“CUDTHROAT” RAZORS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1942, Page 6

“CUDTHROAT” RAZORS

HAVING A WAR-TIME BOOM. SHEFFIELD, April 8. A boom in “cut-throat” razors is one interesting side line in the growing contribution which is being made by Sheffield cutlers to the war effort. Apart from the curious fact that this long-handled type of razor normally maintains a considerable vogue among naval men, safety razor blades are from time to time today in short supply in Britain because the cutlers are allowed ■to produce only 25 per cent of their usual output for home use. Many civilians are therefore taking to the longhandled razor, and the result is that the handful of firms who make it are now very busy indeed. In peace time the saying ran that Sheffield shaved the British Army, and today the call for safety razor blades is, of course, colossal. As fast as the factories get their allocation of steel strip, the stamping machines, mostly worked by girls, turn it into blades by the thousand. In addition to meeting very considerable calls for equipment from works and colliery canteens, feeding centres and A.R.P. depots, Sheffield is producing an immense range of other cutlery for the forces at home and in the Dominions. It includes table knives, cooks’ knives, scissors for use in hospitals and at balloon barage depots, as well as spoons and forks, although, strictly speaking, these do not come within the category of cutlery.