Stumbled over this razor in a norwegian online antique store.
It's a Kleen razor from 1941, new in packing.
It's a Kleen razor from 1941, new in packing.
Anyone who knows this razor?
- Thread starter Zephyr
- Start date
Waits Compendium shows that razor, country of origin is England with a question mark by it. comes in a cardboard box depicting the razor with inserts to hold it in place. Also comes with 3 Kleen branded blades.
Looks like this guy's razor:
I'm going to hazard a guess that the packaging helped contribute to the razor's demise. The handle looks like it separates in stages for a close shave at every level of the atmosphere.
I found 2 of these at a local antique store, both in the original boxes, and with unused blades, i did post on here but had no real answers on the razors, so i did a bit of digging on the net, and came up with a few things, they were made by a company called swann, later to become swann morton
http://www.swann-morton.com/
i e mailed the company saying i had a de razor by them, and had a reply basically saying"we did produce a de razor in the fifties for a couple of years, to go along with the blades we used to manufacture, i will send you out a booklet on the history of our company", which they did.
This company called swann was started by a gentleman who had very strong socalist beliefs, and believed in treating his workforce fairly, and for the time, very well, he was an engineer, and started producing steel in sheffield and turned to making double edge razor blades, and this is where he made his money, invested this money into a new factory and his workforce, he did this by paying them a profit of his company on a yearly basis, setting up a pension scheme, paid holidays, building houses for his workers, paying maternity leave, and building a school for the children of his workers, and before the war was the biggest manufacturer of de blades in the uk with a state of the art factory, he was then involved with world war 2, when he was called upon by the british goverment to produse steel for the war, and after the war continued to produce de blades, and according to the book, this is when he decided to produce his de razor, he wanted something for sale to use with the blades he was producing for other companies, but by the end of the 50's the tax for producing and exporting his blades saw the profits drop and getting older, he passed the business onto his son who looked elsewhere for products to sell and went into producing surgical blades for the medical world, where again they were a success, and finally sold out to a company called morton, who kept the swann part of the name, as it stood for quality, and apparently, this company is a leading supplier of medical blades in the world today, still being made on the same site as the razor blade factory stood
ps, still have not tried this razor yet!
http://www.swann-morton.com/
i e mailed the company saying i had a de razor by them, and had a reply basically saying"we did produce a de razor in the fifties for a couple of years, to go along with the blades we used to manufacture, i will send you out a booklet on the history of our company", which they did.
This company called swann was started by a gentleman who had very strong socalist beliefs, and believed in treating his workforce fairly, and for the time, very well, he was an engineer, and started producing steel in sheffield and turned to making double edge razor blades, and this is where he made his money, invested this money into a new factory and his workforce, he did this by paying them a profit of his company on a yearly basis, setting up a pension scheme, paid holidays, building houses for his workers, paying maternity leave, and building a school for the children of his workers, and before the war was the biggest manufacturer of de blades in the uk with a state of the art factory, he was then involved with world war 2, when he was called upon by the british goverment to produse steel for the war, and after the war continued to produce de blades, and according to the book, this is when he decided to produce his de razor, he wanted something for sale to use with the blades he was producing for other companies, but by the end of the 50's the tax for producing and exporting his blades saw the profits drop and getting older, he passed the business onto his son who looked elsewhere for products to sell and went into producing surgical blades for the medical world, where again they were a success, and finally sold out to a company called morton, who kept the swann part of the name, as it stood for quality, and apparently, this company is a leading supplier of medical blades in the world today, still being made on the same site as the razor blade factory stood
ps, still have not tried this razor yet!
- Thread starter
- #6
I found 2 of these at a local antique store, both in the original boxes, and with unused blades, i did post on here but had no real answers on the razors, so i did a bit of digging on the net, and came up with a few things, they were made by a company called swann, later to become swann morton
http://www.swann-morton.com/
i e mailed the company saying i had a de razor by them, and had a reply basically saying"we did produce a de razor in the fifties for a couple of years, to go along with the blades we used to manufacture, i will send you out a booklet on the history of our company", which they did.
This company called swann was started by a gentleman who had very strong socalist beliefs, and believed in treating his workforce fairly, and for the time, very well, he was an engineer, and started producing steel in sheffield and turned to making double edge razor blades, and this is where he made his money, invested this money into a new factory and his workforce, he did this by paying them a profit of his company on a yearly basis, setting up a pension scheme, paid holidays, building houses for his workers, paying maternity leave, and building a school for the children of his workers, and before the war was the biggest manufacturer of de blades in the uk with a state of the art factory, he was then involved with world war 2, when he was called upon by the british goverment to produse steel for the war, and after the war continued to produce de blades, and according to the book, this is when he decided to produce his de razor, he wanted something for sale to use with the blades he was producing for other companies, but by the end of the 50's the tax for producing and exporting his blades saw the profits drop and getting older, he passed the business onto his son who looked elsewhere for products to sell and went into producing surgical blades for the medical world, where again they were a success, and finally sold out to a company called morton, who kept the swann part of the name, as it stood for quality, and apparently, this company is a leading supplier of medical blades in the world today, still being made on the same site as the razor blade factory stood
ps, still have not tried this razor yet!
Thanks for some interesting reading.
I have not bought this razor yet, but they've got seven of them in stock, so i don't think I need to hurry.
I found 2 of these at a local antique store, both in the original boxes, and with unused blades, i did post on here but had no real answers on the razors, so i did a bit of digging on the net, and came up with a few things, they were made by a company called swann, later to become swann morton
http://www.swann-morton.com/
i e mailed the company saying i had a de razor by them, and had a reply basically saying"we did produce a de razor in the fifties for a couple of years, to go along with the blades we used to manufacture, i will send you out a booklet on the history of our company", which they did.
This company called swann was started by a gentleman who had very strong socalist beliefs, and believed in treating his workforce fairly, and for the time, very well, he was an engineer, and started producing steel in sheffield and turned to making double edge razor blades, and this is where he made his money, invested this money into a new factory and his workforce, he did this by paying them a profit of his company on a yearly basis, setting up a pension scheme, paid holidays, building houses for his workers, paying maternity leave, and building a school for the children of his workers, and before the war was the biggest manufacturer of de blades in the uk with a state of the art factory, he was then involved with world war 2, when he was called upon by the british goverment to produse steel for the war, and after the war continued to produce de blades, and according to the book, this is when he decided to produce his de razor, he wanted something for sale to use with the blades he was producing for other companies, but by the end of the 50's the tax for producing and exporting his blades saw the profits drop and getting older, he passed the business onto his son who looked elsewhere for products to sell and went into producing surgical blades for the medical world, where again they were a success, and finally sold out to a company called morton, who kept the swann part of the name, as it stood for quality, and apparently, this company is a leading supplier of medical blades in the world today, still being made on the same site as the razor blade factory stood
ps, still have not tried this razor yet!
That is very good information! You should write this up for the B&B wiki, for sure! Excellent history.
- Thread starter
- #8
Dont know how to do that, thanks for the comments guys.
