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Flinn's Klingtite Nonbreakable Shaving Mugs

This shaving mug came with the purchase of a Rubberset 400-4 this afternoon in Loveland, CO. It's not the first one I've seen in the wild, but I've never seen them mentioned on the forum and an interweb search has turned up very little - a couple of sold Etsy listings, and only a couple more ebay listings when looking back 10 years. Seems kinda rare/scarce.

The darn thing is hefty - 3.675 inches tall, 4.25 inches in diameter at the lip, and weighing in at 1lb 3oz!

Stamped on the bottom, which is hard to see in the photo, it says:
"FLINN'S KLINGTITE NONBREAKABLE SHAVING MUG" in an arc across the top of the circle,
"F. A. F. MFG. CO." in a smaller arc in the center,
"OMAHA, NEBR" straight across the bottom, so I suspect it is older than the Post Office's 2-letter state abbreviations,
"NO. 5" below Omaha,
"For No. 4 & 5 BRUSH" below that,
"PAT. PENDING" in an arc across the bottom of the circle.

Any clues about this mug?
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Never saw it before now, but it's good looking. Congratulations on your cool acquisition. :001_smile

I'm liking it so much I'm kicking myself for passing up on those I've seen along the way! Now I want more...

The irony is, I face lather <lol>
 
The Marvys are the only unbreakable ones I remember seeing. I love the Captain's Choice lather bowls but I dropped mine a couple nights ago and it broke. I have another one on the way but I should really try to get something, mug or bowl, that is unbreakable. Another vessel worth considering is a plastic salsa bowl that are available, almost everywhere, cost very little, and they work just fine. Out of necessity, I just used the one I have last night.
 
Wow, over one pound for a mug? While forearm is getting stronger due to lathering, the other arm is getting stronger by holding that mug.
 
The Marvys are the only unbreakable ones I remember seeing. I love the Captain's Choice lather bowls but I dropped mine a couple nights ago and it broke. I have another one on the way but I should really try to get something, mug or bowl, that is unbreakable. Another vessel worth considering is a plastic salsa bowl that are available, almost everywhere, cost very little, and they work just fine. Out of necessity, I just used the one I have last night.
Given that I got the Rubberset 400-4 and the mug for $30, I consider this mug to be free, too :thumbup1:

The CC bowl and the Shavemac bowl with the thumb grip are the 2 that would be at the top of my list - if I bowl lathered. But since I shave in the shower, I worry that any I bought would suffer the same fate as yours.

As they say, sorry for your loss...
 
Probably, your mug was distributed by the same Flinn that went by the moniker of Flinn the Razor King po box 370 Omaha Nebr. He was one of several people who sold razors and barber supplies in the early 1900's. I haven't found to much information regarding his business though.
 
Probably, your mug was distributed by the same Flinn that went by the moniker of Flinn the Razor King po box 370 Omaha Nebr. He was one of several people who sold razors and barber supplies in the early 1900's. I haven't found to much information regarding his business though.
Interesting!

Klingtite actually seems to be a Goodyear rubber belt brand name, Marvy is currently making a shaving mug with "Flinn Plastic", and you can get a Flinn Plastic Embedding Kit from Flinn Scientific Co, so I think I'm going to make a few phone calls over the next few days...
 
Just got off the phone with Scott Marvy, one of the 3 grandsons still running the William Marvy Company that their grandfather founded in 1922. Marvy is the "only remaining manufacturer of commercial barber poles in North America."

Bill Marvy (the founder) purchased the Flinn Company in the late 1940's and with the acquisition, picked up a line of unbreakable plastic/rubber shaving mugs and shampoo brushes. The tan mug they make today is made with "Flinn plastic", which Scott described as a brand name.

He did say that the original swirled Flinn mugs came in several different colors so - damn this new AD - I guess I feel a collection coming on. :blink:
 
I wish I could settle for just one, I feel another damn another AD kicking in :lol:
It did <LOL>

I picked up a second Flinn's Klingtite after a google search showed a listing in Texas for a twin of my first mug - a quick phone call, Paypal sent, mug and Ever-Ready brush arrived a week later. The very next day (of course), I saw an ebay listing for a pink swirl that carried the Marvy logo, owned by a retiring barber since he graduated from barber school in 1958. It was obviously cast in a different mold than the original Flinn's mugs and when it arrived, the Flinn's Plastic was certainly different than the Flinn's Klingtite mugs which feel much more like a very hard rubber.

So today, a solid green mug won on ebay arrived in the mail - I knew from the auction listing that it carried no branding information but it looked distinctly like the two originals. I had been told by Scott Marvy that they never produced any mugs without branding information on the bottom, but their mugs after the acquisition were clearly cast using different materials in different molds than the originals. Could the original brand owner have cast mugs after the sale, removing branding information to fly under the radar? Could he have sold the brand to Marvy but the molds to someone else? I wondered.

Rather than use calipers, I felt the best comparisons would be mug to mug - the dark green mug isn't swirled, just soap scum not yet cleaned up:
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Here's the best size comparison I could make - perfect match top and bottom, and I'm convinced they came from the same molds:
$100_1588.jpg

And finally, the difference between the original Flinn's, the unbranded, and the Marvy. The 2 Flinn's and the unbranded are made from the same material, while the Marvy is clearly different:
$100_1589.jpg

Makes me believe Mr. Flinn's molds continued production for some time after he sold the brand, though whether by him or someone else I'll never know.

Great mugs, btw...
 
Fun read. You're building a unique collection, that's for sure. Will be nice to see them after you clean them up.
 
Definitely a unique collection and good looking mugs.

I have a ceramic mug that looks similar in design that I picked up at an antique store. Nice mug, but I face lather as well so I just keep a puck of soap in it to load my brush.
 
Fun read. You're building a unique collection, that's for sure. Will be nice to see them after you clean them up.
Scott Marvy had told me they were made in different colors, but I've only seen pictures of the originals in green swirl, so I'm thinking the colors he remembers are after his grand-dad bought the brand. That said, I think I have enough - unless another color shows up at some point!
 
Definitely a unique collection and good looking mugs.

I have a ceramic mug that looks similar in design that I picked up at an antique store. Nice mug, but I face lather as well so I just keep a puck of soap in it to load my brush.
I fill mine with hot water as I step in the shower and put the razor in there to bring it up to temp - not crazy about cold steel on my face <lol> And I'll admit it's kinda silly to have a shaving mug collection when I face lather :lol:
 
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