I continue to pare down the collection, so I am reluctantly selling my Wilkinson “Sticky.” I believe the design looks like something by Raymond Loewy, but it is in fact by Sir Kenneth Henry Grange, CBE, PPFCSD, RDI, and was patented in 1968. (See this post for more information, including the original 1968 patent.) The razor did win several design awards when it came out in the 1960s, right about the time that Wilkinson Sword DE blades started to eat Gillette’s lunch. (Wilkinson pioneered the use of coatings for the new stainless steel blades, which made all the difference in the world: the uncoated stainless blades sold by Gillette were rough and harsh in comparison, and ultimately Gillette had to license the coating technology from Wilkinson, which gave Gillette the push to bring out the multiblade cartridge razor, starting with just two blades: technology that Gillette owned and patented.)
From the Wikipedia article on Grange:
One quality of much of Grange’s design work is that it is not based on just the styling of a product. His design concepts arise from a fundamental reassessment of the purpose, function and use of the product. He has also said that his attitude to designing any product is that he wants it to be “a pleasure to use”. Grange was a pioneer of user-centred design, in seeking to eliminate what he sees as the “contradictions” inherent in products that fail to embody ease-of-use.
Grange designed products with the goal that the product should be pleasure to use, and with this razor he definitely met the goal.
Filed under: Shaving
