just above the opening knob where you do the adjusting. The adjustability is infinite like on a Gibbs or a L’Essor Le Supreme.




This specimen Is in superb original condition as is the gorgeous original bakelite case with stainless steel hinge. Actually, that bakelite case is the coolest thing I ever saw. Never saw thicker bakelite and it closes like a bank vault.Only things missing to the set are the cream colored blade banks, but who is counting - this sucker is incredibly hard to find, I have counted only 3 or 4 others mentioned in various shaving websites.

In hand
Somehow the design and feel is much more simple in real life than when looking at it in a photo. In photos it looks complicated and overengineered, but in hand it seems wonderfully simple and well balanced. 74 grams of intriguing mechanics. At first glance it looks a little frail with those thin ‘arms’ and I immediately started worrying about dropping it. But in hand it actually feels solid, sturdy and really well made.

The shave
Two 3-pass shaves down so far, both with full tightened/lowest adjustability level and loaded with a Feather blade.

My first shaves really has confirmed what others have noted, that this is a unique razor like no one else:

• Very strange but you only have blade feel (which I am no fan of!), lots of it, you do not feel the bars at all - but actually it still feels very safe and mild. Quite curious why that is?
• Lots of audio feedback - which I like
• Great balance, great weight, and significantly: awesome grip!
• Takes a bit of time to relearn manoeuvering as it is quite wide, but no issue after first pass
• However not good around the nose at first try, haha (but my nose technique is not good anyway)
• Not easy to clean after use (if you are a stickler like me)

In conclusion this is indeed a remarkable razor. It will probably not make my rotation every week but it will be an awesome and fun digression that I am certain to bring out every so often for variety, just like the Darwins.

 

[Tjebbe]

Wow! Beautiful!

 

[UnShaven]

Looks more like a torture device then a razor.

 

[efsk]

I think this is an awesome machine. I want one.

 

[ehv]

Thanks for sharing

 

[gvw755]

Darn it Peter, another razor that I will have to search for for a long time and then not having enough funds in my retirement account to pay for one.

Great looking razor though.

 

[Northstonehill]

Thanks a lot, friends, yes for sure a razor which look like nothing else

 

[pj3r]

Wow! Very interesting!

 

[Clouds]

Congrats awesome addition to your collection..

 

[The King]

Fantastic device, to see he could have shone in an SF flim.

 

[Snowbeard]

I've seen some examples of this razor where one of the guards has broken off, which is a terrible shame to see.

I guess these guards are a vulnerable point on the razor. Like the cobalt steel Darwin, drop it and you might be sorry!

Having been lucky enough to acquire 2 of these, I can see only one real difference (the condition is a little different between the razors as well). The bulkiness of the guards is a tiny bit different. The blade gap in the "minimum closed position" also appears to be slightly affected by this guard sizing difference. I don't believe this difference impinges in any way with the shaving experience. Thought I'd point this interesting aspect out.

 

[efsk]

Thanks for showing. And the little differences you point out are of immense importance to some of us collectors so I for one am happy to see them. Now to acquire only one of those ...

 

[Snowbeard]

Thanks for showing. And the little differences you point out are of immense importance to some of us collectors so I for one am happy to see them. Now to acquire only one of those ...

Thanks Richard. That's what I was thinking. How else would information like this ever become available (and be preserved) for the future?