Travalong

[Jackk5]

I found this travel razor in a draw the other day, must have taken it home when cleaning out my parents home. The box says Travalong, by The Pak Company from Cleveland, Ohio. I have no idea how old it, but don't think it has ever been used. There are more photos in my gallery.

Jack

 

[BlackBard]

Very interesting. Perhaps this would get more attention in the razor forum.

 

[rider4life]

That's really cool. Nice and compact. How sturdy is it?

Cheers,

M.

 

[Jackk5]

I haven't used it, but it does feel solid.

That's really cool. Nice and compact. How sturdy is it?

Cheers,

M.

 

[Luc]

Merging threads as it was duplicate and moved to the safety razor section.

 

[MacDaddy]

I have a few of these that I bought as a curiosity. The assembly is a bit fiddly, but it does go together pretty firmly and having everything pack away to the size of a blade pack is pretty sweet. I've honestly never even given one of them a try, though. I'll see if I can't find the one that's not NOS and give it a go this morning.

 

[77TransAm]

Do they require that specific blade, or can they use any blade? It doesn't look like it would hold the blade in properly with a regular DE blade.

 

[MacDaddy]

Do they require that specific blade, or can they use any blade? It doesn't look like it would hold the blade in properly with a regular DE blade.

They take a standard DE blade. There are a couple of nubs in the guard plate on the outside of the two center holes that keep the blade lined up while you're fitting the handle, and once that's attached the prongs that reach through and hold everything together keep the blade solidly in place. I'll try to take some pics for you this evening.

I was rather pleasantly surprised this morning when I used mine this morning. It was a bit strange to use, but I can't argue at all with the results. I'm still feeling my face even now, and I wasn't even trying for BBS. I think the fact that the head puts barely any curve into the blade and that there's hardly anything to the cap at all together allow you to achieve an unusually low blade angle which makes the ATG pass extremely comfortable.

I don't know that I'll make it my go-to travel razor, but I'll certainly give it another go at least.

 

[Rob72]

I thoroughly enjoy mine! Like Mac, it isn't my first choice, but for a "good shaver" that I wouldn't be heartbroken in the loss, its perfect. Close shave, lasts about 6 hours for me (vs. ~10 hours with an Aristocrat, Wester Bros SE, etc..)

 

[MacDaddy]

Here you go. Here are some shots of the Travalong assembled and the breakdown process. I also included one of the head opened up so you could see how the blade sits inside.

I'm at not quite 11 hours since shaving this morning and I'm only now starting to feel the very hints of stubble in my more troublesome spots.

 

[MacDaddy]

I think I'm finished experimenting with the Travalong for now -- I want to get back over into SEptember and our Gem Junior SROTM.

I'm sort of torn on this razor. Using it really does feel like you've fashioned a razor out of an erector set, but it's not at all unpleasant and the results are really unbelievably good. BBS is ridiculously easy to achieve even without trying, really. And when I actually payed attention and went for BBS everywhere, I didn't start feeling stubble until I was getting ready for bed that night, which is not at all normal for my beard. I've got a trip to London coming up and I'm actually considering taking this along as my razor. Given its size I could certainly pack it as a second razor without noticing it.

 

[ArNav]

James Bond razor.

 

[mlzettl]

I thought I would resurrect this thread after trying a Travalong. A few weeks back, a friend of mine gave me a Travalong razor in the case. I didn't think much of it at the time, and he didn't know what it actually was. In all honesty, neither did I when I first took it out of the case. Giving it a cursory look, I thought it was some type of re-loadable blade holder. The other day I took it out to look at it more closely, and realized that it was actually a travel razor. I found this thread and thought it would be useful to post my experience shaving with it.

Just the concept of a small travel razor is something that I don't really understand. I mean, how big is a regular DE that it cannot be packed for travel? But, that is another subject, so I won't dwell on it. If nothing else, the Travalong is a very clever, inventive solution to compressing a DE into about as small a package as one could imagine.

Assembly, as previously noted, is a bit fussy, but once it is all together it is surprisingly sturdy. Notice I did not use the word "solid." This is made of stamped sheet metal. The base and top plates are nearly flat, leaving the blade with little to no curve. It weighs only 23.4 grams, and that is with the blade installed. That's not much, only a bit more than the amount of espresso I dose for a triple shot.

Now on to the shave. After my usual prep and lathering, and loading up a new Personna Lab Blue, I proceeded with a WTG pass. It took a bit of adjustment of the angle of attack, with the result being that the face plate is almost parallel with the skin due to the lack of curvature of the blade. I could live with that, and it wasn't too difficult. What was most noticeable was the effort. The lack of weight required almost a pulling motion to move the blade through the whiskers. Also, the lack of mass resulted in very little dampening effect, and the cutting could be felt kind of vibrating the entire razor. A careful ATG pass resulted in a passable shave, but by no means BBS or even DFS. I had only one very small nick at this point, so I decided to quit while I was ahead.

I have never really given much thought to the weight or mass of a razor and the effects on the comfort and effectiveness of the shave. Increased mass provides some inertia, a property that I would not normally associate with the physics of shaving, but I think it is noticeable here, or at least the lack of inertia is noticeable. Also, the dampening effect of more mass now has new meaning to me.

In summary, the Travalong is an interesting bit of DE shaving history, and a testament to the creativity of the inventor. It would make an nice addition to a collection devoted to all of the various iterations of the DE razor. However, I will not be adding it to my travel kit, and I think I have probably shaved with it for the last time.

Matt