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
Safety razor professional) and remained a barrier to the ubiquitous adopting of the "be your own barber" ideal. The first safety razors used a single-edge blade that was essentially a 4 cm long segment of a straight razor. A flat blade that could be used alternately with this "wedge" was first illustrated in a patent issued in 1878, serving as a close prototype for the single-edge blade in its present form. New single-edge razors were developed and used side-by-side with double-edge razors for decades. The largest manufacturers were the American Safety Razor Company with its "Ever-Ready" series, and the Gem Cutlery Company