Souplex Owners Club

[Alum Ladd]

Any Souplex owners out there?

In honour of a superb and somewhat overlooked English vintage beauty, I propose that the Souplex Owners Club is now in being!

A fantastic, beautifully designed epitome of the art deco style of razor, made in the 1930's in Morcombe, Lancashire.

My most efficient and easy to use OC, which even bests my Piccolo and Gillette News by some margin. There, I've said it.

Any owners and or admirers of this lovely little razor, please drop a post!

 

[Shaveprentice]

Beautiful Razor!

 

[lasta]

Not sure about the razor. It does look like something I wouldn't mind having in my collection!

But you seem to have opened your Arko from the wrong end!

 

[Alum Ladd]

But you seem to have opened your Arko from the wrong end!

This way I get to see Arko!man from a whole new perspective, and it baffles the opposition.

I would very much recommend you get one @lasta, a fantastic little shaver and still quite obscure, so affordable.

I think Souplex also made the BigBen brand.

 

[Ratpoison10]

I’m in. My father passed his down to me when he had to switch to carts due to tremors. He was born in Leigh, Lancashire, England in the late 30s.
Too bad more is not known about these razors. Mild to medium aggressive but efficient comfortable shaves. Weighting 58g & nickel plated, they make excellent addition to any collection.

 

[timetofly]

Looking at some 9 year old posts, I know there a few owners out there.

I might add that they are still active posters/members

 

[Alum Ladd]

I’m in. My father passed his down to me when he had to switch to carts due to tremors. He was born in Leigh, Lancashire, England in the late 30s.
Too bad more is not known about these razors. Mild to medium aggressive but efficient comfortable shaves. Weighting 58g & nickel plated, they make excellent addition to any collection.

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Hi @Ratpoison10 welcome!

Is your handle solid or hollow? Interesting because mine is hollow-handled, and comes in at 40gm, a lovely lightweight OC!

Just completed a fantastic shave with mine.

 

[zoidberg]

I have a Souplex Bakelite razor I really like. It's very mild though, but a lovely razor paired with a sharp blade. I will post up a picture of it soon.

 

[Ratpoison10]

Is your handle solid or hollow?

My fathers handle is solid. I did find a hollow handle in an antique store a few years back. That one came with a case. I believe that weights 48g.

 

[Ratpoison10]

I did find a hollow handle in an antique store a few years back. That one came with a case. I believe that weights 48g.

Sorry, just weighed the hollow handle I got 41g

 

[purecro]

Well here goes, scouring thru the internet I thought to myself "Surely there must best be a way to acquire this razor at a decent price, I know I am in the USA but surely I can find someway". I did find something on etsy but it was a whole travel pack with the razor, mind you shipping from the UK, I asked the seller just about the razor and understandably he said he could not find another that would fit that travel pack, I understood no problems there.

I would look here and there and then I stumbled upon it "Why not instead of going on ebay.com go onto ebay.co.uk" and yea there it was a Souplex, not a measly paragon or big ben but an actual Souplex. The seller did not have it as being able to ship to the USA but before I placed my bid I asked said seller "Can you ship to the USA?" He said "Yes I can via global shipping program".

Ok cool I thought I then put a bid in with confidence. I watched it all day, not literally but till 100pm here my time. I won the bid! Then came time to pay, mind you based on other razors being shipped from the UK i figured I would pay like £20 or something like this, £7.50 for said razor. I figured i would pay around this a cheap RAD acquisition as some other prices I saw were too much imho for this as RAD and I have had many talks.

Well said seller does send invoice, for super fast ebay delivery but..... double what I expected to pay! All that being said in my own dumb way as I didn't want to cancel the order and get some type of ebay ding against me, never had 1, want to sell a few things so yea. If you read this post thanks as it was therapeutic for me to write out. Now yea I can say I am a Souplex owner. Thanks for reading this all (If you didn't I dont blame you).

Ps I take no responsibility for my actions in this acquisition. RAD makes you do funny things.

 

[purecro]

Yes I wanted you to read this first and blame you @Alum Ladd but I figured I would post first rofl. All in good humor of course, I dont blame you.

I saw one of the Souplex from I think Canada on etsy but it was not in the best shape, sometimes on ebay they post good but not great pictures but this one looked good to me, I didnt want an oxidized handle, the one I bought, even has a carrying case with it!

My question to the owners of a Souplex, the handle is made of what? I think I read it somewhere but forgot then the guard and cap, what are they made of? I ask only because not now but in the future if I decide to do a replate is it possible. Also, can a standard threaded handle go on there or is the thread a tad smaller? Thanks in advance.

 

[Alum Ladd]

Razor: Souplex OC Hollow Handle
Blade: Gillette Platinum
Cream: Proraso Red
Brush: Simpson's Duke 1 Pure Badger
A/S Balm: Nivea Sensitive

Been shaving with the Souplex for 3 weeks constantly now, and have been greatly impressed by it's versatility, performance and sheer beauty.

It's the kind of razor that will just as easily remove six days growth or deal with the daily shave with the gentleness and good manners of a Tech. A remarkably well balanced and excellent shaver, which seems to behave well at a very wide range of angles. Light, nippy, highly manoeverable, and depending on blade choice, a mild daily OC Tech-like experience or a heavy lifter for multiple days growth.

I think I may have found my ideal razor.

A great shave tonight, the Souplex dealt with a two day growth which was getting a little wiry with ease and charm. I just find it a hugely fun and enjoyable razor to use. I keep thinking Tech when I use it, but the Souplex is to my face, an efficiency heavyweight.

The best of both worlds, so I am not complaining!

Highly recommended in anyone's den.

 

[Alum Ladd]

Yes I wanted you to read this first and blame you @Alum Ladd but I figured I would post first rofl. All in good humor of course, I dont blame you.

I saw one of the Souplex from I think Canada on etsy but it was not in the best shape, sometimes on ebay they post good but not great pictures but this one looked good to me, I didnt want an oxidized handle, the one I bought, even has a carrying case with it!

My question to the owners of a Souplex, the handle is made of what? I think I read it somewhere but forgot then the guard and cap, what are they made of? I ask only because not now but in the future if I decide to do a replate is it possible. Also, can a standard threaded handle go on there or is the thread a tad smaller? Thanks in advance.

I suspect the hollow handle is made from quite a heavy alumium and the cap and base are both made from brass.

Due to the weight difference, the solid handle may be brass, but not having one, unsure.

Mine is very richly and well plated in chrome, almost looks NOS.

I will dig around to see if there is any additional information on them. There is a British 1934 patent which they seemed to have in terms of design, and contemporary Souplex advertising described them as "Combless" in the bakelite box. Interesting. They certainly feel the least 'comby' OC razor I have ever used.

 

[purecro]

Ok thanks for the information as always. I am in no rush to replate but just in case in the future, right now I would not feel any need to at all, want to see the shape its in and most importantly how it shaves.

 

[Alum Ladd]

I suspect the hollow handle is made from quite a heavy alumium and the cap and base are both made from brass.

Due to the weight difference, the solid handle may be brass, but not having one, unsure.

Mine is very richly and well plated in chrome, almost looks NOS.

I will dig around to see if there is any additional information on them. There is a British 1934 patent which they seemed to have in terms of design, and contemporary Souplex advertising described them as "Combless" in the bakelite box. Interesting. They certainly feel the least 'comby' OC razor I have ever used.

Sorry, I meant to say nickel plated. Excellent plating and overall build quality is superb.

There seem to be some little design quirks with the head going on. The head exposing the blade seems to be subtly angled. The blade seems gently angled upwards, this is on both sides. Rather like a a very gentle frown this is much exaggerated but there is something going on with the head design here. From examination mine appears almost NOS so no damage or any apparent dinging of my example. It seems inherent in the head design.

Is this the 'combless' claim and the 1934 patent? Blade exposure is noticably but not hugely more than the Fatip Piccolo Mk 2. It has pins but they are very shallow. Blade rigidity is remarkable. It gives a surprisingly smooth shave for an OC. In my experience with many OC's now, the smoothest I have experienced. Efficiency is well up there. It seems to like shallow angles. It really does not feel like an OC at all.

I reweighed mine. It comes in at 41gm.

I will take some closeup pics of the blade exposure and angles when I have time.

 

[purecro]

Thanks for the information. We will see when I get it what kind of shape its in. For the most part it looks good except not sure if the full "Souplex" letters are there where the "S" might be worn off of it, hard to tell by the picture the seller took but this is what intrigued me about the razor is the feedback provided about it.

 

[zoidberg]

Here is my little bakelite Souplex.

It's the mildest razor I own, but I like it nonetheless.

 

[Kaldane]

Here's a hollow handle one I picked up on line recently. Very good shaver.

 

[purecro]

Well after voyage over the pond, thru the many hurdles, it has arrived, I will post the pictures for it but its in super shape, I must say, no need to replate this thing! Just want to clean when I got time later tonight but yea, it is here!