Here is a slice of wartime shaving brush history from Popular Science, April 1943. I tripped over this while looking for something else, but immediately recognized the brush in the picture. These show up on ebay all the time, and now I know why: the USA Army ordered at least 2M of these, maybe more.
The article mentions that they dropped the usual brass ring and set the bristles in plastic instead of rubber, to save both materials for other uses. Sadly the article says nothing about the manufacturer. Some of the similar-looking brushes on ebay are marked Ever-Ready, but some are unmarked. Maybe the unmarked ones were military issue and the marked ones civilian? These may have been made to Army specification by multiple contractors, too.
The author is also silent on the source and nature of the bristles. From other sources I gather that boar bristles were normally an import, and that was a problem during wartime. From 1942-46 civilian use was restricted by something called "Order M-51". These Army brushes may have been exempt, or may have been horse hair or some other substitute. The ones on ebay mostly look like horse to me, but there are also some that look like boar. Anyway pictures can be deceptive. Does anyone know?
The article mentions that they dropped the usual brass ring and set the bristles in plastic instead of rubber, to save both materials for other uses. Sadly the article says nothing about the manufacturer. Some of the similar-looking brushes on ebay are marked Ever-Ready, but some are unmarked. Maybe the unmarked ones were military issue and the marked ones civilian? These may have been made to Army specification by multiple contractors, too.
The author is also silent on the source and nature of the bristles. From other sources I gather that boar bristles were normally an import, and that was a problem during wartime. From 1942-46 civilian use was restricted by something called "Order M-51". These Army brushes may have been exempt, or may have been horse hair or some other substitute. The ones on ebay mostly look like horse to me, but there are also some that look like boar. Anyway pictures can be deceptive. Does anyone know?
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