Shaving Sword introduced the 'bonded blade' razor, which consisted of a single blade housed in a plastic cartridge. Gillette followed in 1971 with its Trac II cartridge razor that utilised two blades. Gillette built on this twin blade design for a time, introducing new razors with added features such as a pivoting head, lubricating strip, and spring-mounted blades until their 1998 launch of the triple-bladed Mach3 razor. Schick launched a four-blade Quattro razor later the same year, and in 2006 Gillette launched the five-blade Fusion. Since then, razors with six and seven blades have been introduced. Wholly disposable razors gained popularity
Straight razor curved lower part of the main blade from the shank to the cutting edge is called the "shoulder". The point where the shoulder joins the cutting edge is called the "heel". The endpoint of the cutting edge at the front of the blade, opposite to the "heel", is called the "toe". A thick strip of metal running transversely at the junction where the main blade attaches to the shank is called the "stabiliser". The stabiliser can be double, single, or can be absent in some razor models. The first stabiliser is usually very narrow and thicker and runs at the