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The Cowan

Hey folks!

I took possession of this weirdo today. I haven't found a post on B&B about it, so sharing it here in SE where it belongs! If any of you have experience with this razor, I would love to hear about it.

Here is the patent info for The Cowan Hair Trimmer and Safety Razor. It's a single edge razor with the following features:

Adjustable length baseplate
Adjustable angle baseplate
Pivoting handle
Can be a safety razor

Here is the razor in what I call Hatchet Mode. The handle is screwed into a pivoting arm here, and all the way against the size of the razor. This prevents the handle from moving. It can be either on the right or left side. It will not lock anywhere else. To switch sides, you would loosen the handle, flip it to the other side, and lock it back down.

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Same configuration, showing the bottom of the baseplate, and the thumbscrew which holds both the blade and baseplate.

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Here is the pivot arm, and channel that it runs within the top cap.

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Handle removed, with the pivoting arm sticking up for view.

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Fully disassembled. This shows the top of the baseplate, top of the top cap with arm exposed, handle, thumbscrew.

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Fully disassembed. Bottom of the baseplate, inside of the top cap with arm exposed, handle, thumbscrew.

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Safety razor mode! Handle is inserted where the thumbscrew used to be, holding the baseplate and blade. Thumbscrew where the handle used to be, holding the pivot arm down. Baseplate moved back to allow blade exposure.

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Sadly, this one did not come with a blade. They are proprietary, and I don't think a SE blade can be modified to fit. Here's a DE blade laying on the baseplate, for scale.

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The blades have a hole punched through them for the thumbscrew or handle to hold. They also have two notches in them, for the two notches on the underside of the top cap. Here's at least one of the wrappers for these blades.

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Here's an old advertisement for this transformer.

Cowan Hair Cutter Advert.png


If you have any questions or would like any additional pictures, please let me know!
 

Chandu

I Waxed The Badger.
That's just darn cool. It's got to be rare, the SE site I occasionally visit has nothing on it and nor does razors.click which is a good reference for almost all that is SE
 
R

romsitsa

The comb looks to be adjustable. With a little luck and getting rid of the diamond shape of the slot, a DE blade could work.

Adam
 
Well, things just turn a turn for the interesting. I snagged a different Cowan. This one has blades!

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Stropper, handle, head assembled, blade bank with blades.

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Head disassembled (showing the bottoms of each part) + the handle and thumbscrew.

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Blades for the Cowan shown at the time. These fit both Cowans that I have.

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Assembled. Looks like an Alien queen.

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The cutting length is entirely adjustable, including placing a slant (as shown).

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I'll work up the nerve to give these a go!
 
Looks like they simplified the design to meet the surging demand. The guy in the ad looks pretty excited.

I’ll be watching this space to see how the Cowan worked for you. Just remember that Emergency Rooms may be pretty busy soon.

:thumbup1:
 
Well, things just turn a turn for the interesting. I snagged a different Cowan. This one has blades!

View attachment 1078117

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Stropper, handle, head assembled, blade bank with blades.

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Head disassembled (showing the bottoms of each part) + the handle and thumbscrew.

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Blades for the Cowan shown at the time. These fit both Cowans that I have.

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Assembled. Looks like an Alien queen.

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The cutting length is entirely adjustable, including placing a slant (as shown).

View attachment 1078125

I'll work up the nerve to give these a go!

Been a while, how did it go?
 
The blades I have are not shave sharp, and I don’t hone. 😭
What? with all those razors and you didn't get to honing? Just kidding, me too. I'll be buying four stones and three dollar razors from Aliexpress to practice on (I'm not gonna risk my vintage SE blades). Just after I get my 10-20 razors in my wish list.
 
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