What's new

American Safety Razor Company

Introduction


The American Safety Razor Company, founded in the early 20th century (1906) by a merging of the Gem Safety Razor Co. and Ever-Ready, has been the principal competitor to Gillette for a century and more. At various times, incarnations of the ASR have produced PAL, GEM, and Bump-Fighter razors and the Treet, PAL, and Personna brands of blades. They currently own the Bond-America Israel Blades, Inc. company as well, that manufactures some of the Personna-branded DE blades. The company produces a wide range of blades and cutting tools.

History


The Kampfe brothers, who patented the first safety razor in the US, formed a manufacturing company in 1875. They make the "Star" razor. It was the first safety razor made in the United States. The Star Razor's revolutionary design won national and international awards for design and craftsmanship. In 1898, after working for the Kampfe Brothers for 23 years, an employee, Jerry Reichard, left to form the Gem Cutlery company, later renamed the Gem Safety Razor Company. Its first product, the Gem Safety Razor, borrowed heavily from the Star Razor in design but soon outpaced the Star and became one of the world's most famous razor and blades ever made. Reichard, the founder of Gem — left again to form the Yankee company, which was soon renamed the Ever-Ready Company. Ever-Ready and Gem quickly re-merged as the American Safety Razor Company, in 1906. In 1919, they absorbed the Star brand as well. The company purchased the PAL blade company in 1953. Philip Morris purchased the company in 1960. Philip Morris purchased Burma-Vita company (makers of Burma-Shave) in 1968. ASR bought the Burma-Shave brand from Philip Morris in 1979, after a management buyout of ASR from Philip Morris in 1976.

In 2011 American Safety Razor filed for bankruptcy, and Energizer acquired its brands and assets.[1] Energizer then spun off the personal products division as Edgewell Personal Care, including Personna and other ASR brands. On 2015-09-01 Edgewell Personal Care announced the sale of the Personna Industrial Division to AccuTec Blades, Inc.[2]

Blades

Treet


Carbon steel blade (possibly ptfe-coated) manufactured by ASRCO, stamped 009RD on the spine (not the same as the DE blades manufactured in in Pakistan currently, although licensed under the same trademark)

Personna


DE Platinum blades, and Platinum Chrome Injector. Crystals and Navarro drug store brand; possibly Red Pack Israelis. Several marques of cartridge razors and disposables are also produced using the Personna brand name. They were also produced for the United States Government under contract up until the 1970s.

Exchange Select


DE blades made under contract to the Army and Air Force Exchange Service under the "Exchange Select" AAFES brand.

PAL

Injector and SE blades

GEM


Blue Star and Stainless Steel SE blades.

Brushes

Ever-Ready

This page has been seen 61,906 times.

Recent Activity

Icon Legend

  • Normal page
  • Color code

    • Content has new updates
    • Content has no updates

Share This Page

Top Bottom