Here in could ramble on about the old razors excellence and the modern equivalents un-usability, but in think I've made my opinion clear on that subject.

A quick historic résumé:

A chap with the name King Camp Gillette would like to develop a way to shave with a considerable less risk of getting cut, and where you didn't have to do a lot of work to keep it sharp. At that time, around 1900, the way to shave was with a straight razor.

He developed a system, where the blade was exchangeable and put in a holder so the blade wasn't out in "open air" so to speak. The system was a razor with a razor blade and was called a DE-razor for Double Edge as you had to edges at your disposal during the shave. He applied for a patent on the system in 1904 and got it in 1906, and a large business was created. Others had the same idea at the time and had similar patented systems, but Gillette managed to market his system in a way that kept competitors trailing.

Both the razor and the blade was developed as years went by, but they kept their main look, so today you can in fact use a modern razor blade in one of Gillette's earliest razors - phenomenal, but of course in a marketing perspective a disaster as you had no way to hold on to (read: tie down) your customers if they could just as easily use the competitors' products.

Since then the development has gone in a direction where the assembly of handle and the blade is patented, and of course the design of assembly is changed on a regular basis, so the consumer has to buy new "systems" at a cost.

In my opinion Gillette was rather unlucky, as he practically nailed it in the first try, and things has gone downhill since. Well not entirely since 1904-06, but definitely since the late 1940's. It went totally wrong in the 1970's with the introduction of the cartridge razor. Today only a few manufacturers of modern DE-razors exist, but they are doing a well job and has some nice products, but they are living their life in the shadow of the modern multi-bladed monsters.

Razors

My first investment, here in the chrome variety. A modern adjustable razor