The history of the Schick Injector safety razor and innovation from Parker

Parker's new injector adjustable traditional shaver and the history of traditional Schick shavers

Schick razors have been around for quit some time and by any chance it’s quite possible you have at least one Schick injector in your den. The history of Schick is an interesting one.

A few words about Jacob Schick

U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Schick retired from the military in 1910, but returned to service at the start of World War I.

The invention of the Schick Injector traditional safety razor

In 1921 Colonel Schick invented the Magazine Repeating Razor (or Type A).Inspired by the loading action of the semiautomatic rifle he used in World War 1, Lt. Col. Schick invented a razor that was loaded quickly and easily using a “magazine” of razor blades.

This pack of blades inserted into the side of a specially designed handle so that as a new blade was inserted, the old was ejected. The blades were stored in the handle and loaded when the head was flipped down and a blade inserted into the head of the razor. The head could then be flipped perpendicular to the body for a shave. The Type A went into production in 1926.

In 1927, Colonel Schick sold all of his interests in the Magazine Repeating Razor Company to the president of the American Chain and Cable Company. During this time, the first injector safety razor was created, the Type D, or the Schick Injector Razor. This has a traditional T shape and an external injector system for blades, or key system.

Meanwhile, Colonel Jacob Schick became a Canadian citizen in 1935 to avoid an investigation by the Joint Congressional Committee on Tax Evasion & Avoidance after he moved most of his wealth to a series of holding companies in the Bahamas.

The company was then acquired by Eversharp, Inc. in 1946 and renamed the company Schick Safety Razor Company. However, the American Chain and Cable Company continued to produce the razors for Schick until 1958 when Schick set up their own manufacturing facility in Connecticut.

Schick became the first company to sell stainless steel blades coated in Teflon and where also the first to successfully deposit a thin layer of chromium onto the blade, which made the blades more durable.

Dating Schick razors is an easy task. When the bakelite handles were introduced in 1936, the outward appearance of the razors changed very little until the mid-1950’s. 

A brief updating and restyling period lasted until the late 1960’s, then very little changed until the late 1990’s. Due to the long periods of little change, and a lack of serial numbers, it is more difficult to date Schick injectors. 

While specific dates are difficult to determine, Schick did use manufacturing codes since the 1960s. The plastic cases produced since the 1950’s have dates built into the manufacturing codes.

The return of the injector safety razors

Certainly Colonel Jacob Schick' s innovation was something original for the time but he could never have imagined that his original creation would become a legend for many centuries after and with the return of traditional shaving it would inspire the manufacturers of traditional razors to are based on the traditional safety razor to make similar traditional injector safety razor.

One of these companies is the Parker Safety Razor Company which attempted to bring back this model of the traditional razor with a new, modern design.

Established since 1973, Parker Safety Razor is a world leader in the innovation and design of traditional safety razors.

This family business creates handcrafted shaving and grooming products that are manufactured to the highest standards while undergoing extensive mechanical testing and quality control.

In particular, Parker' s traditional safety razor is called INJRZR Parker Adjustable Injector Safety Razor and its construction has, as we mentioned above, the patent of Colonel Jacob Schick, while its design is more modern to meet today' s criteria and preferences of traditional shavers.

It is made of stainless steel with a handle that has a ribbed plastic part for a non-slip grip. The INJRZR Parker Adjustable Injector safety razor works exactly the same way as traditional Schick safety razors.

The blade holder/holder is called the Injector and the sliding tab on top is called the "Blade Loader". The part that goes into the traditional razor to load the blade is called the insertion key.

To insert the new blade the process is simple, with the help of the Injector Razor Blades blade insertion system based on the Schick model.

Hold the traditional safety razor by the handle with the head facing up with one hand and insert the insertion key into the traditional safety razor head slot opening at the back of the head with your other hand using gentle force.

Slide the blade loader all the way forward to insert a new blade into the traditional safety razor. At the same time, this will push the old blade out of the traditional safety razor.

Pull the replacement blade injector out of the Parker traditional shaver after inserting the new blade.

However, as we mentioned above, the design of the machine may have been based on the traditional Schick safety razor, but because the demands are now greater, the Parker company proceeded with a new innovation that changes the game for traditional and not only shaving: it made the injector safety razor adjustable.

Parker's innovation in its injector safety razor

With the adjustable lever located at the back of the safety razor head, one can adjust the aggressiveness of the Parker adjustable injector safety razor, adjusting the shaving method to their own preferences, making the shaving experience unique.

So we have a traditional safety razor with the technology of the 21st century, a combination that will surely fascinate lovers of traditional shaving and pique the interest of the rest since changing the blade is now an easy and quick process while adjusting the aggressiveness helps to customization of the shaving experience with a single blade, making it the ideal solution even for people with very sensitive skin.

It should be mentioned that precisely because the blades with the injection blade system are hard to find, the Parker company took care to manufacture, based on the Schick injector blades model, its own Parker blades injector that contains 20 replacement shaving blades, thus freeing the hands of those who would be interested in purchasing the adjustable injector traditional safety razor or already own such a traditional safety razor and are having trouble finding replacement injector blades.

Whatever we say, two things are certain: Firstly, the story of Schick and his ground breaking creation revolutionized how people shave for many decades, inspiring the next generations of manufacturers to design and produce similar models since the demand was high and still is.

Second, such a traditional, and modern safety razor is definitely worth a try and will give shavers a unique traditional shaving experience.