Talk:American Safety Razor Company

Patent year

Riverrunpast (talk) 10:34, 27 January 2019 (UTC)==Kampfe Bros. patent year== I believe the first patent granted to the Kampfe Brothers was applied for and granted in 1880, not 1875. If nobody can point out an earlier patent than https://razors.click/patents/US228904/ I suggest that the patent year is changed. Riverrunpast (talk) 12:17, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

@Riverrunpast: You may be right, I couldn't find it either but I'm not too good at searching patents. However the Personna history source does claim that the Kampfe Bros. Star Razor was released January 1, 1875. If you can find something that states otherwise please make the correction. BaomoVW (talk) 08:25, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

@BaomoVW:I don't dispute that the Star Razor was introduced in 1875. Seems reasonable. I just don't believe the patent date of 1875. The Star razors of the period had the applicable patent dates engraved on the razor heads and none shows a date before 1880. The Personna page shows every event in the companies history as "January 1st". I tried to contact them to get clarification but to no avail. Riverrunpast (talk) 10:34, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

@Riverrunpast: Well I looked into it a bit more and found...

• '1875 the Kampfe brothers applied for a patent' - Personna corporate history
• Star Safety Razor Over million in use. Established 1876? (or maybe 1875 hard to tell from the font) - 1905 catalog advertisement
• claims how ASRC published the Kampfe Brothers starting out in 1875 and goes on to mention the patent in 1880. I assume he was referring to the ASRC website, I checked previous versions on the internet archive but the site used flash applet which wasn't archived. Waits. Before Gillette: The Quest for a Safe Razor. 2013
• another source with info about the Kampfe brothers that claims the brothers were refining the design prior to 1880 and began full scale manufacture in 1881. The Iron Age. 1906

The Personna source is the only one that explicitly claims the patent date at 1875. If Waits is correct Personna had stated otherwise at one point but perhaps it was misworded during a website upgrade. The advertisement claims it was established in 1876 not patented and this appears to be supported by the other two sources. So how about rewording it to something like...

In 1875 they established the Star Safety Razor company and in 1880 applied for and was granted a U.S. patent and introduced the Star Razor, the first safety razor made in the United States.

BaomoVW (talk) 21:01, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

I went ahead and changed the patent date and added more info about the Kampfe brothers from The Iron Age. 1906. Feel free to review. BaomoVW (talk) 03:33, 31 January 2019 (UTC)