Steiger

[efsk]

For a long time I've had a razor that I didn't know what brand/modell it was. Both were printed on the head, but which was what? Then I found a razorlot on ebay that made things clear.

The thing that struck me immediately is the condition of the shipper: almost as new. Advertising the good Swiss machine, Steiger fast-safety-razors are unsurpassed, medals won in 1939. The black bakelite razor has a rather short, hollow handle, and a baseplate that reminds me of the Neo-* family of razors. Baseplate marked Steiger on one end, Patent on the other, cap marked "Fabrication Suisse 5". Now what's that 5 about ...

 

[efsk]

Now the razor that originally caused my confusion is this Steiger Pilot, of which I now know Pilot was the model. An all-brass razor, all plating has gone suggesting that was once silver (or gold, but I'll go for silver) with head that is adjustable in three positions, as are more German tilted slants. The interesting thing about this razor is that the top of the handle has a small cap on a spring. This adds to adjustability: you can now tighten the handle less, and the spring will keep the head in the correct tilted position, so you can play with both blade-gap and angle. 2D adjustability!

 

[gvw755]

Interesting razor. It tilts and adjusts blade gap. The base plate resembles the Neo series.

 

[Northstonehill]

Interesting. And the case is absolutely fabulous!

 

[efsk]

A new Steiger. Well, vintage, but new to me. Black plastic, angle adjustable. No springmechanism like the brass one above. I like how the teeth differentiate the baseplate from those of the Neo-*

 

[sɐǝɹpu∀]

I'm not sure if any of the following patents is the right one.
I could only find one "Steiger" inventing razors and he was Willi Steiger from... Switzerland.
The patents are even more reminiscent of the Neo-* razors:

Espacenet - Original document

worldwide.espacenet.com

Espacenet - Original document

worldwide.espacenet.com

Espacenet - Original document

worldwide.espacenet.com

 

[Clouds]

The interesting thing about this razor is that the top of the handle has a small cap on a spring. This adds to adjustability: you can now tighten the handle less, and the spring will keep the head in the correct tilted position, so you can play with both blade-gap and angle. 2D adjustability!
View attachment 15705

I'm curious.
Is the spring in the top of the handle pretty weak, because if its stronger than a DE blade it won't make this gap adjustable and would be for facilitating the changing of the head position without having to undo the handle.

If it's weaker then it needs to go onto my wishlist

 

[efsk]

I'm curious.
Is the spring in the top of the handle pretty weak, because if its stronger than a DE blade it won't make this gap adjustable and would be for facilitating the changing of the head position without having to undo the handle.

If it's weaker then it needs to go onto my wishlist

It is very weak. A small percentage of the strength of the spring in a Gibbs.

 

[efsk]

I'm not sure if any of the following patents is the right one.
I could only find one "Steiger" inventing razors and he was Willi Steiger from... Switzerland.
The patents are even more reminiscent of the Neo-* razors:

Espacenet - Original document

worldwide.espacenet.com

This patent describes my brass Steiger. The claim

"sämtliche Teile des Apparates unter Feder  druck in ihrer gegenseitigen Lage gesichert  werden, und dass der Abstand der   Klingensebneidkanten  von den Warzen der Klingen  auflageplatte durch mehr oder weniges   Spannen  der Druckfeder sich regulieren lässt."

shows that the spring is indeed meant to provide adjustability.
(Spelling-errors in the quoted patent-text thanks to the EU's crappy OCR.)

 

[sɐǝɹpu∀]

This patent describes my brass Steiger. The claim

"sämtliche Teile des Apparates unter Feder  druck in ihrer gegenseitigen Lage gesichert  werden, und dass der Abstand der   Klingensebneidkanten  von den Warzen der Klingen  auflageplatte durch mehr oder weniges   Spannen  der Druckfeder sich regulieren lässt."

shows that the spring is indeed meant to provide adjustability.
(Spelling-errors in the quoted patent-text thanks to the EU's crappy OCR.)

I'm glad I could find those with a very simple search.
Spelling mistakes will be fixed by my sophisticated OCR at a later point.
I need to do another improvement on my site first.

 

[Clouds]

This patent describes my brass Steiger. The claim shows that the spring is indeed meant to provide adjustability.
(Spelling-errors in the quoted patent-text thanks to the EU's crappy OCR.)

Awesome - it goes onto my wish list.

 

[sɐǝɹpu∀]

Here you go. The patent with proper good OCR and all the bells and whistles:

razors.page - CH226074

razors.page

Others coming later...

 

[sɐǝɹpu∀]

The first patent by Willi Steiger:

razors.page - CH191902

razors.page

 

[efsk]

Reading that patent, Willi Steiger patented the way the Neo-* razors clamp their heads on the handles. Interesting to see that so far, the only Steiger razors I've seen do not use this method, yet several other producers did.

 

[sɐǝɹpu∀]

Reading that patent, Willi Steiger patented the way the Neo-* razors clamp their heads on the handles. Interesting to see that so far, the only Steiger razors I've seen do not use this method, yet several other producers did.

Willi had other ideas on how to attach the head to the handle.
He put them into a separate patent (Zusatzpatent)

razors.page - CH209115

razors.page

This one is rather radical - quite a slant... Don't move the handle North-to-South with that one...